Gale force winds brings at least one Little gull close in

SW gale force winds began easing by late afternoon. A dry and often sunny day after overnight rain.

South sea wall (Malcolm)

I battled out against the wind just after lunch when the wind was at its strongest. This coincided with low water, but it wasn't too far out as low water was only 3.5m and the SW wind was blowing it up the shore.

Little Gull - three sightings but likely all of the same adult.

There was one flying over the low water to the south of No.1 outfall 

This is No.1 outfall, you can just make out the Little gull in bottom left corner
The sea in the foreground would normally be mud at this point in the tide,
but the strong winds have driven it high up the shore

Adult Little gull. 

You could barely stand at the roundhead, I had to shelter behind the lighthouse. From there I managed a couple of glimpses of a distant Little gull, before this one drifted into the harbour mouth.

I assumed it was going to drift in and rest in the relatively calm harbour water, but it decided to take off and see if there was anything around to eat......

.....before flying off, surprisingly quickly, to the SW directly into the teeth of the gale!

Little gull

Great Black-Backed gull

Herring gull

Cormorant 

This Cormorant, near No.1 outfall caught a Bass.

Immediately it was surrounded by gulls. I don't really know why, as Cormorants always swallow their fish whole. Possibly they just look for any broken gill filaments. By the time I managed a clip the Cormorant was taking its catch under again. It turned out an awful clip quality wise, but probably better conveys what today's conditions were like.

Redshank, trying and ultimately failing to rest on No.1 outfall

Wigeon resting in the lee of the wind on No.2 outfall.
It wasn't a day for counting!

The wind blew me back, but it was even harder staying upright. By the time I was back to my car I was shattered! And all the while, I hadn't seen another soul - Can't think why!

Lots of ducks.....only to be expected, it did rain a lot!

A fresh wind from the south to begin with then more westerly later. Rain, often heavy throughout the day.

Just my few bits so far (Malcolm)

North shore

Just a quick scan from the promenade didn't locate any Brent geese and no flocks of Knot seen

Middleton Nature Reserve 

A check of the main and "no swimming" ponds.

The "no swimming" pond is back to its normal level, but surprisingly sparsely populated.

Mallard 5

Gadwall 1 - The Gadwall that normally favour the "no swimming" pond have clearly got used to the more frequent disturbance of the main Pond.

Little Grebe 1

Main pond

Mute Swan pair plus one immature 

Mallard 17

Gadwall 23

Tufted Duck 1 drake

Tufted Duck

Moorhen 3

Coot 1

South sea wall

Shelduck 3

The tide was still a long way from the sea wall, but the Wigeon were starting to gather. 306 were counted, including these feeding along the sea wall near the wooden jetty. They do not eat the wrack, but there are small patches of green algae that attract them (when there is little else around).

There had been no sign of yesterday's Mallard, then somewhat surprisingly it flew in from the north side and landed on the sea by the wooden jetty. Clearly something here is attracting it.

Female Mallard

It swam to the rocks below the wooden jetty and began preening.

Strong winds tomorrow, but coupled with very low neap tides. Good for minimising the risk of storm damage, but probably not so good for bringing sea birds close inshore.

A lighter moment

Another misty start, then light rain, but it faired up in the afternoon (there were even rumours of the odd glimpse of blue sky!). Almost no breeze, what there was came from the south.

Heysham skear - low water 11:00 (Malcolm)

Pale-bellied Brent geese 18 minimum, of which 15 flew to the north after feeding a while.

The gutweed that remains on the skear is far from lush, just the patches on
some of the stones and rocks.

They were feeding in small groups of twos and threes. Two in the foreground here with more further away.

Two of the Brent heading off to the north. That is Knowlys Rd in the background 

Pink-Footed goose 2 very low to the south

Red-breasted Merganser 2

Eider 54, again, most leaving to the north.

These were feeding in shallow water, it isn't clear what on.

Meanwhile, these were on the banking. One male has a tentative peck at another, before going back to tell his mates how hard he is! The sticks in the background are all that remain of the old fish traps.

Great Crested Grebe 2

Two of several "resident" Carrion Crows. These were stripping
barnacles from the rocks

Oystercatcher 1,500

Curlew 2

Redshank 250

Knot just 9 flew south

Ringed Plover 4

Turnstone 25

Turnstone

South shore (Malcolm)

A pleasant afternoon stroll along the sea wall.

Redshank 54 resting on No.1 outfall.

Redshank

Shelduck 14

Wigeon 322

Some of the Wigeon making their way to Red Nab

There were smaller groups along the wall including a group of 11 near the wooden jetty. This group also consisted of a female Mallard. 

Although, in truth the group of Wigeon were concentrating on feeding and didn't exactly welcome the Mallard. Pretty sure that they thought that the Mallard was quackers (sorry!)

Female Mallard

Gloomier and wetter........and the weather wasn't much better!

Another misty day with almost constant rain. A SE breeze.

South shore 

I checked the waterline on the incoming tide this afternoon (Malcolm). For a while the only company I had were 

Oystercatcher 120

Curlew 6

Then it became exciting......

Dunlin 2 flew south

Knot 4 turned up and began feeding. 

They were finding small bivalve molluscs in the mud.
This Knot is just swallowing one whole.

The second Knot in this clip, and I think the one right at the end of the clip, finds one of the molluscs.

By the time I was approaching the foreshore the rain had finally stopped and the Knot flock had swollen to 21.

Bar-Tailed Godwit 3

Closer to the saltmarsh 

Redshank 30

Bathing Cormorant with Redshank behind

Shelduck 10

Shelduck 

At Red Nab

Pale-bellied Brent goose 14 at least

Some of the Brent geese

Wigeon 100+

Flock of Goldfinch in the Nature Park 

Kevin had a walk along the sea wall

There were a pair of Peregrines displaying over the power station and a Grey Plover showing well on no.1 outfall.

The Green Sandpiper was easily visible from Middleton Road as it stood, looking dejected, in the field next to the horse paddock behind Middleton Parish Hall

Green Sandpiper, its posture summing up the day

Gloomy.......and wet!

Misty with intermittent light rain all day. A light SE breeze.

Heysham skear - low water 09:25 (Malcolm)

It was misty and raining, it didn't look promising and it lived up to its lack of promise!

No sign of any Brent geese, but we are moving back to neap tides now and low water didn't go out far enough to expose what little weed there still is in the SE skear corner.

Eider 15

Wigeon 4

Red-breasted Merganser 9

Female and male Red-breasted Merganser

When the sea is flat calm like this, you can follow the whereabouts of the mergansers when they are underwater. Quite a long clip this, but for most of the time there is little to see except for the telltale surface disturbance where the mergansers are foraging.

Great Crested Grebe 3

Oystercatcher 1,500

Curlew 25

Curlew and Oystercatcher 

Redshank 80

Knot just one small flock of 22

Turnstone 25

Dunlin 5 with the Knot plus 2 more higher up the shore with

Ringed Plover 8

South shore (Malcolm)

Just a walk from Red Nab then half way along the sea wall towards high water.

Pale-bellied Brent goose 23 flew to Red Nab from the west, possibly from the north shore, or possibly directly from the west side of the Bay.

Brent geese flying over the wooden jetty

Wigeon 293 - a big increase from yesterday.

Some of the Wigeon flying in

Interestingly, both the Brent and the Wigeon immediately began feeding on the very short cropped gutweed in the middle of Red Nab. They normally work their way in from the periphery as the tide rises. The only difference today was the rain, the wetting of the weed with freshwater must make it either more appetizing or perhaps just easier to crop.

Cormorant near the sea wall.

Grey Seal 1 also close to the sea wall near No.2 outfall.

Grey Seal

Gloomy.......again!

A cold misty day. A light SE breeze.

Middleton Nature Reserve main pond (Malcolm)

Mute pair plus 1 immature.

The immature bird starting to display the grace associated with swans 

Mallard 25

Gadwall 31

Moorhen 2

Little grebe 1

South shore (Malcolm)

I walked out to the waterline from Ocean Edge.

Shelduck 5

Wigeon 3 

Eider 2

Eider pair with Dunlin on the shore

Waders on/near the waterline

Oystercatcher 50

Curlew 30

Bar-Tailed Godwit 2

Grey Plover 23

Knot just 8

Dunlin 500

This shot taken at 12:00, the lights on the StenaLine a testimony to today's title 

Dunlin, Knot, Grey Plover and Oystercatcher.
The south sea wall in the background 

Dunlin and Grey Plover coming in to land

Grey Plover, Knot and Dunlin.

I normally think of Grey Plover out here as being sedate, but today they were quite animated. This, combined with the grey monotone gave the impression of the old black and white, silent movies.

Redshank 66 near the saltmarsh 

There were no Knot seen on the skear earlier.

Pete Checked the heliport roost and there were none there either.

Pale-bellied Brent goose c11 on Red Nab

Other stuff from today's WeBS - Jean

9100 Oystercatchers on the heliport sea wall. 

162 Wigeon at Red Nab. 

51 Cormorant on the wooden jetty. 

Another grey day of diminishing returns

Another overcast but dry day. A light south wind.

Heysham skear - low water 08:20 (Malcolm)

Pink-Footed goose, several skeins heard above the low cloud. This small skein dropped below the cloud line to get their bearings.

Pink-Footed geese

Pale-bellied Brent goose 18 were foraging around the SE skear corner at low water, they started moving high up the shore later

Some of the Brent geese and Oystercatcher in the skear corner

Eider 17 - 12 flew to the north while 5 remained feeding in the distance 

Wigeon 2

Oystercatcher 1,500

Curlew 40

Redshank 150

Turnstone 10

Knot 180 - two small flocks of 60 and 80 were flying around. Then they merged, gained height and flew off to the north. Only a flock of 40 remained to feed, none of them coded.

Knot and Oystercatcher 

In contrast these are some of the Knot from Thursday, when the sun shone and the Knot were plentiful.

To be fair, even in such good conditions you seldom get to see Knot as close as this. The incoming tide was pushing them up the shore while they probed the mud for small molluscs. Meanwhile I was waiting with the low morning sun behind me. The two orange flagged Knot above take centre stage in this clip.

I haven't much time again tomorrow and conditions look to be similar to today. But one of the beauties of Nature is that you never know for sure what lays ahead.

A day to reflect

A mainly overcast but dry day. A cold SE breeze.

First some shots from Kevin Singleton, taken by the Cafe area at Half Moon Bay yesterday, when the sun shone!

Curlew

Lapwing 

House Sparrow 

Heysham Skear (Malcolm)

I didn't have much time today just a quick check as the tide was covering the skear this morning.

Pink-Footed Goose 9 west

Pale-bellied Brent Goose 11 at least feeding in ones and twos between the rocks to the north of play area and the SE skear corner.

Two of the Brent in the skear corner, a shot that nicely conveys today's conditions!

Eider 13

After yesterday's success in finding and reading coded Knot, today was a total failure. There were about 300 flying around as I was walking out, but they gained height and headed off to the north. 

These seven Knot were all that remained!
The one on the right trying the vegetarian option.

Oystercatcher 1500

Curlew 40

Turnstone 30

Ringed Plover 7

Redshank 150 - one was taken by a Peregrine Falcon, possibly why the Knot had moved on.

We have done well this winter with the coded wader schemes. It provides the scheme organisers valuable movement and behaviour information, and also can provide some unexpected insights......

This Bar-Tailed Godwit was on the south shore earlier this week. 

Unfortunately, there are two more rings on its other leg required to identify a specific bird, and it never revealed them. But with just the flag and rings seen the scheme manager was able to make these observations.

Combinations starting with Y1WY were used in the Wadden Sea Holland in 2001 and 2002, so this is an old bird, the last observation of one of these codes starting with Y1WY was in 2016. There is an observation of Y1WYBR at Glasson on 14 November 2010. This could very well be this bird, but it would be nice to have a confirmation.

So, this Godwit is at least 23 years old! None of its contemporaries have been seen for 9 years. It goes without saying that several parties would love to know the complete history. Any information about any further sightings would be very welcome. Either directly to the scheme or via any of the observatory team - see sidebar for contact information.

South Sea wall (Kevin)

Pale-bellied Brent goose 20 on Red Nab (these will include this morning's birds)

Red-breasted Merganser 1 in the harbour mouth.

Howard took these splendid shots of a female merganser feeding at the Near Naze earlier this week. Possibly the same birds as seen by Kevin today.

Red-breasted Merganser with a Common Blenny

Soon polished off!