It's getting colder!

Light rain for most of the morning, but a dry afternoon ending in sunshine. Quite a fresh NE wind.

Pete had a look around this morning:

3 pair shoveler Middleton main pond and 3 Reed bunting on feeder.  

No pink footed or greylag geese in any of fields or saltmarsh oxcliffe/heaton/heysham moss and therefore no whitefront 

Heysham skear - Malcolm 13:00 - 14:30

The NE wind was bitter, there was fresh snow on the Lakeland hills

It looked to be quite deep snow to the north

Less deep closer to home

Pale-bellied Brent goose 24 - 2 to the west of the skear and 22 in the middle of the skear, but I suspect these had been flushed from the play area rocks.

Some of the Brent in the middle of the skear, there is precious little
for them to eat here

Brent out from the skear

Eider 1 pair

The Knot were quite interesting, their feeding habits are becoming more diverse. Initially there were just 50 feeding on the mud shore to the south of the skear. Fortunately these included one flagged bird, although it has been a "regular" here this winter.

It has one of the small bivalves that they were probing the mud for

Then another 250 arrived and also began feeding on the mud. Unfortunately none of these were flagged.

Some of the Knot electing to feed on the mud. At least it is easy to check
them for flags when the mud is flat like this

Although they were primarily searching for bivalves, there were other items on the menu. This one finds a tiny crab, bivalves can't be shared, but a crab can, potentially eight ways! It dashes off to eat it in isolation, but it was a vain hope!

This one managed to have its crab and eat it!

I also saw several Knot swallowing filaments of gutweed. This is always available in the quantities that they eat, but they don't always eat it. Presumably, it is required as a supplement for some diets.

Knot eating gutweed

Not all the Knot were feeding on the mud, there were another 200 scattered around the skear. Not so easy to check for flags there, but I did manage to spot two new ones for this winter. 

Dunlin 60

Dunlin

This Bar-Tailed Godwit was on the south shore on Wednesday, we have just received 
its updated History, it's a veteran! Ringed on Schiermonnikoog Island north Netherlands
In 2001. The last report for one of the others ringed at the same time was  in 2009!
It was also seen at Heysham last January.

Goose, goosed?

Some sunny periods this morning, a light NE to E wind

South shore - Malcolm 09:00 - 09:30

It was ideal conditions compared to the last couple of days, for me at least. Apparently not ideal for the waders, there were none on the shore apart from a scattering of Oystercatcher and Curlew.

Pink-Footed goose 1 resting on the saltmarsh 

Pink-Footed goose

Often when just one is close in like this it has been shot and unable to fly.
But this one's feathers were intact, presumably it was just exhausted 

Shelduck 24 on Red Nab

Rock Pipit 1 along foreshore 

These were also along the foreshore, I've not seen them here before. I had to
look the leaves up. It is Italian Lords-and-Ladies. I am familiar with our common
Lords-and-Ladies (Cuckoo-pint). Apparently there is a sub species of the "Italian"
version that is found in the UK, but more probably it originated as a cultivated
plant. Garden waste from the caravans is often spread here.

Heysham skear - Malcolm 09:50 - 11:00

The skear was just uncovering. This shot is actually from the promenade at Rydal Rd. 

Some of the 55 Eider

Just a single Wigeon again

Just one Little Egret too

There were 500 Knot, the terrain high up the shore is difficult for spotting flagged birds, but eventually I was satisfied that I had seen all there was to see, just one! An orange flag over a pale blue ring again, possibly the same one that I saw on the south side yesterday.

This one definitely ringed in Wales, at Ynyslas Point, Dyfi Estuary in 2024

Just out of the recording area - Heysham Moss Nature Reserve - Janet

Buzzard, possibly one of those regularly seen at Imperial Rd

Woodcock flew east from the central area of the Moss

More Shoveler, plus time for reflection

Heavy rain in the morning eased slightly in the afternoon. A light east to NE breeze

155 species were seen in the Heysham recording area last year, this is a relatively low total historically, but at least it included two new species for the recording area:

Caspian gull

Foster’s tern 

No Pomarine Skua or Twite 

No Black Redstart or Snow Bunting actually in the area 

We are up to 72 species this year - slightly more than at this stage last year.

Middleton Nature Reserve main pond - Kevin Eaves

4 male, 3 female Shoveler on the main pond, so an additional female

Little Grebe 1

South shore - Malcolm 14:15 - 15:45

I was hoping to check the shore out from the saltmarsh this morning, but it was raining too heavily. I had a look this afternoon, there were plenty of waders, but the tide was out and they were spread over a huge expanse of shore.

Bar-Tailed Godwit 150

Knot 2000 within the recording area at least another 2000 further south

Dunlin 250

Oystercatcher 100

Curlew 8

Shelduck 65

Bar-Tailed Godwit, Knot and Dunlin

Watch this Godwit go well out of its way to move another on!

I don't take loads of videos, and select the ones of interest. Wildlife is just interesting!

Some of the Godwits already moving to summer plumage 

With the birds being so spread out it was difficult getting close to more than a few at a time, even so I did spot a couple of flagged birds, but the dark skies and rain made it almost impossible to read any. This central bird has an orange flag over a pale blue ring, which means that it is likely to have been ringed in Wales, but no chance of reading the code. There is also a yellow flagged Knot in the background.

This is the yellow flagged Knot. Part of an Icelandic scheme

A Peregrine Falcon eventually cleared the shore and all the waders headed south.

Bar-Tailed Godwit

Grey Wagtail to the south of the saltmarsh 

Shovelers hanging around, but flighty!

An overcast dry day with a light east wind.

Middleton Nature Reserve - Janet

The Mute Swan pair on the main pond - Well it is nearly Valentines day!!

A second pair on the "no swimming" pond

Shoveler 6 (4 males) were alternating between the main and "no swimming" ponds

Gadwall on the "no swimming" pond

Long-Tailed Tits on the fat balls

This female Chaffinch also looks to have been on the fat balls!

Cetti's warbler singing from the reed bed on main pond.

South shore - Malcolm 14:00 - 16:15

Nature park

Goldfinch 20+ 

Goldfinch 

They were stripping the ripening tree buds

Bullfinch pair

Male Bullfinch 

Along the sea wall

Shelduck 22

Wigeon 270

Wigeon 

Rock pipit 2 - one near the waterfall and one around No.1 outfall

This is the one near the waterfall, it seems to be having problems walking, we have seen them in the past here with their foot shrivelled to just a stump. 

This is the one on No.1 outfall, you would wonder what it could find to eat here, but it clearly finds a small white grub at the end of this clip.

Rock Pipit

No Shag seen today.

Redshank 80

Redshank 

Turnstone 4

Oystercatcher 150 and Curlew 40 south

As I got back to Red Nab a Peregrine Falcon was coming in off the shore. It didn't have anything in its talons, but presumably it had already eaten, as at the same time c2500 waders were landing along the waterline.

By the time I reached them there were 1500 Knot and 30 Bar-Tailed Godwit. At least another 1000 Knot further south. Unfortunately by this time the light was fading quickly and I didn't manage to read any flags.

Bar-Tailed Godwit, Knot and a Common Gull

Two of these Knot have the tiny bivalves that they were feeding on

The new StenaLine cargo ship, looking like Bugs Bunny as it emerges 
over the skyline