Strolling in the rain

Variable strength breeze mainly from west, light to moderate rain for most of the day.

Evening gull check by Pete (M) on and around oitflows
Mediterranean gull 2 adult - unringed
Common gull 43 (all but one 2cy)
Black-headed gull 315

The only news I have so far, is from my morning stroll along the south wall - hopefully more later (MD)

Rock Pipits - a minimum of four. There were three near the lighthouse, two feeding together plus one seperate, often standing above nest. At least one other bird seen on the harbour wall near waterfall and the old LMS building.

This is a Sea Slater, it is about 3cm long. The Rock Pipits have been seen both eating these and feeding them to their young. I don't now how much nourishment there is in one of these, but it certainly seems a large meal, particularly for the younger birds.

Redshank 1 on sea wall. It's nice to be shouted at for intruding again.
Greylag Goose 2, either flew from Red Nab or Potts and flew north over the Power Station
No sign of the leucistic gull today

This cormorant made short work of a decent sized eel.

This eel will have just left fresh water, in preparation for its journey back to the sargasso sea.

Meds starting to return.

Westerly breezes again. A bit cooler, with less sun and a few showers.

The high tide check for Mediterranean gulls was interrupted with a white winged bird resting on Red Nab.

 It was hunkered down at first and doing a very good impression of a Glaucous gull.

But this excellent picture, by Matt Jackson, later on when it stood up, revealed it to be a leucistic large gull. Probably a large male Herring gull.

Mediterranean gull 3 adult plus 2 x 2nd calendar year

Middleton Nature Reserve
Mute Swan - Pair with 5 chicks plus 1 adult with 3 x 2nd calendar year on main pond. Pair plus 3 chicks on "no swimming" pond. 1 adult on Tim Butler pond
Coot a pair on all three main ponds, all have had chicks and at least three still being fed.

Moorhen 6 seen today - two pairs at least have had chicks, none seen today.
Mallard - the nomadic female, still has 10 well developed chicks
Little grebe pair on both "no swimming" and Tim Butler. Both have had three chicks, two seen on "no swimming" pond today.
Swift 4, Swallow 4 and House Martin 2 feeding over main pond.
Stock dove - at least 2, probably 3

Warblers:
8 of the 9 (hopefully) breeding warblers seen and/or heard. Just Grasshopper missed.

Willow Warbler singing.

Insects:
A couple of teneral darters avoided identification, but suspect Common.
Emperor, Black-tailed Skimmer, 4-spotted chaser and Broad-bodied chasers seen.

Small Skipper - first record this year

Days like today, are just about good timing - I couldn't have got it more wrong!

Light breeze from west, still quite warm, especially when the sun came out, resulting in heavy thunder showers.

I waited till late morning then set off, in the sunshine, to Middleton to check for dragonflies. I reached the furthest point from my car and the heavens opened! So, in the afternoon I thought I'd check the skeer at low water. Set of in my waterproofs, in the rain, then the sun came out!. I decided to check Middleton on my way home. I just managed a short circuit of the main pond, before the heavens opened again! I didn't really mind. (MD).

Heysham Nature Reserve - Saturday 
Dark green fritillary below old classroom site (RN)

Middleton Nature Reserve 

No darters on any description seen today.

This Grey Heron was taking advantage of the much reduced visitor activity, to do a spot of fishing in the main pond.

This Willow Warbler was feeding newly fledged young, there is a fly in its bill.

Heysham skeer - low water 15:30

Wasn't expecting much on this neap tide, and wasn't overly disappointed.

Great Crested Grebe 1 in summer plumage

Eider 1 

Knot 5 - quite late 2nd calendar year 

By now you will gather there are not many places you can look on the skeer without seeing a Little Egret, at least 7 around.

Large areas of the skeer are currently lush with gut weed.

These are over a metre long, shame it isn't like this in winter when the Brent Geese feed on it.

This is what the skeer is supposed to look like this time of year.

These are seed mussels, they start by anchoring to the skeer stones. Then each tide deposits silt between them, and the mussels move upwards so that they can still feed. In a month's time they could be sat on a metre of unconsolidated mud, which is ultimately reshaped/destroyed by any summer storms.

Darters emerging, but no Red Veined yet.....

A light west breeze strengthened during the day. Very warm in the sun.

Middleton Nature Reserve
Ringing and moth trap records AD and JM
Another fairly low key session at Middleton this morning. A modest selection of warblers trapped and retrapped. Few juveniles again with only two each of Goldfinch, Chiffchaff and Dunnock plus one Great Tit.
An adult Grasshopper Warbler confirmed their presence in western marsh.

Moths included a decent record of a Bordered Sallow and two good records of Obscure Wainscot and Silver Hook (pictured below)

Two checks were made of the pools and ponds. A total of 7 teneral Common Darter were located, but no sign yet of Red Veined Darter.

Harbour/Heysham nature reserve circuit, (report and picture KE)
Butterflies seen:
Red Admiral 2
Small Tortoiseshell 2
Common Blue
Large Skipper
Large White
Speckled Wood 3
Burnet Companion moth.
One of The Red Admirals was on the track to the harbour, but all the others on the reserve.

Jay by the dipping pond. Presumably drying itself after a dip.

A better class of insects

Light breeze mainly from west. Still very warm, hot when the sun came out

The title refers to two insects
Hummingbird Hawkmoth Westmoor Grove this morning

Possible Southern Migrant Hawker male at Middleton NR at 1300. Seen by Dan H. The "possible" status, as this, very important, record would have to be formally verified.

Hopefully more later.

A quick check of the Lighthouse area confirmed the east wind is key to bringing insects in off the sea here. The tide was out, the temperature high, but the very light breeze was from the west.
No insects were moving. The only butterfly was a worn Common Blue which looked very like yesterday's male.

Suspect this male Common Blue's roving days are over

The sun brings out the insects

Warm light winds from the east and quite a bit of sunshine.

Lighthouse and south wall area
Low water 12:30 - When the tide is out and the temperature is high enough, an east wind draws in insects off the sea here. This is the aggregate of MD and KE records, no duplication.
Four- spotted chaser 1
Red Admiral 14
Small Tortoiseshell 9
Small white 2
Cinnabar 5
6 spot Burnet 2 - surprisingly, this is the first ever record for SD35

Another quick check at high water 18:00. (MD)
As expected, when the tide is in, less insect come ashore here, but there were still plenty, and drifting east, so not the same as the lunchtime insects.
Red Admiral 15
Painted lady 1
Small Tortoiseshell 3
Common blue 2 - only two, but they quickly found each other.

The male looks a bit warn, but it seems the flight was worth it

6 spot Burnet 1
Cinnabar 5
Seven spot Ladybird  c10

At first glance, I couldn't work out what this was, then I realised it was actually two insects, 7 spot Ladybird and a Cinnabar moth.

Rock Pipits - Two adult around nest site near lighthouse, one visited the hole. Another adult displaying near the waterfall.

Grey seal 1 fishing in No. 1 outflow

Middleton Nature Reserve - early afternoon (MD)
Wildfowl as yesterday except
Little grebe - three new chicks on the "no swimming " pond. This is the second family with three chicks this year, the earlier one was on Tim Butler.
Warblers - lots of newly fledged birds and contact calls, but males also still singing. Grasshopper not heard.

Chiffchaff singing

Insects:
Lots of dragonflies including;
4-spotter Chaser, Broad-bodied Chaser, Black- tailed Skimmer, Emperor and a small Hawker (did think Migrant, but Pete advises too early, worth another look),
Not so many butterflies,  1 Meadow Brown, 1 Large Skipper, were the best.

Large Skipper

This was later identified as Oak Eggar larva

a good lowland record

Still ticking over

Quite a strong blustery wind mainly from NNE. Generally overcast. Quite cool.

Middleton Nature Reserve late morning
Wildfowl and warbler status pretty much as yesterday.
Swift 2
Swallow 2
House martin 1
All above feeding over the main pond.

Stock Dove - very active today - two flying together seen several times. Once to SE followed less than a minute later with two (more?) also flying to SE. They would have had to have doubled back very quickly if it was only two birds. Also single birds seen a couple of times.

Meadow pipit - one very territorial bird

Very few insects seen in the cool windy weather, but this Burnet Companion was taking a high energy drink.

Rock Pipits - a much better showing today
Two feeding together near lighthouse, one following the other. Couldn't manage a good enough view to confirm ages (hopefully one juvenile)
One adult by waterfall
Janet reported one from Half Moon Bay, possibly one of those from John (D) report below.
Today on the Heysham Head shore there were two rock pipits foraging amongst the rocks, young birds I think. Another one flew past from Half Moon Bay towards the nest site so maybe a second brood is on the way.

The Rock Pipits are not the only birds with a second brood in mind

This Dunnock was painstakingly gathering dog hairs from John's garden.

More observers, but still not much to observe

Middleton Nature Reserve - mid morning
Mute Swan - still 7 "interlopers" being held at bay by the resident male on the main pond

Meanwhile mum and the chicks seem to be enjoying themselves

Pair on "no swimming" pond with three young.

The male continues to harrass the mallard with her growing chicks

Coot - a pair with one quite mature chick on main pond. That is three breeding pairs this year, unless the pair from the Tim Butler have brought a chick to main pond
Little grebe 1
Stock Dove 2
The low meadow between the main and Tim Butler ponds is worth a visit, lots of meadow flowers and attendant insects (especially when it's warmer).

Including several Ragged- Robin plants

A fine testament to the reserve management work. (Q. How do you manage a meadow? A. You mow it every year)

Red Nab and surrounding shore approaching high water.
Curlew 126
Black-headed Gull 66
Common Gull 68
Little Egret 3
Rock Pipit 1 adult

Tide not high enough to flood the area were the fingerling bass were feeding yesterday.

Janet checked the high cliffs below Heysham Head. No sign of the Rock Pipits today, but two recently fledged Wren were being fed

Troglodytes troglodytes - the only Latin bird name I know, and quite apt here (MD)

A bit of barrel bottom scraping

Very little is happening at the moment, and few people watching it not happen.

The Lapwing numbers on the saltmarsh have swollen to three. Presumably failed breeders.

Having said that little is happening, this is potentially very exciting, but only if you are into marine biology (MD).
In 2013 the south wall and its extension out to sea was designated a Bass nursery. The warm outflow waters support Bass all through the year. All fishing in this area is prohibited. There has always been bass visiting the bay in summer, but it was not known where they bred or where the young developed.
About 5 years ago I caught (and returned) a 7cm bass in my shrimp push net. I'd never seen a young one before.
Today when the tide was flooding on the south shore the water was boiling with small fish between 7 - 10cm. Normally gathering like this are Grey Mullet. But mullet are basically herbivores and would either be grazing the algae off the mud or the protein laden spume off the surface. There was neither of these food sources today. These fish were hunting, presumably invertibrates flushed from the sea grass by the rising tide. They were in less that 2cm of water at some times, they were the right shape and colour for bass, but I couldn't see the distinctive dorsal fins (mullet tend to swim with the top of their dorsal fin out of the water, when in shallows). They must have been young bass, hundreds of them! I've never seen this before, it can't be a regular event, or the egrets would be waiting for them. That said I'll check again tomorrow

.

This is the typical area they were feeding.

This is a close up of the same image showing the water "boiling" - bass are a very slow growing species, fish this size would be 4/5 year old.

Just an aside. The Sea Holly seems to have taken a battering with this year's storms. There are normally plants at the top of the shingle around the saltmarsh, Red Nab and Half Moon Bay. But the only specimen that I am aware of at the moment, is this one further inshore near Red Nab.

Mute and people leaving Middleton

Light variable breeze and overcast for most of the day.

A visit to Middleton Nature Reserve, just after lunch found the car park empty. There were a few vehicles around on my completion of a circuit, but certainly the lowest number of visitors since travel to exercise was allowed.
Mute Swan 2 pairs with 3 and 5 chicks. 1 single bird on Tim Butler.
The visiting swans on the main pond, at one point totalled 22, but today they were down to 8. One theory about them, certainly fits the time line - Normally high numbers of swan on the Lune estuary supplement their diet with grain spilled when the grain cargo boats are unloaded at Glasson Dock. The cargo boats stopped when lockdown started, but have probably now resumed (MD),
Coot 4 - the pair on the "no swimming" pond have three chicks

Thanks Janet

Mallard 2

This female has done remarkably well with her chicks. She has been chased from pond to pond by the  resident  mute males. Yet she still has 10 of the original 12 chicks, and they are now quite well developed (she does look proud of herself).

No Gadwall!

House martin 1 - feeding over main pond
Stock Dove 1
Raven 1 - in dispute with the carrion crows in trees near waterworks.
All the warblers including Cetti's heard with the exception of Grasshopper warbler.

This Gannet was resting on Red Nab on Sunday - report and picture from Chris Thornton - thanks.

A freshly dead Gannet was found on the saltmarsh on Monday. It looks like this was its final resting place. The dead bird had no injuries so presumably succumbed to natural causes (MD)