Sometimes you just have to irk the birds

Another hazy sunny day with a west(ish) breeze

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Ringing report by Alan

Another fairly quiet session this morning with only 23 birds caught, but there were seven species of warblers. The three adult Willow Warblers were all in an advanced state of moult of flight feathers.  A juvenile Song Thrush was a welcome catch as we only catch an average of 6 per year of this declining species.
The total catch comprised:
Lesser Whitethroat  1
Willow Warbler  3
Chiffchaff   3
Reed Warbler  2  + 1 retrap
Blackcap  4
Common Whitethroat  2 + 1 retrap
Sedge Warbler  2 + 1 retrap
Song Thrush  1
Wren  1
Great Tit  1 retrap  ( This was a juvenile fledged from a nestbox on Middleton this year).

This from Steve Edmondson:

Thought you might be interested in a Ruddy Darter that I've seen twice in the same area close to Middleton main pond on the west side.

Ruddy Darter

Janet saw at least two and probably three Ruddy Darter near the southern section pond

Ruddy Darters

Still no sign of the Copper-tip longhorn moths

North shore

Mark Jones had a walk over Heysham Head barrows

Cormorant resting on an empty beach

Gatekeeper resting on barren bracken 

South shore - Malcolm

Didn't have much time today but I managed an evening stroll out from the saltmarsh 

There were 200+ gulls resting on the mud. Mainly Black-Headed but also Lesser Black-backed, Common gulls and 15 Mediterranean gulls. 

Gulls resting out from the saltmarsh 

Unfortunately most were sat down so any ringed birds were impossible to see. The trick in these conditions is to encroach on their space just enough to annoy them, so they stand up. But not so close as to spook them. I eventually managed a white ringed Mediterranean gull seen earlier this summer and a blue ringed Black-Headed gull

2R76 ringed at Grange-over-Sands in 2019 it has been seen several times
since but only in the local area

Three Mediterranean gulls with Black-Headed and a Common gull

Carrion Crow tiptoeing past