If anything was blown in, it was missed.

The heavy overnight SW wind had eased by morning and continued easing throughout the day. Dry and largely sunny after early morning showers.

South Shore (Malcolm)

Unfortunately I couldn't get down till late morning, and by that time the sea wall was closed for maintenance. A scan of the seaward end of No.1 outfall from Ocean Edge, resulted in just one identifiable gull.

Mediterranean gull 1 adult

Shelduck 42 feeding

Linnet just 2 around the saltmarsh 

An evening walk along the sea wall was very pleasant, by that time the wind was very light. Only Black-Headed gulls were feeding on the outfalls.

Wigeon 35 lingering around Red Nab

Rock Pipit 2 - sea wall and lighthouse 

The low evening sun makes for nice contrasts.
This is a Curlew directly overhead 

Lapwing 107 on the mud out from the saltmarsh 

Lapwing catching the last of the evening sun

Middleton Nature Reserve (Malcolm)

Just a brief late morning check of the two main ponds.

Mute Swan pair with cygnet plus another adult

Mallard 18

Mallard coming in to land

Gadwall 6

Tufted Duck 9

Tufted Duck and the lone Mute Swan

Coot 22 - there were 20 on the main pond.

Some of the main pond Coot

Moorhen 4

This clip catches some of all the above species except for the swan.

Little Grebe 2 (one on each pond)

Little Grebe

Chiffchaff 1 calling

Cetti's warbler 1 singing

A day of two halves.......neither good!

A strong SE wind this morning with heavy rain. A strong and freshening SW wind this afternoon with plenty of sunshine.

North shore 

Jean checked the waders roosting on the Heliport 

7800 Oystercatchers

550 Redshank

minimum of 35 Turnstone (many no doubt hidden in between the tightly packed Redshank)

9 Curlew. 

South shore (Malcolm)

I wasn't going to bother till this afternoon, but ended up walking along the wall on the rising tide in the morning rain and again on the ebbing tide late afternoon. 

Linnet 23 around the saltmarsh edge (where these spring tides have deposited the Sea Aster and Samphire seeds)

Rock Pipit 3 - 1 each, saltmarsh, foreshore rocks and Red Nab.

Rock Pipit making a wind assisted jump on the foreshore 

Peregrine Falcon 1 this morning 

Wigeon 84 counted waiting to move to Red Nab this morning, a similar number above the saltmarsh this afternoon.

Wigeon battling against the wind this morning 

Mainly Black-Headed gulls on the outfalls morning and afternoon.

Black-Headed gull in 1st winter plumage 

Mediterranean gull 1 adult was on No.2 outfall briefly this afternoon.

Some of the gulls on No.2 outfall this afternoon.
Mediterranean gull top, right of centre

c50 Cormorants on the wooden jetty this afternoon 

They were difficult to count as they were all hunkered down against the wind.

Still warblers on the reserves

Overnight showers, but a dry and largely sunny day. A very light SE to SW breeze.

Heysham Nature Reserve 

Report by Jean:

I set the nets in the feeder ride hoping to attract any Chaffinches or Redpolls passing over but the only vis all morning was a Skylark! There were Chaffinches that had been roosting in the Tank Farm but they disappeared south instead of north into the net!

It was a morning of two halves - a cloudy half and a sunny half. The cloudy half was a cold front which moved off eastwards at 11am. What was interesting was the effect of this on birds: during the cloudy half nearly all the birds caught were recent retraps but when the sky cleared all the birds were new ones. The weather also had an effect on the Carrion Crows which were silent while it was cloudy but as soon as blue sky appeared they began to gather on the pylon opposite the office making a great racket and calling in 32 birds. Once all the gang had gathered and exchanged caws they moved off southwards in small groups until none were left. The noise attracted a Peregrine, ready to chase off any Crows that were going to encroach on its favourite pylon (which is the next one to the west).

Ringing summary

17 new birds, 8 retraps, 10 species

Woodpigeon 1 new

Blue Tit  0 new, 2 retraps

Great Tit 1 new, 1 retrap. 

Chiffchaff 1 new

Blackcap 2 new (both males)

Goldcrest 2 new (i male, 1 female - they often appear in pairs)

Wren 0 new, 1 retrap

Dunnock 0 new, 3 retraps

Greenfinch 2 new

Goldfinch 8 new 1 retrap

The new Great Tit was a young female, and was going grey on top.

A fox trotted across the grass and disappeared into an area of brambles. Whether it was responsible for the half eaten rat behind the office I'm not sure. 

Pete Crooks had a look this afternoon:

A 90-minute afternoon wander around the reserve proved fairly quiet. A mixed passerine flock by the Dipping Pond included Blue Tit, Great Tit, Long-tailed Tit, Goldcrest, Treecreeper and 1 male Blackcap. Not the species of warbler I was hoping for!

21 Eider in low tide channel out from Knowlys  Rd - Pete (M)

South shore (Malcolm)

A walk from saltmarsh then along the sea wall on the rising tide late morning.

Linnet, just 3 on the edge of the saltmarsh.

Linnet

Skylark 1 south

Meadow Pipit 2 south

Rock Pipit 2 - sea wall and lighthouse 

Shelduck 29 feeding

Wigeon 59 were beside No.2 outfall as I passed, probably more arrived later.

Wigeon waiting for the tide to reach Red Nab

Heron and Black-Headed gulls on No.2 outfall rail

Turnstone and Redshank on No.1 outfall

Oystercatchers flying past the Cormorants on the wooden jetty

Middleton Nature Reserve (Janet)

Chiffchaff 1 singing

Cetti's warbler 2-3 singing in central marshes

Reed Bunting 1

Sparrowhawk one circling very high

Female Tufted Ducks with Black-Headed gulls

Grey Heron in its second favourite resting place.
First choice is the lower car park, but only when it's quiet

Migrant Hawker 1

Common Darter several 

Male Common Darter

A different day tomorrow with high winds and rain. A possibility of something on the outfalls by the afternoon.

More Brents

A light, but freshening SE wind. Dry and often sunny for most of the day with just a light late afternoon shower.

South shore (Malcolm)

Saltmarsh to No.2 outfall on the rising tide this morning.

Whooper Swans 8 - flew low and silently over the mud towards Potts Corner.

Whooper Swans

Pale-bellied Brent geese 4 flew south

Pale-bellied Brent geese

Shelduck 42 - 38 feeding and 4 south

Wigeon 103 gathered alongside No.2 outfall. It was difficult keeping track when they started flying to Red Nab, but it seemed that additional birds flew in from the south.

Male Wigeon, some now have their yellow foreheads

Mediterranean gull 1 adult

Mediterranean gull (lower left)

This Carrion Crow spent over a minute before breaking open this small Periwinkle. It seems to be a lot of effort for little reward (better sticking with chewing gum - see yesterday's post)

In the Nature Park:

Red Admiral 1

Common Darter 1

Heliport area - Kevin Singleton 

Skylark 4 over

Rock Pipit 1

Pied Wagtail

There is a decent sized population of House Sparrows
centred in the brambles in Half-Moon bay fields

Middleton Nature Reserve

Janet checked mid afternoon while the sun was still shining 

Migrant Hawker 2

Small White 1

Pink-Footed goose 27

Cetti's warbler 3 singing around the central marshes.

I checked a little later (Malcolm), just before the shower.

Wildfowl, pretty much unchanged apart from only 2 male Gadwall today

Some of the male Tufted Duck

Water Rail 1 squealing

Common Snipe 1

First Jack Snipe and Brent of autumn

A dry day with a south(ish) wind freshening by evening.

South shore (Malcolm)

A morning check from Red Nab to the saltmarsh, where I watched the tide completely cover the marsh. It doesn't take long on these spring tides.

Brent Goose 1 (probably pale-bellied) flew from the NW towards Potts Corner.

Shelduck 28

Eider 3 south

Wigeon 72 flew from Red Nab, most ending up on the saltmarsh.

Wigeon in the saltmarsh creek as the tide was arriving 

More Wigeon arrived later

Lapwing 107

Once again there were no Common Snipe flushed from the Marsh, presumably they are more sensitive to the recently regular raptor visits.

Jack Snipe 2 - one came in from the north and landed on the saltmarsh, before being flushed by the  tide and flying to Middleton Nature Reserve. The other must have already been on the marsh and flew in the same direction when flushed.

Jack Snipe

No sign of the Merlin today, but a Sparrowhawk made one pass over the marsh.

Linnet 26 on the fringe of the marsh

Rock Pipit 1

Grey Wagtail 2 together flew east over the caravans 

This Carrion Crow found this "morsel" (looks like discarded chewing gum!) on the
 saltmarsh grass. It examined it for quite a while......

.........before deciding it was indeed edible 

Janet managed an outing today. Her arm is still in a cast so she was restricted to just using her standard camera lens.

Little Egret in front of the foreshore rocks

Red Admiral 

Long-Tailed Tit

Heysham skear (Malcolm)

I went down this evening on the off chance that there were any Brents feeding in the skear corner. There wasn't.

Still loads of gutweed and sea lettuce available, they will have plenty to
eat when they do arrive 

Eider 12

Red-breasted Merganser 1

Little Egret 6

Oystercatcher 1,000

Curlew 50

Knot 500

Redshank 130

Turnstone 25

One of the Knot had an orange flag. The code on one side was 
completely obscured 

I didn't manage a clear shot of the other side, but it looks to be at
least partly obscured 

Just about worth a soaking for

Heavy rain all day! A light SE breeze and quite warm.

South shore (Malcolm)

A check from the saltmarsh to Red Nab towards morning 11:00 high water.

We are back to spring tides and the tide was covering the saltmarsh for the first time in ten days. The Sea Aster and Samphire are laden with seeds, hence the high finch numbers. These tides will remove many seeds and leave them on the strand line, but today, just as the tide reached the saltmarsh 72 Wigeon arrived and began feeding on the seeds.

Lapwing 28

Skylark 3 were lifted from the saltmarsh by the rising tide then headed SE together 

Slightly surprising that there were no Snipe.

Not entirely surprising that there were no finches, I assumed that there had been a recent raptor attack (and so there had!).

Merlin 1 female/immature. I was half way along the foreshore when it flew from the rocks just in front of me. Close enough for me to be able to see that the finch it was carrying was a Linnet. It flew towards Red Nab.  I suspect it continued on into the Power Station grounds as I couldn't relocate it on Red Nab. 

On a normal day my camera would have been ready, but today it was safely stashed under my coat!

Kingfisher 1 flew east from Red Nab. 

It's a terrible shot, but I had my camera "half ready" in case I had relocated 
the Merlin. At least it shows what to expect. Striking as a Kingfisher is, they
can easily be missed when over the open sea.

Wren on Red Nab

Linnet 4 turned up on Red Nab just as I was leaving.

I couldn't resist another look this evening. It was still pouring down, but the rain is not so uncomfortable with the very light breeze.

Rock Pipit 2 on Red Nab

Wheatear 1 along the foreshore 

One wet Wheatear

Imperial Rd (Malcolm)

Just a quick look on my way home this morning.

There were 35 gulls in the field to the east.......

.........every one was a Herring gull

This Magpie was unhappy with where the Buzzard had chosen to rest

Kestrel 1