A bit of movement in the air

A fresh SSE wind. Dry and largely sunny, the temperature rising all day peaking at 19°C by 16:00.

Seawatch report by Pete -  0720-0850 from back of harbour: 

just 6 Arctic tern 

20 common scoter

57 swallow

4 sand Martin

3 gadwall (!)

12 Bar-tailed Godwit

5 whimbrel

1 sandwich tern

tree pipit 5 plus lesser redpoll

Two female Whinchat on road from passenger terminal down to back of harbour sat on razor wire fence

Heysham Nature Reserve 

Tree Pipit over. 

Sedge Warbler in the reedbed. 

2 Lesser Whitethroat and a Common Whitethroat singing - Jean

Janet had a walk around later in the morning when the sun had warmed things up.

Large Red Damselfly - first of the year

Female Orange Tip

Male Orange Tip

Red-Tailed Bumblebee, covered in pollen

Heysham skear, low water 10:40 (Malcolm)

Eider 25 - no mergansers or grebes seen

Sandwich Tern 4 - this one settled on conger rock while its mate settled on the smaller rock to the south. Then the first one joined its mate.

Knot 350 no ringed birds seen

Whimbrel 5

Bar-Tailed Godwit 6

Bar-Tailed Godwit

Bar-Tailed Godwit with Oystercatchers

Swallow 3 - there are two in this clip, not much to see of the birds, but does provide a panorama of the shore to the south of the skear.

Peregrine Falcon 1 at least

Middleton Nature Reserve (Malcolm)

The water level on the "no swimming" pond has returned to normal, and, somewhat surprisingly, the mute pair were repairing the lost wooden nest. To be fair even if they had nested amongst the reeds as they normally do, their nest would have been swamped. Another pair were eyeing up nest sites on the main pond.

Mallard 7 (1 female)

Gadwall 4 (1 female)

Moorhen 2

Coot 7 - these two look aggressive but they are probably a pair.

Herring gull collecting nest material

This male Pheasant was displaying to a female. Not sure what's going on with his tail.

A quick check of the central and western marshes saw/heard:

Cetti's warbler 6 (plus 1 at main pond)

Lesser Whitethroat 4

Common Whitethroat 2

Reed Warbler 3

Sedge Warbler 1

Willow Warbler 5

Chiffchaff 4

Blackcap 1

Reed Bunting 1

5 male and 1 female Orange Tip

This teneral damselfly was by the main pond

I struggle a bit with teneral damsels (Malcolm), but it looks to be a female Azure Blue

South shore (Malcolm)

Pale-bellied Brent Geese 5 - initially seen by David Kaye out from Knowlys Rd. Later they were on Red Nab.

Pale-bellied Brent geese out from Red Nab

Wheatear 13 between the saltmarsh and Red Nab

Common Sandpiper 1 flew along foreshore towards Red Nab

Lesser Whitethroat still singing from the scrub behind Red Nab.

This Apple blossom is also in the scrub behind Red Nab - it smells even nicer than it looks!

2 possibly 3 Brimstone butterflies in the Nature Park.

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

Glossy Ibis - feeding at 0900 but not seen since, apart from a report from along the Snatchems road this pm.