Back to checking the residents

Light SW to SSW breeze. Warm in the almost constant sunshine.

Middleton Nature Reserve
Some of the warblers seeemed to have stopped singing, including the Sedge Warblers! The only ones heard were: Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff, Common and Lesser Whitethroat, Cetti's Warbler and Blackcap.
The Mute pair on the "no swimming" pond ended up with just the 4 chicks

Burnet Companion on Hysham Nature Reserve.

The above pictures from Kevin

Lighthouse area
No sign of either of the Redstarts, but one or both may still be within the Power Station grounds.
Rock pipits - female taking food to nest, male standing guard, a third bird was chased away twice.
If you sit on the wall near the lighthouse the male stands guard within 2m of you.

I doubt he's as charmed by the experience as me! (MD - I didn't stay long)

Moths - Mother Shipton 4
Butterflies - Common Blue, 2 male and 1 female.

Both males very worn for so early in season, either wind battered of they have travelled some way to get here, or both. (MD)

Perseverance wrings out the last of the decent storm driven birds

Winds still strong from west early on, but easing quickly. Staggered seawath till 12:00 (PM, SC) managed to locate.
Arctic Tern - 5-7 out in loose gang with some backtracking
Little Tern - one out
Sandwich Tern - two out
Gannet - one out
Manx Shearwater - 2 out
Med gull - 2 x 2cy early on by wooden Jetty

Rock pipits - the two adult near lighthouse are feeding young on nest much more frequently now.

Whimbrel 1 on skeer at low water

Easing off slightly

The strong winds moved a bit more to the west and eased slihtly during the day. Early seawatching from jetty by Shaun. Other sea records from various locations at Heysham (PM, JP & MD)

0500-0630
Artic Skua LM out.
RTDiver 2 in
Manx shearwater 12 in.
Gannet 5 out.
Guillemot 5 out.
Common Scoter 4 in.

Other morning records:
Fulmer 1
Gannet 18 distant and 3 very close
Sanderling 5 out
Grey Plover flock of 14 out
Mediterranean gull 2 x 2nd calendar year. One with a dusky head is new to area.

This bird was seen by three observers in different (south side) locations today.

Arctic tern one initially on No.2 outflow, later switched to No.1.

These excellent pictures by Janet are incredibly difficult in the teeth of a gale!

Afternoon/evening records
Sandwich tern - 15:15 - 16:15 a steady drift of birds out 1,2,1,2,4,1 & 1

The last one hung around the inner harbour 

Terns 5 around outflows late evening in fading light, probably Arctic.

Other stuff
Rock pipits 1 at lighthouse plus 1 on saltmarsh
Wheatear 1 male in morning on salt marsh plus 1 female in Fishers yard in afternoon

The gale starts to provide and amazing Redstart double

Very strong SSW - SW winds all day. Very difficult conditions to watch in, but some interesting stuff around.  Most of the seawatching took place from the Stone Jetty with overall coverage from 0830 to 1400 (NG, TW, SC, PM, BC)

Arctic Skua two light morph
Manx Shearwater 4
Guillemot 5
Sandwich Tern 3
Little Tern 3, plus 1, plus 2
Gannet 28 in, c. 70 out distantly
Great crested grebe 9
Grey plover 25 flew south in 2 flocks
Fulmar close in,flying out at 09.40hrs

Med gull - 2z2cy with c180 2cy Common Gull Ocean Edge/Red Nab 

Lighthouse area (MD)
Nothing of note seen on sea.
A visit early afternoon provided two tantalising glimpses of a Redstart hopping into the Power Station grounds. The western boundary onto scrub near lighthouse.
The difficult conditions were such that it wasn't possible to confirm if it was a Common or Black (it was barely possible to stand).
So another visit early evening with the sole intention of identifying this bird, resulted in:

Common Redstart - 1 male briefly below fence on western boundary of Power Station (record shot)

Then a surprise, a second bird:
Black Redstart 1 female type - almost invisible amongst the rocks on the outside of the Power Station boundary  between the waterfall and lighhouse.

I'm not sure if the image resolution of the blog will allow you to see this bird - it is there. If you can't see it, open image "in another tab"

Wheatear 1
Rock Pipits 2 - one guarding nest the other taking food to young in nest. All three visits.

Another excellent record from Kevin's moth trap SD46A - a Broad-barred White

Just about annual in north Lancs!

The calm before the storm......hopefully

Very little variable wind today, but it's expected to change in the morning with strong SW winds forecast. Meanwhile, there wasn't much happening today.

Rock Pipits still feeding young near lighthouse

Swift 2 north over Heysham Head

The following pictures from Kevin

Large Red Damselfy from Heysham Nature Reserve

Azure Damselfy and mature male Broad-bodied Chaser from small pond on the way to Red Nab

Heysham skeer low water 18:15
Great Crested Grebe 9
Little Egret 8
Eider 28
Apart from the Oystercatchers, there was literally only a hadful of other waders (five). So I decided to photograph them all. (MD)
Knot 1

Ringed plover 2

I felt like I'd interrupted something!

Sanderling 2 in summer plumage

They are both on this picture

There doesn't look like much nutrition in this tit bit

Cygnet arrival is highlight!

Very little wind, particularly early on plus sun all day meant  the temperature soared. Lots of people out taking advantage of relaxed restrictions. But little else happening.
Two good  moth records from Kevin's trap thoug - Two pink Elephants!

Elephant Hawk moth

Small Elephant Hawk moth

Rock Pipits  - the lighthouse pair still taking food to nest hole.

Middleton Nature Reserve
Mute Swan - 24 on main pond including nesting pair. The new influx seem determined to stay despite dogs swimming and model motorboat.
The pair on the "no swimming" pond have at least four chicks hatched with at least one egg remaining.

Thanks for picture Janet

Warblers - 8 of the 9 known breeding species seen and/or heard. This includef 3 Cetti's Warblers. The "missing" species was the Grasshopper Warbler.

Dragonflies- Broad- bodied chaser 2, Four-spotted chaser 3

Butterflies - Brimstone, Small White, Green Veined White, Orange Tip, Peacock, Speckled Wood and Small Heath.

Weasel 1

Orchids are starting to flower. I think these are Early Marsh, but I'm happy to be corrected (MD)

Some welcome recovery news

A couple of decent recoveries here - a late autumn passage Blackcap caught in Holland on spring passage - prob Scandinavian bird and a Greenfinch found dead at Sedbergh in the breeding season.   Several Greenfinch ringed on autumn passage in October have been subsequently found in NE England 

Blackcap
VE8996 1stWf  05/10/19 Middleton NR
Retrapped 06/04/20 Parnassiaweg (Noord-Holland) Netherlands 527 kmESE 184 days

Greenfinch
NY22596 1stWf 18/10/17 Heysham
Dead 12/05/20 Sedbergh 42 km NE 937 days

South shore high water 10:14
Rock Pipits 2 around nest site near lighthouse regular visits to nest with sizeable beakfulls.

Wheatear 1 plump bird, presumed to be Greenland bound

,

Curlew c50 on Red Nab.

Heysham skeer low water 17:10
Probably the most interest was what wasn't here. No Great Crested Grebe, Red-breasted Merganser, whimbrel or Knot.
In fact the only waders other than the omnipresent Oystercatchers were 2 Ringed Plovers and 6 Curlew.
Eider 47
Little Egret 7

Middleton Nature Reserve early evening.
Just a quick look at the two main ponds to check how the Mute were doing
There are now 24 Mute on the main pond including the original nesting resident pair, still sitting. At least 10 of the new birds are 2nd calendar year.
In contrast, the only birds seen on the "no swimming"  pond were the resident pair of Mute, including the very aggressive male. Plus a single Little grebe.

Thanks for picture Janet - this one was on the main pond

Without going any further than the track between the two ponds, the following warblers were heard. Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff, Cetti's Warbler (2), Common Whitethroat, Sedge Warbler and Blackcap.
Swift 2 over to north

Still some decent stuff on the sea

A bit slower today, but still a few decent birds around. There shouldn't be much overlap in these records as most of these were around the high tide mark at 0930
Sea 0800-1000 Heysham harbour: (PM & JR)
Arctic skua 1 probable dark morph very distant, possibly one of SJ birds; light morph in at c0930
Red- throated diver 3
Gannet 5
Manx Shearwater 1
Razorbill 1
Guillemot, 5
Kittiwakes 37 in two flocks
Fulmar 1
Common Scoter 1

Stone jetty looking south  06:00 - 08:45 (Nick and Shaun)
Pomarine skua 5 flew out of the Bay (4 at 6:38, 1 about 7:15) 
Arctic skua 3 or 4 flew out 
Fulmar 2 out 
Auk sp 3 in 
Sandwich tern 1 
Whimbrel 2

Lighthouse area 07:00 - 08:00 (MD)
Mediterranean gull 1 -  2nd calendar year out
Fulmar 1 out - likely one of the two seen from jetty.

This bird must have flown low along the north harbour wall. It suddeny appeared low in harbour mouth.

Gained a little height

Then cut across the south harbour wall roundhead - all over in 5 seconds!

Rock pipit 1 seen taking food to nest hole in harbour wall near lighthouse

Four well spaced seawatchers looking in slightly different directions at different heights above sea level

The first time this has ever happened here!   Sorting the records out was not easy as the skuas were obviously not heading overland and indeed most would have been missed by all observers had they done so as they obviously went in prior to start of play.  I think this is fair assessment:

Pomarine Skua - two LM ads heading out wave-hugging at 0740 and seemingly heading for Walney.  Distant LM in low as other observers watching a close Arctic at 0810!  LM picked up in the sky circling between the wooden jetty and Piel Castle, then it dropped and flew low out.  Presumably four different birds 
Arctic Skua - at least eight 6 light, 2 dark as often seems to be the ratio in second half of May
Gannet - 13-14
Manx Shearwater - 2
Common Scoter - probably about 150 in then out (assuming some of the same not doing the hokey cokey)
Kittiwake - 156 out including flock of 124 - most unusual this late in the spring
Raz/Guille - c145
Guillemot - 17
Razorbill - 4
Sandwich Tern - c25
Red-throated Diver - 8
Diver spp (distant) - 1

Decent coverage

Seawatch 6-9am - ref Nick Godden curtesy on LDBWS website 

Red-throated diver 2 
Common scoter 60 plus hundreds more distantly in Cumbria 
Goosander 5 (4m) in 
Arctic tern 17 in (2,1,14) 
Sandwich tern 12 
Arctic skua 3 (6.15, 2 at 8.05) 
Gannet 24 
Auk sp 30 
Kittiwake 16 in, 8 went back out 
Black-headed gull 6 in 
Whimbrel 2 
Rock pipit 2 
Swallow 5 N

South shore am
Pomarine skua - 1 reported, details awaited

Decent flock of mixed waders:
320 knot,
280 Dunlin,
6 grey Plover

2nd calendar year gulls
287 Common gull
2 Mediterranean gull

Heysham Nature Reserve late am
Small Copper - first of year

Mother Shipton

Roe Deer 2 - Janet almost tranpled in a "stampede" as she crouched stealthily to get the above pictures. The deer obviously hadn't seen her till they "shot out of the trees" next to her.

North shore low water 14:40
Dunlin 4 on mud 1 on skeer
Curlew 2
Whimbrel 3
Oystercatcher c700
Little Egret 8
Eider 12
Great Crested grebe 4
Shelduck- flock of 13 out