Signal crayfish threat

Heysham Obs
Great - presumably someone using Middleton model boat pond as a "save the tadpoles" dumping ground or a misguided idea of biodiversity has almost certainly introduced signal crayfish.  Bring back the terrapins!  Lots of tiny immatures found today does not augur well for the future of this pond and its dragonfly population for this highly invasive and difficult to control species

Middleton NR
Cetti's Warbler - two singing, other contact calls
Tufted Duck - two males and a female make a (re?)appearance
Mute Swan plus 4 x cygnets
Little Ringed Plover - 1

Insects
Holly Blue Middleton

Friday 27th May

Heysham Obs
Not a lot happened today with no definite migrants caught by the office (2 x Whitethroat, 1 x Sedge Warbler possibly/probably local breeding birds)

Middleton (thanks Malcolm)
The good news is that the male gadwall has returned to the "no swimming" pond as well - hopefully his mate is on nest. Mallard on model boat pond has 6 chicks. Also: 1 little grebe 1 grey heron 1 singing Cetti's - western marsh, 2 grasshopper 4 reed warbler singing + 1 seen only + ww, both whitethroats, blackcap & (only) 1 sedge. 1 little ringed plover. Not really much change.

Eyed Hawk-moth new for the year

Barn Owl continues to quarter the area

Heysham Obs

Middleton Wednesday evening (thanks Jamie)
Grasshopper Warbler - four singing males
Barn Owl - one hunting pre-dusk

Moths Wednesday night
True Lover's Knot a major surprise so early, Shears and Purple Bar notable

Outfalls
Common Gull - 43 2CY
Little Egret - 2

Ringing and photography

Heysham Obs
Some nice sunny day ringing at this time of year did produce a few odds and ends of interest

1) Two presumed migrant male Blackcap caught at first light Hey Nat Res
2) Two recently fledged Grasshopper Warbler caught Middleton
3) Most importantly from a potential breeding bird point of view, two 2CY Lesser Redpoll caught Middleton (together).  One was reported yesterday but this was an obvious red male, yet these two were a presumed 'brown' male (72mm wing) and female.  Not asked the recorder yet whether the male was song flighting.  Very scarce breeding bird in the Heysham area

The ringing activities did not produce any late diurnal passage

Some pics from Janet (thanks):

Insects provide the interest

Heysham obs

Four-spotted chaser at Middleton new for year

Similarly poplar hawk moth in the trap

Three burnet companion near office

Two singing male Cetti's warbler Middleton

Cumbrian Common Scoters

Heysham Obs

Sea 0715-0815ish (thanks Mark)
Common Scoter - two big gangs totalling about 200 individuals at long range

Middleton NR
Cetti's Warbler - unringed bird (age unknown) escaped from one of the CES nets next to the fence pond just before the ringer could get there.  Intriguing.  Singing male nearby
Lesser Whitethroat - in contrast to last year's dearth, a good number this year around the CES area with a further 5 caught, making it 8 different birds from the first two CES visits, the commonest bird!

Moths
A curious catch, none more so than Buff Tip and Hebrew Character sharing the same egg packing

Southerlies

Heysham Obs
.............are not a lot of use here.  A half-hour seawatch saw an adult British Lesser Black-backed Gull south (carefully checked).

Couple of decent things came to light in the afternoon
A belated check of the moth trap saw pale tussock - the second record I think
Also one of our cr grey wagtails is nesting at botton mill in upper hindburndale - a sighting today suggested a 2015- ringed bird

Red Nab/Ocean Edge
Whimbrel - late flock of three

Pics from the last few days (thanks Janet) at Middleton NR

Heysham obs
A good early incoming tide seawatching stint by Jonny produced a few odds and ends but was not really "nasty" enough for a significant skua passage

North wall 0650-0930
Arctic Skua - light morph and intermediate morph in
Common scoter - 4 out, c10 in
Fulmar - prob same bird in then out
Auk spp (prob guillemot) 12 in one out
Gannet - at least 15

Ocean Edge to Rednab 10:00-10:30 (MD)
1 Northern Wheatear (f)
1 Whimbrel
5 Little Egret
58 Linnet

Middleton Nature Reserve 17:00
Just a quick check to try and confirm Garden Warbler - no sign
2 Cetti's Warbler singing plus third bird seen
1 Little Ringed Pover

500000 visits!

Heysham Obs
A site which trundles along acting as both a daily log on line and, as can be seen below, an outlet for some excellent photography by Janet and others.  Thanks for all the contributions.......now lets have a bit of coverage of the sea this next week if, and it might be a big if after a lot of forecast 'changes', we do get some decent south-westerlies.

Middleton NR
Little Ringed Plover - single bird both today and yesterday flying towards the 'building site' sat the north end
Cetti's Warbler - both males singing yesterday and the second bird singing today
Warblers - there appears to be a (heard at distance) Garden Warbler along the golf course edge in the scrub (as there was a week ago) and this, if confirmed, was the 10th warbler species heard singing today on the reserve

Sea for 20 minutes
Arctic Skua - dark morph whizzing in low over the sea at 0955 - how many were missed earlier?

Insects
Burnet Companion - 2 Heysham NR
Shaded Pug - first of the year in the moth trap (also FFY were Chinese Character and Clouded Bordered Brindle)
The top one below is Cydia ulicitana (thanks Steve) on gorse.  Thanks Janet