Easy Meds.......again

A dry and sunny day with a light SE wind.

South shore (Malcolm)

A check from saltmarsh to Red Nab this morning on the rising tide.

Pink-Footed goose 57 south

Shelduck 83 feeding on the shore 

Wigeon 17 feeding on Red Nab.

The males' yellow forehead not yet developed 

These 14 were later joined by another 3. They are eating the gutweed growing on the rocks.

Mediterranean gull - just one adult located on Red Nab

Oystercatcher 300 - till c2,000 more arrived from the north side, presumably some disturbance at the Heliport roost.

Curlew 50

Turnstone 4

Redshank 25

Common Snipe 1 flushed from saltmarsh 

Lapwing 16

Kingfisher 1 on Red Nab

The tide was now reaching the middle of Red Nab, and that's where
the Kingfisher was fishing

Location shot, the Kingfisher is on the central rock

Linnet 70 on the saltmarsh, likely more along the marsh grass strip

Meadow Pipit 2 in off

In the Nature Park

Red Admiral 2

Small White 1

Comma 1

Common Darter 5

There is a fine crop of pine cones on the firs near the white barrier. These are
Goldfinch coming in to feed. I thought I heard a Siskin, but I couldn't see one.

North shore (Angela)

1 Swallow in off the sea at Heysham Head.

Sparrowhawk over the woods at Half Moon bay car park and Chiffchaff heard in same location.

Middleton Nature Reserve

Rosemary and Peter Silvester paid a visit. This from Peter:

On a chilly. windy but bright visit to Middleton Reserve today we saw a surprising number of Common Darters. 

Male Common Darter, happily perched on a swan's feather

One of the most surprising thing of our visit was the number of mating pairs of Darters we saw. At one time we had three pairs ovipositing virtually at our feet.

The gulls and other birds put on quite a display too.

Mainly Black-Headed gulls with Tufted Duck (more on this later)

I checked the main ponds early evening (Malcolm)

The water level on the "no swimming" pond is now back to normal. The Mute Swan pair and their cygnet were on this pond, the cygnet stood on their nest. 

No sign of the eggs that were in the nest before it was flooded.

Pink-Footed goose 45 south

Tufted Duck 5 (4 males)

Mallard 2

Coot 18

Moorhen 5 adult plus 2 well grown young

Common Snipe 1

Cetti's warbler 1 singing

Chiffchaff 2 calling

Grey Wagtail 1 south

Migrant Hawker 1

Common Darter just 3 by this time

No butterflies seen

Leafhopper. Thanks to Alison for this identification,
looking at the bright colour of it I think it's the Green Leafhopper - Cicadella viridis.

All the while I was there, there was a constant drift of gulls from east to west, reminiscent of the evenings when the gulls used to return after foraging at the landfill site. And, as Peter, I noticed more than usual freshening up at the main pond.

Not just Black-Headed gulls but at least 2 Meds

Adult Mediterranean gull centre

They bathed and drank a while then drifted off to the west, only to be replaced by more gulls from the east. Something was going on!

So I called in at Imperial road on my way home and sure enough the fields were full of gulls.

The farmer had clearly been treating the fields again. Not slurry this time,
there was no smell. It seemed to be decomposed vegetation 

The above shot is literally the small window I had to view them. This is looking through my car window and one of few gaps in the hedge. Even so in this small section of the gulls I located 12 Mediterranean gulls

2nd calendar year Mediterranean gull (centre)

Three adult Meds in this shot.

I took this clip as I thought the Med that begins on the left had a white ring, but it turned out just to be a metal ring, you get a glimpse of the ring early in the clip. The discolouration in the shot above and this clip is due to out of focus foliage in the hedge between.

Unfortunately as soon as I left my car for a better look they all relocated! Although by walking slowly it was possible to approach them again. I didn't see more than 12 Meds at one time, but presumably there were others in the more distant fields. So absolute minimum would be 14 as the 2 seen earlier on Middleton Nature Reserve moved off west.

This clip is mainly Black-Headed gulls (just one adult Med). It shows the material that had been spread and the ease at which the gulls were finding plenty to eat amongst it.

A Common Buzzard was keeping an eye on proceedings 

Just out of the recording area:

Yellow-browed Warbler at Overton late am. Approx 250 m along the road to the Waste Water Treatment Works.