It was a lovely day.....

An overnight frost, then a dry day with sunny spells. A very light east(ish) breeze.

North shore - out from Knowlys Rd (Janet)

13 Pale-bellied Brent geese leaving for the south side.
Later 27 flew from Red Nab towards Potts Corner

Female Red Breasted Merganser

Curlew

South shore (Malcolm)

I did exactly the same walk as yesterday at exactly the same stage of the tide. The weather was ideal for viewing, but little turned up to be viewed!

Not quite a sunrise, just the low sun shining below a blanket of low clouds.

Where there were thousands of waders yesterday there was just a handful today.

One Bar-Tailed Godwit

A Knot and an Oystercatcher 

60 Oystercatcher were the only "plentiful" wader feeding here 

There were thousands of waders just south of the recording area, mainly Knot and Dunlin, no Sanderling visible. 

Bar-Tailed Godwit 220 ended up just about on the limit of the recording area.

There was a steady passage of waders flying through the recording area to join the birds further south.

Curlew 14 in ones and two

Grey Plover 13 in small groups

A nice mixed flock, 2 Knot, 2 Dunlin, 4 Grey Plover and a Bar-Tailed Godwit

Back at the saltmarsh 

Redshank 58

Lapwing 36

Lapwing

Common Snipe 10

Song Thrush 1

Reed Bunting 5

Song Thrush and Reed Bunting 

Reed Bunting

Pink-Footed goose 12 south 

Pale-bellied Brent goose 27 flew to Potts Corner

Shelduck 24

Wigeon 200+

A better effort

Mainly overcast with some light and one heavy shower. A north(ish) wind.

South shore

I did the walk I had hoped to do yesterday (Malcolm). I walked the tide in, on the shore out from Ocean Edge. Yesterday very heavy rain stopped me going, out. Today it waited till I was as far out as I could get, then the heavens opened! Still there was more of interest than it originally looked like there was going to be.

Walking out there was nothing except the occasional call of a Curlew,
and an oncoming shower

Waders began arriving 

Knot, Dunlin and Grey Plover (middle)
While most of the waders are busily scurrying around after food,
Grey Plovers always seem laid back.

Knot, Dunlin, Bar-Tailed Godwit and a Grey Plover.

In the foreground, Bar-Tailed Godwit, Grey Plover and Oystercatcher 

Curlew 6

Bar-Tailed Godwit 130

Oystercatcher 30

Grey Plover 6

Knot 1200

Turnstone 1 (flew past)

Dunlin 300

Sanderling 2, possibly 3

Dunlin, 2 Sanderling and a Grey Plover (actually moving!)

Then something spooked all the waders along the waterline, this group headed
further to the south.
Dunlin, Sanderling (middle) and the unmistakable underwing pattern of a Grey Plover

Then the heavy rain arrived! Fortunately it didn't last long, both me and the remaining waders waited it out.

Knot and Bar-Tailed Godwit 

Then something spooked them all again and the small waders moved south

The Godwit moved closer to the sea wall. This is 10:00, but dark
enough for lights in the Power Station to show

The rain had moved on but it was black to the south and quite dark
to the north. The sun was trying to break through in the middle, making 
for some interesting shading

By the time I was almost back to the saltmarsh the sun was shining (briefly). A single Sanderling was feeding with a few Dunlin and 3 Grey Plover. This clip shows the location.

Grey Plover and a Sanderling 

Redshank 23 near the saltmarsh 

Jack Snipe 1 accidentally flushed from the ribbon of marsh grass that extends from the saltmarsh 

Common Snipe 37 flushed from the saltmarsh by the rising tide 

Common Snipe

Some of the Snipe heading towards Middleton Nature Reserve 

Reed Bunting 4 on the saltmarsh 

Rock Pipit 1 on the foreshore 

Pale-Bellied Bent goose 27 - 23 and 4 flew from Red Nab towards Potts Corner.

Pale-bellied Brent geese

Pink-Footed goose 47 flew SE, a solitary bird, just after the rain, north.

Wigeon 180

Janet had a walk along the sea wall:

Curlew (and Blackpool Tower)

Oystercatcher heading off, Wigeon coming in

Wigeon heading off

In the Nature Park:

Great Tit

Blue Tit in the newt pond

Grey Squirrel 

It's all about timing......and today's was dreadful!

Very heavy morning rain, then mainly overcast with the odd shower. A light south(ish) wind.

The general rule with Knot is that most of their legs are hidden for most of the time. The exception to this rule is when they are coming towards you to land. Howard took this shot at the Near Naze yesterday to get an idea of how many marked birds there were. He has circled the five that had flags, the others do not.

Five marked Knot in a group this size is a good number, but
still only about 1% of them

This is one of yesterday's flagged Knot on the skear. Even when you get a
clear view, there is no guarantee of reading it, this one has its leg tucked in.
If you open it you can just make out a white V at the end of the flag.
This is one of a trial of 100 white coded birds. The trial was discontinued as
they often proved difficult to read. This one remained unread.

South shore today (Malcolm)

A combination of heavy rain and other commitments meant that I had very little time today. Just a short walk from Red Nab to the saltmarsh, and I couldn't have timed it any worse!

Red Nab was already covered when I got there, just a few Oystercatchers,
Curlew and wigeon remained

When I arrived at the saltmarsh it was already half covered, most of the Common Snipe would already have been flushed, but I had to leave before the tide was high enough to flush any Jack Snipe.

Common Snipe 10

Wigeon 180

Reed Bunting 4

No Linnet again

Male Wigeon amongst the saltmarsh 

And that was it for the day!

Just out of the recording area:

Janet reported a large flock (hundreds) of Pink-Footed geese landing in the field by Oxcliffe Rd. When I passed later that field was empty, but a large skein c250 came high from the north and dropped onto one of the fields to the north of the bypass (bay gateway)

Quite a bit going on today

Another dry and largely sunny day. A light SE wind

We are back to spring tides now, although this set isn't particularly high. A reasonable sized flock of Knot roosted on the Near Naze rocks, and between Richard Du Feu and Howard Stockdale 16 colour coded birds from three schemes were read.

As typical, most of the legs are hidden for most of the time

South shore (Malcolm)

Just a short walk from the saltmarsh to Red Nab towards high water this morning.

No Linnet seen on or around the saltmarsh

Skylark 1 flew from Ocean Edge grass to the saltmarsh 

Pale-bellied Brent goose 13 (there were 19 in the SE skear corner this evening)

Shelduck 9

Wigeon 200+

Wigeon

These are just below the sea wall

These Turnstones were turning impressive sized stones!

Chaffinch and Goldfinch collecting grit from the Nature Park track

Middleton Nature Reserve (Malcolm)

Just a quick check of the two main ponds. The "no swimming" pond is a metre above its normal level, and the only wildfowl seen/heard were a couple of Moorhens.

Main pond

Mute Swan pair plus immature 

Coot only 3 seen

Moorhen 3

Mallard 13

Gadwall 15

Tufted Duck 2

Teal 3

Teal

Tufted Duck

Cetti's warbler 1 calling

Imperial Rd (Malcolm)

Just a quick stop off on my way home

Buzzard 1 - preening in its "favourite" tree.

Kestrel 2

This one was either asleep or feeling unwell, it didn't move at
all while I was there

This one was hunting, but looks terribly thin

Redwing 1

Redwing

Heysham skear (Malcolm)

I wasn't going to go down as the tide was late and the light was already fading, but I couldn't resist a quick look.

Peregrine Falcon at least 1 attacking the Knot

I managed to read a couple of flagged Knot (just), and read a ringed Oystercatcher, details awaited.

More Brent

Early morning rain, then a dry day till rain began again in the evening. A fresh and biting SE wind.

Heysham skear - low water 16:40 (Malcolm)

Low water is getting quite late now and the inner skear was just becoming exposed as I headed out at 14:00.

Pale-bellied Brent 28 - there were already 11 feeding above the waterline, then 17 more came in.

The new arrivals in the SE skear corner

No sign of the Common Scoters today

Red-breasted Merganser 3

Eider 13

Eider

Just a clip to show the frantic feeding activity as the receding tide exposes more of the skear.

I managed to read a few colour coded Knot from the 1,000 or so around, then a pair of Peregrines started attacking and they were relentless, most of the Knot moved on.

This is one of yesterday's Knot, we now have its history 
Ringed as an adult at Reykjafjördur NW Iceland 25/05/22

This is the scheme manager's summary:

Looking at the history of 06X it probably moults on the Sefton coast and moves to Morecambe Bay for the winter. One sighting suggests it might move back to the Sefton coast in spring before migrating north to Iceland.

Dunlin 17 in one flock plus several individuals with the Knot

Dunlin, Redshank and Oystercatchers

Other waders as recent

Oystercatcher with a partially leucitic head

Brent numbers steadily increasing

Overnight frost followed by a dry largely sunny day. Almost no air movement till after lunch then a very light SE breeze.

Heysham skear - low water 16:00 (Malcolm)

Pale-bellied Brent goose 25 

Brent geese flying low over the skear

Having a stretch

There is currently plenty of food to go round here, but they can't help arguing!

Eider 5

Common Scoter 5

Common Scoter with Eider behind

Great Crested grebe 8

Great Crested grebes

Knot 1,000+ included colour coded birds from UK, Holland and Iceland based schemes.

One of the Dutch scheme's Knot

A UK flagged Knot

Other waders as recent

Peregrine Falcon, just one visit, presumably successful as it then flew off to the north

Quite a bit of evening movement of Pink-Footed goose, at least 5 skeins between 17:00 and 17:15.