A light west wind freshened in the afternoon. Mainly sunny after an overcast start.
A 5 hour sea-watch (7.15 am – 12.15 pm) – I hadn’t expected to stay that long, but every time I thought about going something would appear to maintain my interest.
7 Arctic Skua – 1 dark morph flew out at 7.21 am.
– 1 dark morph flew in, landed on the sea beyond the two buoys and floated in from 8.15 am.
– 1 light morph flew in, gaining height at 8.32 am.
– 2 dark morph flew in together, relatively close inshore and flew off over Heysham Head at 10.27 am. Presumably the same 2 dark morph then flew back from the direction of Heysham Head at 10.43 am, landed on the sea near the two buoys and gradually flew short distances / floated out on the ebbing tide.
– 2 (1 dark morph and 1 light morph) flew in together and continued past Heysham Head at 11.38 am.
2 Velvet Scoter – flew in at 8.27 am – seen while trying to keep track of the morning’s second Arctic Skua as it floated in.
480 Common Scoter – mostly flying out between 7.15 and 10.00 am, including groups of 25, 100, 89, 35, 40 and several groups of 10-20.
100+ Kittiwake – groups of 3, 38 and 35 flew into the Bay, while a group of c.100 flew out at 11.54 am. This latter group probably included an earlier very distant group of c.40 flying part way out then landing on the sea.
20 Arctic Tern – groups of 3, 15 and 2 flying in
Gannet – 2 flew across the mouth of the Bay
Manx Shearwater – 3 flew across the mouth of the Bay at 11.25 am, during a brief deterioration in visibility
Guillemot – 2 floated in separately, but no auks seen in flight
Red-throated Diver – 1 flew in, 3 flew out
Sandwich Tern – 9 regularly flying back and forth closer inshore than most of the other species
Gadwall – 4 flew in at 9.15 am – a Heysham sea-watch first for me!
House Martin – 3 flew in over the sea – the morning’s only hirundines.
Whimbrel – 2 flew in
Rock Pipit – 1 along the sea-wall
Grey Seal – 1 offshore
Pete C (with Tom Walkington from 9.30 am onwards)
I had a walk along the south shore towards 09:30 high water (MD)
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| Some of the adult Kittiwake flying in. A 2nd calendar year was on their pipe in the harbour |
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| Some of the Carrion Crows coming in off the sea |
Wheatear 14 (11 along foreshore plus 3 near lighthouse)
Linnet 15
Rock Pipit 4 (1 on Red Nab, 3 between lighthouse and waterfall).
Dunnock - It was singing near the waterfall, not far from where a pair of Linnet are nesting, this is a new bird here this spring.
Bar-Tailed Godwit 27 near Red Nab
Curlew 11 out
Whimbrel 3 out
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| Whimbrel |
Shag 1 x 2nd calendar year. This clip shows it flying to its roost on the wooden jetty. But it came to rest somewhere out of sight, not where I normally see Shag resting on the jetty (the clip ends at an empty section of jetty where I was expecting it to land).
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| 2nd calendar year Shag |
Heysham Nature Reserve
Janet has got her camera back
The Common Scoter had moved on from Middleton this morning.
Heysham skear - low water 16:25 (MD)
There was very little on the sea and nothing passing over.
Eider c40
Great Crested Grebe 2
Even less variety of waders, just:
Oystercatcher c2,500
Whimbrel 23
Bar-Tailed Godwit 1
There were lots of Herring gulls. There were 600+ feeding on the seed mussels plus others waiting on the sea. This is a typical scene.
I noticed something this evening, which is probably contributing to the spread of the Honeycomb worm beds. The gulls were choosing to browse on the seed mussels that were forming on top of of the honeycomb worm beds. The mussels will be easier to dislodge from the sand based substrate. Left untouched the mussels would almost certainly regain the areas currently occupied by the honeycomb worms, they may still, but the gulls are favouring the growth of the honeycomb worm beds.
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| Tight packed seed mussels forming on the skear bottom, where the gulls are not currently feeding |
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