Harbour & Bay.

On Tuesday I decided to give Heysham Harbour another visit and on getting out of the motor it was good to hear the first bird in song being the Song Thrush. Most birds seen on my way to the sea wall were in song....

Robin Noushka Dufort

Robin

Blackbird

Dunnock 

Wren

Greenfinch

As I approached the outfalls I was disappointed to see them void of birds even though the high tide was three hours away. But I spent a good hour at the south wall to see a Red-throated Diver flying into the bay some distance off the harbour mouth. However, this bird obliged and came down on to the sea hopefully for me to get a better look, but it then behaved unobligingly and promptly dived to soon disappear behind the north wall.

Guillemot at Heysham Harbour. Janet Packham.

In the harbour I saw a Guillemot around the power station water intake, and watched a Kittiwake flying around the harbour mouth.

Scaup at Middleton. Janet Packham.

I decided it was time I went to see for myself the long staying drake Scaup on Middleton Pond. I doubt if I'm on my own in thinking this is likely to be the same individual present on the canal basin at Glasson Dock in November/December 2013. In my brief visit I also noted 2 drake Pochard.

A walk along the promenade from Broadway to Teal Bay at Morecambe was healthy and very pleasant on a good sunny day, but it was a struggle to find a pair of Red-breasted Merganser, 2 Great-crested Grebe, and probably the only 2 Goldeneye anywhere in or around Morecambe Bay to the exclusion of the Lune Estuary at Glasson Dock. I made a decent count of 56 Eider.

And finally....Stonechats again. 

Stonechat Martin Jump 

The Stonechat passage moves on apace, and I was more than a little pleased to find This Record And no less pleased to find a record of six Stonechats on Lytham Moss Monday 3 March on the Fylde Bird Club website. A personal thank you to JR/FB for reporting these sightings. This years local migrant Stonechat records stand at 14 and that represents a good spring passage in my little black book.

My thanks to Noushka for the Robin, and to Janet - Heysham Observatory - for the Guillemot and Scaup images, and Martin for the Stonechat, they are all excellent photographs and much appreciated.