Knot arriving in numbers

A dry day with the odd short sunny spell. A SW breeze

South shore - Malcolm 09:45 - 11:00

It was quite gloomy again so I set off from Potts Corner to allow what light there was to be behind me. There was a large group of waders resting on the mud quite high up the beach within the recording area.

Knot c1500

Dunlin c500

Grey Plover 14

And a Teal!

Knot and Grey Plovers

Teal (by size mainly, they are Dunlin with it)

I wasn't on them for long when they set off purposefully south. It was clear that they weren't coming back. I don't think anything spooked them, they just know that such gently sloping beaches are covered very quickly by these spring tides. The whole beach was covered 15 minutes later.

I walked the tide in a while but the only other waders seen were Oystercatchers flying from Red Nab, a steady procession of Curlew south in small groups and a Bar-Tailed Godwit also heading south.

Bar-Tailed Godwit 

Shelduck at least 80

There was another smaller group of waders on the beach as I walked back beyond the recording area. This included 200 Knot, 35 Grey Plover, 100 Dunlin and a Sanderling.

Sanderling with a Dunlin

None of the Knot checked this morning were colour marked

Heysham skear - Malcolm 15:15 - 17:00

There were at least 2000 Knot here too. Initially three flighty flocks

One of three flocks of Knot

They all ended up settling in one area. They must have been finding food easily as they remained in the same area for 30 minutes, before heading out further west on the skear. 

Many of the Knot were juveniles. This one is just swallowing a seed mussel

This is the sight and sound of Knot happily cleaning up the seed mussels

The terrain here is difficult for spotting any colour coded rings and flags. It alway is! But I had plenty of time and checked the feeding birds from all sides and couldn't see any coded birds.

There will be some somewhere. One of the schemes at the Wadden Sea, Holland fits tiny transmitters to a few birds as well as colour coded rings. Its website has noted that some of the Knot have been leaving to the west. It is an interesting website if you would like to know more visit

https://maps.nioz.nl/watlas/

More of the Knot with transmitters have left since I posted this link. There may be none if you look.

Oystercatcher, Curlew, Redshank and Turnstone similar to recent visits

There were only c100 Herring gulls feeding on the skear, but Black-Headed Gulls plus a few large gulls were feeding in the drains. These spring tides drain so quickly that shrimps and small fish find themselves exposed.

Little Egret 7

Grey Heron 1

Eider 1 male

Red-breasted Merganser 3

Mergansers

Merganser and Redshank