Snatch and grab Med

 A warm sunny day with a light variable breeze.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Ringing report by Alan:

Three nets set this morning from 06.00.  It was very quiet for the first hour or so.  There had been a heavy dew and the birds don't seem to start moving about until the vegetation begins to dry off.

Just 21 birds caught, the majority of which were juveniles.  No more caught after 10.00.

Chiffchaff  1

Common Whitethroat  1

Lesser Whitethroat  1

Cetti's Warbler  1

Sedge Warbler  2

Reed Warbler  6

Blackcap  3

Bullfinch  1

Robin  2

Wren  1

Long-tailed Tit  2

Janet is currently restricted to short outings and just a mobile phone camera. Still she manages some nice shots.

Painted Lady in my garden

Small Heath - Middleton Nature Reserve 

South shore Malcolm 10:30 - 11:30

Linnet 2 on saltmarsh plus 2 along the sea wall

Rock Pipit 3 (1 + 2) on Red Nab

Little Egret 6 - 3 flew east the others along the wall

Osprey at least 1 - as I was walking out a couple walking back said that they had seen one fishing, before being chased off by gulls. I didn't see one walking out but one headed south as I was walking back.

Just record shots, it was quite distant 

I had timed my walk to check the feeding beach by the wooden jetty as it was exposed by the ebbing tide. Somewhat surprisingly, there was only one Mediterranean gull there. Possibly linked to the earlier Osprey activity. There were quite a few Oystercatchers and they were catching the Sandmason worms. I never understood why more waders don't take advantage of this feeding opportunity. Perhaps today's activities may be part of the reason.

The Mediterranean gull had decided not to bother trying to catch the Sandmason worms, but instead watch the Oystercatchers and try and pinch their worms. In this instance it wasn't fast enough and the Oystercatcher ended up with the worm.

In this sequence you can see that the worms are long, which means it takes time to completely extract them from the mud and then swallow it. So there is plenty of time and plenty of worm for the gull to grab at. 

The worm isn't completely out of the mud at this point.

This time the Med gets the Lion's share of the worm.
Not so bad for the Oystercatcher when there is only one feeding Med,
but sometimes there are more than 30 here

Redshank 14 scattered around 

Whimbrel 1 flew between the outfalls calling

In the Nature Park

Just a few butterflies including:

Painted Lady, Red Admiral, Common Blue, Specked Wood, Small White and Meadow Brown

Common Darter 1

Common Darter

Southern Hawker 1

Southern Hawker

Heysham skear - Malcolm 15:15 - 16:30

Little Egret 4

Mediterranean gull 1 flew south over the skear

Mediterranean gull heading south

c400 Large gulls, mainly Herring gulls. Three ringed birds were seen. Two are regulars but one not seen since 2nd June

N:05S ringed at Bowland in 2023

Oystercatcher c1500

Curlew c50

Redshank c60

Turnstone 28