Med record

Med Gull - 57 on the first two scans of the high tide roost on the sands off Ocean Edge
Joined by two juvs after five minutes.  An additional five older age birds on Red Nab.  Harbour area not checked
Little Gull - ad summer with the above

Early morning ringing sessions with a close watch of the rain alarm saw a trickle rather than a fall but MP3s could not be used at Middleton due to CES

Tree sparrow - flock of three Bt office early on

More tomorrow from Malcolm and Janet

Insects on the move again

From Andrew Cornell - Thanks
Red- Veined Darters - 3 on dog walk pond
Hummingbird Hawk Moth - 1 near weather station eastern end of nature park.
Painted Lady - 70+  around this area.


Also:
Red-veined Darter - 4 male western side of main pond at Middleton
Painted Lady - 38 between waterfall and roundhead.
                         140 Heysham NR transect (per SR)
Rock Pipit 1 - near lighthouse

Sunday bits

Mediterranean gulls - 4 on beach out from Ocean Edge salt marsh. At least 5 on Red Nab

Rock Pipit - 1 Red Nab

Sandwich Tern - at leat one (heard only) out from Sat marsh

Saturday Meds

Mediterranean gulls - 21 on beach between wooden jetty and No.1 outflow, 4 hr ebb

Friday - RVDs

Middleton Nature Reserve
Main pond
A check at 11:30 found at least 3 male Red-Veined Darter. A later check at 13:30 located 5.
This despite less than ideal conditions, it was warm enough, but quite a strong westery breeze. All the sighting were on the western side of pond, including the peninsula.
This is a significant increase on the single insect seen on two days earlier in the week, when conditions were more favourable. The implication is that a number of insects from yesterday's migration, found their way to the reserve (see yesterday's post).

Cetti's warbler - a previously ringed adult female was the best of the morning ringing session.

Southern movement
Swallow 18 - one flock
Swift 1
Lesser Redpoll 1 - very unseasonable

A glimpse into an insect migration corridor.

Went to wooden jetty area 3.5 hours after high water to see if any ringed Mediterranean gulls were in reading range. There was only one unringed adult.

However, I noticed a gentle flow of butterflies coming in off the sea between the wooden jetty and lighthouse (MD)

08:45 - 10 butterflies per 5 minutes. 8 of these Small White, the others a mixture of Painted Lady, Meadow Brown and Peacock.

09:30 - rate had increased to 8 butterflies per 2 minutes. They were too erratic to say 4 a minute. Ratio of species similar.

The last time I'd witnessed such a movement of butterflies here was 27/06/19. On that occasion the dominant migrants were Painted Lady, but they were accompanied by dragonflies, including Red-Veined Darter.

On that occasion the breeze was due East this morning it was similar at ENE. 

There was no sign of dragonflies this morning, but it was early, so I decided to check again after lunch. On way off I counted 65 Small White between lighthouse and waterfall.

I returned at 13:00, unfortunately, the breeze had swung around completely to SW. The flow of butterflies had stopped, but there were still lots of insect around, including Red-Veined Darters:

There were at least three females and another, almost certainly, female seen flying away. I retraced my steps and only relocated one. After that they had all moved inland. I don't know when the breeze shifted from the east, but I had just got there in time to see the last of the arrivals move on.

This distant shot shows typical location near rocks between Power Station boundary and harbour wall.

There were still good numbers and variety of butterflies around for such a sparsely vegitated area:

Small White c30

Peacock 5

Small Tortoiseshell 4

Meadow Brown c20

Painted Lady 2

Small Copper 1

Common Blue 1

Personal thoughts on this "corridor" - After 3.5 hours ebb, and for the next 9 hours, this small section of sea wall will be the only landfall on the west facing coast from Fleetwood docks to the north of the bay.

By "landfall" I mean a point were an insect can go directly from flying over water to flying over land. Presumably, this must have some advantage to flying over mud flats.

Worth checking next time we have an easterly breeze and tide is not near high water.

Rock Pipit - female by herself on wall over nest sites.

Mediterranean gulls - by 13:30 there were 5 adults on beach near jetty. Plus these 12 on rocks on western end of beach. Juvenile (top right) has yellow darvic ring.

Some bits of interest

Middleton Nature Reserve - late morning
This hybrid duck on "no swimming" pond, will certainly have some interesting DNA.

Red-Veined Darter - 1 male over main pond (in flight picture for a change)

South shore early evening.
Mediterranean gull - minimum 11 adult 1 juvenile.
Wheatear - 1 female type. Ocean Edge foreshore
Sandwich tern - 4 blogging briefly out from Red Nab. At least 2 were juvenile.
Rock pipit - 1 near lighthouse.

Finally, this Grey seal (male I think (MD)), was fast asleep about 30m out from sea wall, and had been for a while. It was completely dry. It eventually opened one eye, looked at me, then went back to sleep. It was that sort of evening!

Where did they go?

Just when you think you understand some wildlife behaviour, nature seem to take great delight in proving you wrong (MD).
There were 32 Mediterranean gulls between No.1 outflow and wooden jetty yesterday. Today, at the same stage of tide (11:45) there were just 3. Then they got fed up and left. Checked again in evening, still only 3 (2 adult plus a 2cy). 1 juvenile on No.2 outflow.

Rock pipits - 1 Red Nab. 2 near lighthouse

Decent ringing session at Middleton this with just over 60 birds all but five or so new unringed.  Included two Grasshopper Warbler (with another singing) and good numbers of Whitethroat and Blackcap.  Below par with Willow Warbler and no sight or sound of any Cetti’s or lesser Whitethroat

There is still at least one male Red-Veined Darter on main pond at Middleton Nature Reserve.

Meds continue to increase

There were 32 Mediterranean gulls between wooden jetty and No.1 outflow at 11:15. This only included 2 juveniles. There were 11 juveniles at high tide roost. So, absolute minimum total is 41.

Little gull - adult summer plumage. 1 feeding at the seaward end of No.1 outflow.

Rock pipit - adult with juv near lighthouse

Middleton Nature Reserve - mid afternoon
No sign of Red-veined darters today.
Little grebe - adult feeding two chicks (no swimming pond)
Gadwall - 30 including chicks
Stock dove 1

It’s back?

It took a few years to twig that there appeared to be a single adult Little Gull returning each late July to early October to moult.  This is because in the earlier years there were a few more birds involved but, take the odd 2cy, it has been on its own the last few years

Outfalls area
Little gull - ad summer
Med gull - 9 juvs and 20 others - about 13 feeding on sandmason worms
Common Gull - 2 Juv

Grey seal - 2
Harbour Porpoise - one