A rat tail's tale

The forecast was for some east winds today, but if there was any it was from west by mid morning and NW by mid afternoon. Very hot in the constant sun again.

South shore (MD)

A check along the wall mid morning, just in time for the wind to shift to west at 10:30. There were plenty of butterflies around the foreshore and Red Nab, but the only sign of any movement at the roundhead was a single Large White.

That said, this Grasshopper was half way along the sea wall. It may have just hopped out of the Power Station grounds though.

Common Field Grasshopper 

It was a lazy sort of day, summed up by this Grey Seal

There was a notable influx of large gulls, they were in rafts on the sea, plenty on and around the wooden jetty and lots in the harbour.

Large gulls on and around wooden jetty 

Large gulls in harbour 

There were only two on the platforms, but one was ringed, unfortunately it sat down before I could read it.

2nd calendar year Herring Gull

It knew I was watching it, but it steadfastly refused to care. The trick is to make them wary enough to stand up, but not enough to spook them into flight. After moving around a little and several coughs to no effect, I broke a mussel shell underfoot. Jackpot!

One of North West Gull Project's birds - see side bar for link to the scheme
Ringed in Bowland 08/07/21 seen previously in the harbour 31/01/22

Lots of insects in the Nature Park

Emperor 1

Migrant Hawker 1

Common Darter 3

Painted Lady 2

Peacock 3

Brimstone 1 male

Large White 1

Small Tortoiseshell 2

Meadow Brown several

Common Blue 3

Painted Lady and Common Blue

Photographs of Brimstone rarely look as splendid as they do in nature, mainly as they always settle with their wings closed and only the inner wings are bright yellow. So I tried to get an in flight shot. This is my best effort, still nowhere near as splendid as it actually was!

Male Brimstone 

This is interesting (I find anything that makes you think interesting MD)

This is the pool just below the the sea wall at the very start of the wall at Red Nab. The tide only fills this pool when it is over  9.5m high water (less height required when windy as the waves lap over). The last set of spring tides didn't get over 9m, so there will have been no sea water in this pool since it was filled on 17th July (24 days). After it is filled the sea water slowly seeps away and is diluted with rain water and, unlike much of England, we have had plenty of rain since then. So the pool will have only been slightly brackish.

Last night's tide at 9.52m in calm conditions will have only partly filled it with sea water again. This Rock Pipit was taking advantage - I like the way it peeps in pleasure/triumph before it captures its meal.

It's caught a Rat-Tailed Maggot, these are the larvae of some Hoverfly species.

Rock Pipit with Rat-Tailed Maggot

Rat-Tailed Maggots live underwater and use their long siphon to breathe from a safe depth. They are noted for tolerating poor quality water, presumably including slightly brackish, but it obviously couldn't tolerate the input of seawater last night and crawled out to "safety". This won't happen every tide cycle. This instance is the result of a low spring tide last cycle, allowing enough time for the maggots to grow, and a high tide last night just high enough, in the calm conditions, to only partly fill the pool. Bad news for the Rat-Tailed Maggots, but the Rock Pipit was clearly delighted!

Just out of the recording area - Heysham Moss Nature Reserve 

Just a couple of extra shots from Janet's visit yesterday 

Three pairs of Common Darters ovipositoring 

Sparrowhawk