A bit more variety

A dry mainly sunny day with a gusty west wind.

Heysham skear - low water 09:30 (Malcolm)

Little Egret 6

Eider 9

Great Crested Grebe 1 juvenile 

These are some of the Eider and ending on the juvenile Great Crested Grebe.

Juvenile Great Crested grebe

Herring Gull 120

Lesser Black-Backed gull - none seen

Black-Headed gull 20

Oystercatcher 500

Curlew 40

Redshank 30

Summer plumaged Redshank 

Turnstone 35

Summer plumaged Turnstone 

Turnstone moulting to winter plumage

Ringed Plover 11

Ringed Plover

Dunlin 1

Dunlin moulting from summer plumage

South shore

I checked Red Nab then a walk along the sea wall towards high water ((Malcolm)

Approaching Red Nab it was clear that there were loads of gulls feeding on the outflows.

Mediterranean gull 23 resting on Red Nab - 2 juvenile, 1 x 2nd calendar year and the rest adult or 3rd calendar year. There were three white ringed birds amongst them, but all seen previously this year.

Mediterranean gulls

Black-Headed gulls c200 - 150 feeding on outflows

Kittiwake 1 juvenile feeding on No.1 outflow

Juvenile Kittiwake

The Nature Park was sheltered from the wind and the insects were taking advantage of the warm conditions. I bumped into Kevin by the Buddleia and over a five minute chat we saw ten species of butterfly and three species of dragonfly:

Red Admiral 2

Peacock 1

Comma 1

Large White 3

Brimstone 3 (all female)

Meadow Brown 2

Gatekeeper several

Small Skipper 3

Common Blue 2

Speckled Wood 2

Red Admiral and a Brimstone 

Meadow Brown

Comma and a Brimstone 

Common Darter just 1 near the Buddleia but several around the  Nature Park

Brown Hawker 1 by the Buddleia plus another 

Hawker sp, zipping around. Likely a Southern Hawker as its head and thorax were predominantly green.

What sounded like a young raptor was whining in the trees between the Nature Park and Ocean Edge, after a while an adult Sparrowhawk flew to the trees and the whining stopped.