A risk of invasion?

Occasional cloud cover kept the temperature lower again today. A light mainly NW breeze

South shore

I just had time for a quick check of Red Nab at 12:00 (3 hours before high water) - Malcolm

Whimbrel 1 heard

Mediterranean gulls only 12 

Mediterranean and Black-Headed gulls on Red Nab

Shaun checked closer to high water, with more success 

Heysham Red Nab  13:00-14:30:
Mediterranean Gulls 112 including 5 juveniles . A group of 12 were departing south when I arrived. Perhaps, others had already left.
Rock Pipit 2.
Shag roosting on Wooden Pier.

Heysham Nature Reserve - Shaun

Dipping Pond:
Common & Blue-tailed Damselflies.
Common Darter.
Broad-bodied Chaser.
Brown Hawker 2.
Emperor Dragonfly. 

Also, a fast dark UFO visiting the pond, dipping on to the water and then shooting off. Then it landed. Probably about 2.5cm. Mean looking thing......turned out to be a Dark Giant Horsefly

Dark Giant Horsefly (the heaviest fly in Europe)

Holly Blue in the NE corner and 2 Ringlets behind the dipping pond were the only butterflies seen on a circuit.

These are from Heysham skear yesterday - Malcolm

I posted a while ago that I had seen my first Pacific Oyster here. Since then I have located about 20. These are a non native species that were intentionally introduced to some UK waters early last century. I suspect their spread to here is a natural development of their range.

These are large Oysters! And they not only "cement" themselves to anything solid, they "cement" other rocks and shells together to form a solid anchorage.

This is a live one, with its shell tightly clamped shut

I returned it to where I found it. 

I took this dead one home. It will end up at the Nature Reserve office,
where I am sure it will impress the many children visitors 

You can see how it cements everything together

I haven't seen these before this year, so clearly they are a very fast growing
species. They can form colonies in the form of solid reefs, with rocks and 
shells stuck tightly together. 

The skear is currently a battleground between the Mussels and Honeycomb worms. The outcome as to which species is dominant in any one year depending largely on when, and how severe, storms are. Plus of course the amount of seed mussels arriving. The Honeycomb worms can also create reefs, but theirs are made of grains of sand cemented together. The predominantly SW storms tend to demolish those on the south side most years. If the Pacific Oysters do proliferate here I'm pretty sure any of their reefs will withstand the severe storms and possibly become "permanent" features. If so the whole demographic of the skear will change. Probably not a good thing! But it will be interesting to watch. Bear in mind that when I first started visiting the skear (scarily, 60 years ago) there were no Honeycomb worms, just mussels. But I suppose that realistically, if the Oysters do become prolific, people will begin to "harvest" them. I can't think of any other predators that would take them.