Poor visibility

The Eider line was in silhouette this morning with the dreaded orange sky and little could be discerned

Common Scoter - female inshore
Great crested Grebe - 9 inshore
Rock pipit - one harbour mouth

Mottled Umber and Emmelina monodactyla on the office wall by the light

As you were

Rock  pipit - singles harbour mouth and half moon bay shore
Meadow pipit -1
Shag - 2cy harbour mouth and wooden jetty area. it was feeding out from Half Moon Bay yesterday

9 Gadwall, 8 Mallard and 8 Mute Swan model boat pond

Second calendar year Shag feeding just beyond rocks at Half Moon Bay Christmas Eve

Winter moths

Looks good for winter period moths in woodland etc between 26th Dec and at least 5th Jan and there were two Winter Moth in the trap this am.  

At least two Common Scoter offshore 

Common Scoter

Only thing of note today was the gang of three female Common Scoter in the low tide channel

Interestingly I don’t think this species has featured on a New Year’s Day list on this area (n lancs) for many years if ever!

20 & 21 Dec 2018

21 Dec
Merlin - one Heysham Head
Shag - 2cy harbour for 15 mins
Common Scoter - three females main channel, another female close inshore


20 Dec

Common Scoter - 1M, 3 F inshore seen from Knowlys Road

Small tortoiseshell!!

One by half moon bay cafe - nearly caught by Pied Wagtail!

Common Scoter - 3 fem
Great crested Grebe - 5 offshore

Whiting influx

The only report today was of lots of small Whiting being eaten by Cormorants and gulls in the harbour

Seaduck

No sign of female Scaup
Common Scoter - flock of 5 female in Eider line & single male and female close inshore
Cormorant - 108 roosting on wooden jetty and beach at low tide!

Scaup

Scaup - A rather restless female Scaup was close inshore off Knowlys play area this am.  It flew short distances twice, the second time looking like it was going to go into the bay but it circled and re-landed
Common Scoter - one inshore, 8-9 offshore in gang.  All female types
Med Gull - Ad on beach with usual Knowlys play-area gang - known wintering bird
Rock Pipit - one below Heysham Head cliffs

Dead cold snap

The only action today was the discovery and photography of a freshly dead 1cy Shag on Heysham south wall.  It didn’t have a Puffin Island bracelet, unlike many others found in Lancashire