Saturday 15 January 2011

Lovely weather for ducks to reappear

Heysham Obs
No temptation to go London weekend rubbish tipping, the key word being 'weekend'.  Amazing that as soon as the work in north Kent finishes, this=Slaty-backed Gull happens and knocks on the head a possible fuel-free-trip.  Plan B was a pre-work very wet weather trawl around the north and south of the harbour and only one of the 'usual candidates' played ball and a second one during a short afternoon excursion:

Twite - 47 at the feeder, then flew to the harbour side of the sandworks
Little Gull - adult stage 2 outfall pm, but not morning

Middleton NR
Quite a few wildfowl back, indeed, a very good count of Teal for this time of year:  46 Teal, 8 Tufted Duck, 3 Pochard, 1 Goldeneye, 17 Mallard, 2 Mute Swan, 3 Coot but no Moorhen seen (thanks Malcolm)

A walk from Gate 38 to the wheel and back saw nothing at all in the harbour other than 2 Cormorant & nothing in the 'outer mouth' of the harbour. Wet!