Monday 18 March 2024

Brambling best of a good mix

A few showers ended by 08:15. After that dry with some prolonged sunny spells. A light SW wind.

Heysham Nature Reserve 
Jean managed the first ringing session of the year, the pick of the catch was
Brambling 1 x 1st winter female

North Shore (Pete)
Shag 1 adult feeding near conger rock
Pale-bellied Brent goose 22 in the same area
 
Middleton Nature Reserve (MD, JP)
Goosander 6, but a different mix today.
2 males, and what looks to be an adult female with a first winter bird, plus two more adult females (Malcolm)

They were still present when Janet checked later and took these excellent shots.
Male Goosander


Female Goosander

This one still has some of the pale face markings of an immature bird

Singing Chiffchaff, there were some moving but none singing when I checked.
But the later sunshine brought them into song
Cetti's Warbler 3 heard singing


At least two Goldcrest



This Reed Bunting has taken to hanging around and using the
feeders in the main pond car park

The warm morning sunshine also brought out the insects, several queen Bees were seen but too quick to identify.
Hoverfly sp

Seven Spot Ladybird 

Great Spotted Woodpecker pair, flew together to the southern section of the reserve.

South shore (MD)
A 10 minute morning check of the foreshore just as the last shower was easing found nothing grounded, but 14 Meadow Pipit north.
An afternoon walk along the sea wall
Wigeon just 84, they will not be with us much longer so I took a clip of this pair looking fine in breeding plumage.
In the Nature Park
Chiffchaff 2
Goldcrest 2
Great spotted Woodpecker 1 male
Redwing 2
Redwing

Pink-footed geese flying south over Janet's house this afternoon 

Just out of the recording area - horse paddock behind Middleton Parish Hall

Glossy Ibis still feeding


Sunday 17 March 2024

Good coverage

Heavy overnight rain, then showers in the morning started at 008:30. A light south wind.

Shaun made an early start and covered most of the recording area:
Middleton NR 06:30-08:00 
No Swimming Pond.
Little Grebe pair,
Goosander 4 - 1 male + 3 female 
Teal 1 male
Great Spotted Woodpecker pair
Redwing 6
Cetti's Warbler 5, probably 6 singing, including one near the 'top car park'.
Chiffchaff 14 (all between Main Pond and Tim Butler, with just one singing).

Nature Park walk to Red Nab.
Chiffchaff 4, 
Goldcrest 2 
Long-tailed Tit 5 

Bar-tailed Godwit 7 feeding next to wooden jetty. 

Later in the afternoon there were 2 Goldcrest in the scrub by the lighthouse - Kevin Eaves

From Knowlys Rd
Pale-bellied Brent Goose 32 off play area
Shag  on the smaller rock close to Condor Rock 

I just managed a couple of short morning checks (Malcolm)
Ocean Edge foreshore during a shower (not much!)
Meadow Pipit 4 and Pied Wagtail 1 grounded

Imperial Rd 
I just called in between showers mid morning, there was a lot going on.
Peregrine Falcon 1 south
Kestrel 1 male north
No sign of Buzzards today
Greylag Goose 4
Greylag coming in to land

Shelduck 3, although not for long, on this occasion 3 was a crowd.
Mallard 2
Teal 2
Gadwall 6 south

Wood Pigeon 21
Redwing 1
Jackdaw 25
Magpie 13
Carrion Crow 4
Meadow Pipit 5 north
Chiffchaff 1 singing
Greenfinch 15 seemed to be waiting for the rain to stop, these are just some of them.

Just out of the recording area - horse paddock behind Middleton Parish Hall

Glossy Ibis still feeding





Saturday 16 March 2024

Chiffchaff arrive.....in numbers

A dry morning with a warm sunny spell. Overcast in the afternoon with light showers.

Myself (Malcolm), Shaun Coyle and Josh Hedley covered roughly the same areas at different times today. The following is Josh's report amended with aggregate counts when there is definitely no overlap.

Middleton NR 
Mute Swan- 8 (2 adult each No Swimming and Tim Butler ponds,  4 immature Main)
Gadwall- 1 (Main)
Mallard- 5 (Main)
Goosander- 2 redheads (No swimming)
Little Grebe- 2 (1 each No swimming and Main)
Coot- 4 (2 Main, 2 No swimming)
Moorhen- 5
Cetti's Warbler 6 singing males
Chiffchaff- 16+ (8 birds in song)
Goldcrest 2
Song Thrush- 1
Reed Bunting- 1 
Stock Dove- 3
Meadow Pipit- 5 over
This is one of the Meadow Pipit taking a break to spruce up

Harbour/ Outfalls area
Red-breasted Merganser- 2 drakes near wooden jetty
Rock Pipit- 3 (1 Red Nab, 1 Waterfall, 1 sea wall)
Waterfall Rock Pipit by Josh
Wheatear 2 males grounded on the roundhead during an afternoon shower
Pale-bellied Brent goose 28 (24 and 4) arrived at Red Nab from the north side towards high water.
Pink-Footed goose a lone, and lonely sounding, individual flew north
Pinkfoot, calling so much that I was expecting a flock to fly over (Malcolm)

These three Long-Tailed Tits were on the wispy willow growing out of the sea wall at Red Nab. 

Wren soaking up the morning sun in the Nature Park
Chiffchaff 3 together by the small anemometer in the Nature Park. Just one visible in this clip.

Ringed Chiffchaff (nice to have them back)

Heysham NR
Sparrowhawk- 1
Peregrine- 1 
Goldcrest- 4 along dog walk track
Chiffchaff- 1 dog walk track (bringing the absolute minimum this morning to 20)
Meadow Pipit- 1

Just out of the recording area - horse paddock behind Middleton Parish Hall

Glossy Ibis still feeding


Friday 15 March 2024

Arrivals and departures

A mainly dry day after overnight rain. A fresh SW drifting to NW breeze.

Heysham skear - low later 09:10 (MD)
Pale-bellied Brent goose 44 - they had been resting amongst the honeycomb worm reefs along the north edge of the skear. There is nothing for them to eat here. As the tide was making, first 37 then 7 flew off but only settled along the southern edge of the skear, where again there is nothing for them to eat. These are the 37 flying off, it provides a nice view of the reefs on the north side.

Eider 220 - this is a nice clip of a female, demonstrating how water runs of a duck's back.

Wigeon 4 on the sea before flying north (departing?)
Red-breasted Merganser 7 (2 males)
Great Crested Grebe 6 (3 pairs)
Shag 1 adult feeding
Knot only c100 other waders similar to recent.
Carrion Crow 22 along the honeycomb worm beds on the south side. These are a few of them.

Alba Wagtail and Meadow Pipit one each flew north early in the walk when I was still quite close to shore.

Middleton Nature Reserve (MD)
Goosander 6 - another male has arrived. I suspect this is the new male as he greets the others as he joins them.

Six Goosander!

Also at the "no swimming" pond
Little Grebe 1
Cetti's Warbler 1 singing

South shore (MD)
The 37 Brent turned up at Red Nab.
Wigeon 220
No sign of the Black Redstart 
Wheatear 1 male on the foreshore - first of the year.

Male Wheatear

Rock Pipit 6 - one each on Red Nab and foreshore, plus four together feeding on the spring tides flotsam on the saltmarsh.

Redwing 1 skulking in the Elder bush near the waterfall (definitely departing)
Redwing

Just out of the recording area - horse paddock behind Middleton Parish Hall

Glossy Ibis still feeding


Heysham Moss Nature Reserve 

Janet checked this morning. A mobile group of seven thrushes contained at least two Redwing

Redwings

Thursday 14 March 2024

Better

It rained for most of the morning, but not as heavily as yesterday. Showers in the afternoon. A light south wind.

Pete managed a short lunchtime seawatch:
Two Red throated diver together flying out but distant 
single Sand Martin  - first of the year
6 Meadow pipit flying in over sea
Shag 1 on wooden jetty

Heysham Nature Reserve 
Siskin 1 - Jean

South shore (MD, JP)
I had a quick walk along the foreshore early morning (Malcolm)
Black Redstart - the "missing" female type from yesterday was showing well along the foreshore despite the rain. 

It was still showing well later in the morning when Janet checked,
and was still there, but drier, when I checked again towards high water

Meadow Pipit 26 grounded on Ocean Edge grass

Rock Pipit 2 - one on Red Nab and this one on the foreshore 

Sparrowhawk 1 flushed all the Meadow Pipits

When Janet checked later a male Stonechat had arrived

It was still there when I returned just after lunch, at least the rain had stopped by this time.

Pale-bellied Brent goose 30 feeding on Red Nab before flying south when displaced by the tide. Although all the rocks are green with gutweed it is very short and they have to work hard for very meagre reward.

Wigeon 200
Weasel 1 scurried across the car parking area at the Nature Park.

A quick 17:00  check by Angela Gillon failed to locate the Black Redstart, but a Reed Bunting was grounded on the foreshore rocks.

Middleton Nature Reserve (MD)
We now have an unprecedented 5 Goosander on the "no swimming" pond. Another male had joined them today.
Male Goosanders

 I have yet to see one dive. I take that to mean that there are plenty of suitably sized fish (I only know of Perch in this pond) and they can catch one easily whenever they are hungry. It must be why they are here. (Malcolm)


Imperial Rd (MD)
I checked first thing and there wasn't a single gull feeding on the harrowed field (see yesterday's post)
Buzzard 1
Jackdaw 15

Just out of the recording area - horse paddock behind Middleton Parish Hall

Glossy Ibis still feeding



Wednesday 13 March 2024

Today was a no Starter

It pretty much rained all day today. A south to SW wind.

Middleton Nature Reserve 
Still 4 Goosander on the "no swimming" pond. 
Cetti's warbler 1 singing

South shore
Today's title refers to the absence of any known sightings of the Black Redstart.

I had a walk along the sea wall late morning on the rising tide (Malcolm)
Pale-bellied Brent goose - just 4 arrived at Red Nab. 
Wigeon 320
Shelduck 2
Shag 1 adult resting on the wooden jetty.
There were no gulls at all feeding on the outflows - more on this later.
Redshank 60
Rock Pipit 3

It was lashing down when I reached the roundhead so I sheltered behind the lighthouse a while. It wasn't possible to see the buoys out from the north wall, partly because of the rain reducing visibility, but mainly because the fast running incoming spring tide had reduced the amount of buoy showing. As the rain eased slightly what remained of the buoys came into view.
Both buoys had only their tips showing. I hadn't expected to see the southern (left) one at all as it had been
completely submerged on much less forceful tides. Whatever was tangled to its chain must have been freed.

Today's tide at 10.4m really rips through. This is the northern buoy, which is normally barely effected by the tide


Imperial Rd
I had a quick look early this  morning (Malcolm). But the farmer was harrowing the pastures just east of the road. Nothing about then, but I thought the effect of harrowing might attract something later, so I went back this afternoon.
The fields were absolutely packed with Gulls, no wonder the outflows were deserted.
These are just a fraction of the gulls, there were also thousands of Starlings

I had just started going through the gulls to see if there was anything different, when suddenly everything went up!

One of three startling flocks

I couldn't see what had spooked them, a reaction like this comes from a perceived threat. Not typically what you would expect here from a Buzzard passing over.
But eventually that's all I could find, but it was two Buzzards (presumably the residents) chasing off a third. So the ensuing turmoil might have been what triggered the gulls to panic.

Three Common Buzzards
It was getting late and the gulls didn't return, but I would imagine that the fields will attract gulls again tomorrow. 

Just out of the recording area - horse paddock behind Middleton Parish Hall

Glossy Ibis feeding in the field next to the paddock

Tuesday 12 March 2024

Pretty much the same.......just wetter!

It rained, quite heavily at times, till just before lunch, then the SE wind switched to SW and it remained dry.

Unfortunately, I only had time for a morning walk today and managed a good soaking (Malcolm)
South Shore
Black Redstart - the female type was half way along Ocean Edge foreshore. Fortunately it was still around when Janet checked in the afternoon. These are some of her shots.


Pale-bellied Brent goose 23 - flew from the north side to Red Nab before being moved on by the high spring tide.
Wigeon 250 many taking advantage of the high tide to access gutweed on some of the close in rocks.
Shag 1 probably the adult on the wooden jetty 
Rock Pipit 3
The other day I showed how the cormorants disable large Bass they catch by breaking their gill filaments. This both starves them of oxygen and causes severe blood loss. Today's sequence shows that better (fortunately this was beside No.2 outflow, providing shelter from the rain).
The Cormorant drags its hooked bill tip through the gills. At this point
the Bass is still active and the Cormorant is at risk of being stabbed by the 
Bass' needle sharp dorsal fin spines. You can see them in this shot

This clip is less than a minute later and the Cormorant senses no resistance from the Bass. It dives one last time.

When it resurfaces it swallows the Bass. It takes a little longer than the other day as this Bass is slightly larger, plus there is still some slight movement from the Bass. Even so, it doesn't take long.
I would be interested to know how long a meal this size will sate a Cormorant (Malcolm)

Just I was heading back to my car through the Nature Park, the rain stopped! Two Goldcrest were flitting through the trees. This is a rubbish clip of one of them, but there is precious little else today. It does show how active they are through the trees, it only stopped briefly for a post rain preen. Unfortunately not long enough for me to get it in focus.

Middleton Nature Reserve 
Goosander 4 - 1 male. On "no swimming" pond

Just out of the recording area - horse paddock behind Middleton Parish Hall

Glossy Ibis feeding in the field next to the horse paddock. It was by itself this morning, but yesterday it had two feeding companions 

Ibis, Shelduck and Redshank 


Monday 11 March 2024

Day five........

A dry largely overcast day. A light variable breeze first from the east then later from the west.

South Shore
Black Redstart 1 female type was more elusive today and was seen at both the slipway and Red Nab ends of Ocean Edge foreshore. Today's shots by Janet.



Shag 1 adult resting on the wooden jetty at high water. This shot by Kevin Eaves

Pale-bellied Brent goose 2 - today's spring tide had already covered Red Nab as I passed (Malcolm). Any Brent feeding here earlier would have flown south. These two came from the north side, looked at where Red Nab "should be" then continued south.
Wigeon 100 - mainly at the saltmarsh
Eider 1 female
Alba Wagtail 4 north
Rock Pipit 6 including these two on the saltmarsh 

Imperial Rd (MD)
Buzzard 2 drifted off to SE together 
Wood Pigeon 40
Some of the Wood Pigeon resting in the treetops 

Meadow Pipit 5
Greylag Goose 10 just beyond the hedgerow. One made a halfhearted effort at an alarm call, but the others saw no reason to be alarmed.

Greylag goose

Middleton Nature Reserve (MD)
Goosander just 2 females this evening 
Tufted Duck 3
Little grebe 1
Cetti's warbler 2 - 1 singing by both ponds 
Goldcrest 1
Out of focus, but recognisable Goldcrest


Just out of the recording area - horse paddock behind Middleton Parish Hall

Glossy Ibis feeding this evening at least.


Plenty of Frogspawn at Heysham Moss Nature Reserve 


Sunday 10 March 2024

Black Redstart still the star

It was dark and threatened rain all day, but we got away with just a few spots. A light east wind.

South Shore
Pale-bellied Brent goose c43 flew from Red Nab to Potts Corner on the rising tide.
Woodcock 1 flushed from dog walking track
Black Redstart - the female type was showing well today along the section of the foreshore rocks nearest to Red Nab. The mealworms were all gone and it was feeding under the concrete slabs. Not visible when feeding but it was very active and soon revealed itself. Seen by many observers today at least until 13:20.
These are some of my shots (Malcolm)





Most of the time it was very flighty, but I managed the following clip as a group of dog walkers were approaching. It was more interested in keeping an eye on them that it was about me. I've removed the sounds of their conversation and dogs barking, but you can see the Redstarts  reaction to it.

Middleton Nature Reserve (MD, JP, JR)
Still 4 Goosander

Two of three Tufted Duck

There always seems to be at least two Long-Tailed Tits on the car park feeders
Cetti's Warbler 1 singing by "no Swimming" pond

Male Roe Deer, there was also a female close by