Shags showing well again.

Very heavy overnight rain eased at first light. After that it just about remained dry. The south wind drifting to SE by evening.

South shore

I didn't have much time this morning (Malcolm), so just a quick check at Red Nab at 08:30, 90 minutes before high water.

Shag 1 juvenile snorkelling just below the sea wall

It was clearly planning to roost on Red Nab, but today's 9.4m tide will
have moved it on, it would be interesting to see where to, perhaps tomorrow.

Little Gull 1 - I didn't walk down the wall, but it was clearly visible on No.2 outfall from Red Nab

Distant, but unmistakable Little Gull.
When Kevin Checked in the afternoon there was no sign of it.

Most of the Wigeon had already moved on, but a few lingered

Middleton Nature Reserve (Malcolm)

A very quick passing check of the main pond saw wildfowl pretty much as yesterday afternoon, no sign of the Pochard 

Heysham skear (Malcolm) 13:00 - 14:00

The skear was just becoming exposed when I started.

Eider 34 - 24 on the sea plus 6 and 4 north

Eider

Red-breasted Merganser 1

Great Crested Grebe 1

Little Egret 1

Shag at least 3 juveniles, almost certainly 4, possibly more. They were alternating between feeding and resting on rocks, I think all the larger rocks supported at least one Shag at some point. Three was the most seen resting at any one time.

Shag, Redshank, Oystercatcher and Knot

A Great Crested grebe drifts past in this clip

Oystercatcher 300

Curlew 15

Redshank 80

Knot 150 - initially in several small flocks but ended up as one. No flagged birds were seen.

Turnstone 40

A south side story

A fresh SW wind. Showers on and off all day.

South shore 

I checked along the sea wall 09:00 (high water) to 10:30 (Malcolm)

Shag 2 juveniles 

Juvenile Shag, roosting on what little was left of Red Nab at high water

When I returned much more of Red Nab was exposed and the Shag was snorkelling in the pool in the middle of the rocks.

Presumably this is the same bird that was feeding near No.2 outfall a couple of days ago. We rarely see Shag to the south of the harbour, but this one looks as though it intends to stay.

The second Shag was feeding along the south inner harbour wall

Cormorants on the wooden jetty, there were no more Shag seen here

Shelduck 3 and Wigeon 80 around Red Nab

Little Gull 1 - probable 2nd calendar year. Initially around No.2 outfall 

It then it took to patrolling the full length of the wall from Red Nab to the wooden jetty. It is between the wooded jetty and No.1 outfall in this clip.

It landed briefly to eat a morsel that it found

It was still feeding this afternoon when Kevin Eaves checked

The only news from the north side was:

Lonesome Sanderling arrived from north, fed briefly on tideline before heading towards Heysham - on shore between Battery and Stone Jetty late am dropping tide - Pete

Middleton Nature Reserve main pond (Malcolm)

I called in on my way home this morning, unfortunately it was tipping it down!

An influx of Tufted Ducks (24 total) was accompanied by a female Pochard. It looked more like the first bird we had rather than the younger second. It and the Tufted were feeding and were under the water for most of the time and I couldn't manage a shot (partly due to the feeding activity and rain, but mainly because I couldn't remember how to adjust the settings in my old, more expendable, pocket camera!).

The rain eased after lunch so I returned, but some of the Tufted and the Pochard had moved on. Possibly just to the "no swimming" pond which wasn't checked.

Tufted Duck 14 remained

Gadwall 12

Little Grebe 3

Gadwall and Tufted Duck

Little Grebes

Plenty going on, but the best out of the area

A dry morning with sunny periods, showers in the afternoon. The early SE breeze shifted to the west and became quite a fresh wind by evening

Heysham Nature Reserve 

Report by Alan:

I went mid-morning to top up the feeding station.  Whilst I was there I decided to set just one net.  As the feeders were all empty when I arrived at 10:15 there few birds around but eventually 33 birds were caught. The net was operated until 15:00 and the majority of the birds came later in the session.  Predictably, a high proportion of the catch were retraps (18 of the 33 total).

There were 4 new Goldfinch, 2 new Greenfinch, 2 Goldcrest and a Chaffinch in addition to the Tit species and local retraps.

One of the  retrapped Great Tits was partially leucistic

South shore (Malcolm) 09:00 - 09:30

Just a walk from the saltmarsh to Red Nab then back through the Nature Park 

The only passerines along the shore were two Greenfinch on the saltmarsh and a Wren along the foreshore!

Greenfinch 

Red Nab

Shelduck 10

Wigeon 135

Pale-bellied Brent goose 4 (later in the tide they were feeding out from the play area on the north side - David Kaye)

Pale-bellied Brent geese

All four Brent in this shot, but they were definitely three together plus one

Wigeon

Little Egret 2

......one that got away!

Nature Park 

c40 Thrushes south looked to be Redwing 

Chiffchaff 1 calling constantly, but awkward to see

Imperial Rd (Malcolm) 09:45

Just a quick passing check

Common Buzzard 1

Buzzard

Kestrel 1 it was hunting over the roundabout on the bypass, hovering for a while, then deciding that it was easier just to watch from a perch.

Kestrel

Wood Pigeon 35

Thrushes sp c50 south

Pheasant 1

Middleton Nature Reserve (Janet)

Cetti's warbler 1 singing

Hairy caterpillar - Ruby Tiger?

Grey Squirrel

Heysham skear (Malcolm) 13:30 - 14:30

I went to check the Knot but didn't have long between showers

Three of the Pale-bellied Brent geese were in the SE corner, feeding on broken weed left by the tide.

Pale-bellied Brent geese

There were c2000 Knot but most hunkered down against the fresh wind

Plenty of Knot, but not many legs on show

I did manage to see a few flagged birds, before the next shower ended the 
session. An Icelandic ringed bird in this shot

Just out of the recording area - 1st winter Black Redstart on fish-tailed groyne opposite Strathmore Hotel, Bare end of Morecambe 0746

Whoopers passing through

Heavy overnight rain and the odd shower during the day. A SW wind.

South shore (Malcolm) 10:30 - 11:30

I set off just after a heavy shower, but there was no sign of anything being grounded. The only passerines seen were a Reed Bunting on the saltmarsh and a Wren and a Rock Pipit on Red Nab.

Rock Pipit

Shelduck 9 on the mud plus 5 south

Wigeon 92 along the side of No.2 outfall plus 28 south

Eider 1 male north

Whooper Swan 10 SE

Whoopers

Shag 1 juvenile near No.2 outfall

Juvenile Shag

It was snorkelling in the shallows, this is just below the sea wall

It ended up around the rocks by No.2 outfall. It catches and swallows something halfway through this clip, but I can't see what.

Heysham skear Malcolm

I went to check the Knot this afternoon. There were about 2000 again. But became very flighty after a Peregrine attack.

Knot

I eventually managed to see some new flagged birds.

Little Egret 4

Nothing on the sea except for a couple of Cormorants 

Just one Ringed Plover seen, but there were probably more around 

Only skear news, so far

A dry overcast morning, two afternoon showers then the sun came out early evening. A SE wind.

Heysham skear (Malcolm)

I checked this morning on the ebb tide 09:30 - 11:30. Then a quick look on the flood in the evening sunshine.

Eider 15

Eider (and a Redshank)

No Merganser, Grebes, Little Egret or Shag seen.

Oystercatcher 400

Curlew 25

Black-Tailed Godwit 6 south at 09:30

Black-Tailed Godwit

Redshank 120

Turnstone 45

Knot 2000+

They were feeding on the bare skear bottom, that was stripped clean of mussels by storm Amy. There now seems to be plenty of small mussels here. I don't know if they are new seed mussels that have taken advantage of the vacated space, or they were small enough to be protected by the rocks and not washed away in the first place. Either way the Knot were making short work of them.

One of a UK scheme flagged Knot swallowing a small mussel

Unfortunately, after eating a few the Knot just rest in large groups while their meal is processed (their gizzards crush the mussel shells to allow digestion). This makes it very difficult to see if any are flagged.

A blanket of resting/digesting  Knot

Some new flagged birds were seen. This is a UK scheme, that currently 
uses three characters. Presumably this two character bird was an early
one. Details awaited

It was very pleasant this evening - Knot landing as the incoming tide 
moves them on

But still very difficult to read any flagged birds. One here is flagged
but they were facing the fresh wind which blows the blade of the flag
behind the Knot. Still, it's nice to see so many feeding again

Oystercatcher, Curlew and Knot

Nice Goosander surprise

Early morning and evening showers, but dry in between. A light east breeze early on freshening throughout the day.

Heysham Nature Reserve 

Report by Pete:

Not much migration wise with just three blackcap of note in the nets operated by Jean  

plus the Marsh Tit recaptured again and long eared owl disturbed just before dawn.  

New birds in the nets:

Blackcap 3

Goldcrest 2

Blackbird 1

Blue tit  2

Dunnock 1

Greenfinch 8

Chaffinch 6

Goldfinch 5

Wren 3

Brambling heard flying over, about 20 woodpigeon south but only 6 redwing seen and single figures of grounded blackbird 

No little gull or kittiwake on long range check from OE in good light eg shag identifiable on jetty 

At the same time there were Juvenile Shags on wooden jetty and north of the area feeding off the Morecambe town hall. 

Middleton Nature Reserve 

I had a quick look at the main pond mid morning (Malcolm)

Tufted Duck 6

Gadwall 6

Little Grebe 1

Tufted Duck

Little Grebe

Later Janet took this clip of a Roe Deer on the southern section 

Imperial Rd (Malcolm)

A quick passing check

Water Rail one making contact calls

Cetti's warbler 1 singing

Common Snipe 1

Kestrel 1

Heysham skear (Malcolm 11:00 - 13:15)

Very low neap tides at the moment and very little of the skear was exposed.

Shag at least 2 juveniles fishing

Juvenile Shag

Goosander 10 in one raft as I was leaving, I didn't see where they came from

Ten Goosander, one here is unusual enough!

Jackdaw, also unusual here, I can't recall seeing one before

Oystercatcher, Curlew and Turnstone in similar numbers to recent.

A partially leucistic  and a typical Oystercatcher 

Knot 1750 - 2000 they were lifted twice by raptor attacks, probably a Peregrine, but it did look small, possibly a Merlin. Either way it left the Knot nervous and flighty. Not so many flagged birds seen today.

Some of today's Knot