A sunny day, but a cool start. A light variable breeze.
South shore - Malcolm 10:30 - 11:30
Linnet 200+ on the saltmarsh
Robin 4 along foreshore
Skylark 1 flew SE
Meadow Pipit 7 flew SE
Rock Pipit 2 on Red Nab
Shelduck 117
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| Some of the Shelduck out from the foreshore |
Little Egret 6
Mediterranean gulls 3 on Red Nab 1 adult plus 2 2nd calendar year
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| Adult Mediterranean gull |
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| 2cy Mediterranean gull (top centre) |
In the Nature Park
Red Admiral 6
Comma 1
Speckled Wood 2
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| Red Admiral sipping the syrup from a Rose hip |
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| Comma and Red Admiral |
Kevin Singleton visited Middleton Sands a Clouded Yellow flew south past him. It must have come out of the recording area
North shore
David Kaye
Heysham head 10.45
250 knot south carried on past harbour
No knot on heliport but 11 lapwing and 7 snipe and a sanderling past
Heysham skear - Malcolm 15:45 - 18:15
Eider 30+
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| Eider - the males are following the females again |
Red-breasted Merganser 3
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| Merganser - there were two in this frame, but one dived |
Great Crested Grebe 1
Little Egret 16
Knot c3000
They all arrived from the south in groups from 50 to 500. Many of them juveniles, they seem to have had a good breeding season. Once again they were easily finding seed mussels and fed in one area until spooked by a passing Crow. It gave me a chance to carefully scrutinise them for any colour coded birds. I eventually found four, one from a Scottish scheme and three from a Welsh scheme. There were none from the more usual English, Icelandic or Dutch schemes.
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| Some of the Knot nicely spaced out on terrain as good as you get out here for seeing marked birds. You just have to tread carefully! |
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| This is the Scottish scheme Knot swallowing a seed Mussel |
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| One of the Welsh birds having a preen |
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| This Welsh Knot is also swallowing a seed Mussel |
Dunlin 2
Oystercatcher, Curlew, Redshank and Turnstone not really checked, I was literally focused on the Knot. But numbers seemed similar to of late.
