The first Wheatear arrives

Lightish SW wind for most of the day, but becoming quite fresh by evening. Overcast with light drizzle.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Just a quick check of the two main ponds while passing this morning:

Mute 6 adult + 3 immature on Main pond. 2 adult on "No swimming" pond 

Moorhen 4

Mallard 2 male

Gadwall 2 male and female

Canada goose - just one on the main pond, initially it was honking, but stopped as soon as it saw me.

I wanted a clip of it honking but didn't have time to get it in focus before it stopped. Even so, I posted it below as it does capture the quite impressive honks

I managed to get it in focus, just too late, but it did think about having another honk or two, either that or it's heaving sighs!

South shore 

A bit of north morning movement 

Meadow Pipit 4

Raven 1

A stroll along the sea wall late afternoon located:

Wigeon 45

Shelduck 66

Mediterranean gull 1 third calendar year bird 

Med on right with young Black-Headed gull

A couple of wing detail shots as it was flushed by tide

Rock Pipit - none seen anywhere on the south side today!

But this fine male Wheatear was briefly on the small area of scrub near the lighthouse. This is the first record this year

After leaving a, possibly exotic, deposit on this rock, it quickly flew off north.

Finally, the last word (possibly) on Green jelly blobs. Pete managed to drag their "correct" name out of his extensive memory - Green-leaf worm (Eulalia viridis) egg sacs.

I placed correct in inverted commas, as although I am happy that yesterday's egg sacs were from this species of green ragworm, I still suspect some of the more vivid egg sacs could be produced by other green ragworm species, plus I like a mystery, and to me they will remain forever "green jelly blobs"! (MD)

The return of the Blob

Low cloud all day, but dry and the visibility remained good. Light west winds.

Middleton Nature Reserve - report from Pete

Very odd record: lesser Redpoll ringed as 1st Winter on passage 11:10:20 retrapped today on return passage at Middleton along with one unringed bird.  One unringed goldcrest caught

South shore.

Rock pipit - just a Red Nab bird seen. The lighthouse area not checked.

Swan sp - 5 distant to NW 09:45 - possibly Whooper, based on recent sightings 

Wigeon 30

They were in the channel next to No.2 outflow, then took off and flew north.
I took a picture in case they weren't planning on coming back

Shelduck at least 130, but they also look to be ready to move on. Quite a lot of bickering and displaying going on. These two Sheldrake were displaying to the Shelduck (right). She seemed to have chosen one.

North shore

I went down before the water reached the rocks out from the children's play area. I wanted to see how the gut weed was doing (I know how to enjoy myself! (MD)).

No sign of any Brent but they may have arrived later.

I thought this was interesting, not as interesting as watching gut weed grow......but what is?

This flock of fancy(ish) pigeons dropped down on this small patch of rocks.

There is nothing for Pigeons to eat here, so I presumed they had a favoured 
surface water spring emerging here, to drink from

But, they didn't drink and appeared to be eating.

It was only later that I realised, they were probably collecting broken barnacles to act as grit in their crops. Presumably the birds are from a local coop and know the area well.

Back to the object of the trip. The gut weed is not only still available here, it is much more abundant than when I last checked about a month ago. It is clearly growing quickly in the warmer weather.

This is the typical growth on the rocks furthest out from the play area.
This is about 100m out, well away from most dog walking activity 

This is closer in, but still well within previous feeding range for the Brent.
Here the weed is c20cm long and growing on the mud as well as the stones

Hopefully, before the Brent head back, they will feed here more often and in greater numbers than of late.

Finally, forget Black Redstarts and Roe Deer, the subject that seems to have generated the most interest recently is Green Jelly Blobs (see posts 6th and 7th of March for details). So by popular demand:

A walk along the low water line on the south shore located several, but these were not washed up, they were still attached to their anchorage. Although the anchoring didn't look up to much and you would expect a decent wave would easily break it free. Perhaps it works on the same principle as a sapling bending in the wind.

This is in just a few centimetres of water and is being dragged back and forth by the gently lapping waves.

Warning! - the mud on the southern shore can be dangerous. Most of it is flat and firm and easy to walk on, but if you walk too far you can find deep, wide gullies of quicksand can be between you and safety. Not a walk for the inexperienced.

Mist thwarts early start

The wind was from SW early on before moving more due west. A mist descended early and didn't clear completely till mid morning. The sun broke through in the afternoon and remained sunny till evening.

Pete and Jean were in the area early on, but the descending mist quickly put an end to observations.

Eider 156

Pale-bellied Brent 2

Both the above from Knowlys Road.

Visible migration report, albeit truncated, from Jean:

4 Meadow Pipits, 

1 Siskin 

1 Pied Wagtail. 

It became foggy so no chance of seeing Whoopers or anything over the sea. Couldn’t even see the top of the power station. 

The Rock Pipit kept an eye on me at the Roundhead.

South shore

Skylark 1 was singing briefly over the old Pontins land. Once a common summer sound around the area, but now only heard from off passage birds. Perhaps, there's a chance this year.

Rock pipit - at least 4 (2 near the rocky outcrop on east shore, 2 Red Nab, 1 on foreshore, could have been one of the Red Nab birds - plus Jean's lighthouse bird earlier)

Wigeon only c25 seen, but tides weren't ideal

Shelduck at least 75

A few of the Shelduck near Red Nab

I like this clip, watch the one paddling in, it seems in quite a rush, just so it can "hang around" doing nothing! Apart from the Shelduck, this clip includes: Wigeon, Common and Black-Headed gulls, Redshank and Oystercatcher.

I assume this Knot is the same approachable bird photographed by Kevin earlier in the week. It appears to be healthy, but I've never seen a Knot walk so far without pecking at something.

Still, it's always nice when wildlife walks towards you. (MD)

Pale-bellied Brent goose - an update from Pete Woodruff 

A leisure walk today, parked at Knowlesly Road, watched 10 Brent Geese off play area for about 15 minutes until they took flight at 14.35 towards Heysham

The vernal equinox

Today is the official beginning of spring.

The wind started quite light from NW, but freshened as the morning went on. A few sunny spells, but mainly overcast.

Middleton Nature Reserve early morning - ref Alan

13 Whooper Swans flew north west towards the bay at 07.35

Two or three pairs of probable Meadow Pipits flew across the reserve SE to NW.

Three Canada Geese using the recently cleared area on North side of reed bed.

North shore - low water 09:35

A walk along the low water line from Half Moon Bay to the skeer.

Meadow Pipits, increased movement from yesterday, when there were very few away from the shore line. Not all the birds seen were heard, but at least 25 were Meadow pipits in about 30 minutes.

Pale-bellied Brent goose 6 on the south side of skeer

Goldeneye 3 - 1 male and two female type birds swimming together near the skeer

Eider, Great Crested grebe  and Red-breasted Merganser were well spread and not easy to count in the choppy conditions, but numbers looked similar to yesterday.

A walk back along Heysham Head foreshore

Rock Pipits - a very minimum of four birds and two territories between the Head and the high cliffs.

I wasn't welcome and was led away from the area, presumably by the respective males.

This Rock pipit escorted me away from the territory below the high cliffs.

The wind turns and more stuff starting to move

The west winds moved to the north, but remained light. Overcast with sunny intervals, but remained dry all day.

Jean managed a session from Heysham Head this morning:

07:40-0920 (all north unless stated)

Meadow Pipit 55

Skylark 2

Siskin 2

Goldfinch 12

Chaffinch 11

Linnet 18

Pied Wagtail 6

Raven 2

Black-headed Gull - a gang of 20 floated then flew into the Bay

Pink-footed goose 70 high to north 10:20.

Low tide channel and Heysham skeer 

Pale-bellied Brent 4

Red-breasted Merganser 18

Great-crested Grebe 11

Eider 55 around the skeer but the ones nearer Morecambe weren’t counted.

Heysham Nature Reserve 

A very enjoyable walk around the reserve in the afternoon (MD)

It started with this, slightly bedraggled looking, male Kestrel on the office roof.

Nothing particularly rare today, the best being:

Chiffchaff  2 singing

But a good variety of species:

Tits - Great, Blue and Long-tailed (I'm sure there would have been Coal around too)

Corvids - Jay, Carrion crow, Magpie

Finches - Green, Gold, Bull, Chaffinch 

Robin, Dunnock, Wren

Wood pigeon

Pheasant 

Little Egret

Teal

Moorhen 

Great Spotted Woodpecker - this female was calling

Insects:

There were several queen bees flying, not looking for flowers, but nest sites. The ones I managed clear views of, appeared to be Buff-tailed bumblebees.

This doe Roe Deer was on the northern boundary

Apart from lack of antlers, which the males will be growing again now, you can tell
that this is a female by the tuft of hair (it's not a true tail) growing from the white rump.

This is how I saw her before she saw me, her head was down feeding. The roaring in the background is the traffic on the road to the ferries.

In this clip she sees me, has a good look, and decides I'm not worth bothering about, which pleased me greatly. You can hear bees buzzing during the Mexican standoff.

 If you avoid sudden clothing and sudden movements you can be easily ignored. A trait that I quite like! She didn't look pregnant, so may have a fawn(s) under cover nearby, so I left her in peace and returned the way I came.

Plenty of passerines around

The light winds continue from the west. Very misty to start with, gradually clearing during the morning, with the sun not completely breaking through till lunchtime. It then remained mainly sunny all afternoon.

An early check of the foreshore and saltmarsh to see if anything was grounded located just 1Rock Pipit!

There was grounded stuff just inland though, the best being:

Lesser Redpoll 4 - near the pond behind Red Nab but immediately flew into the power Station grounds.

Chiffchaff  2 singing

There were lots of birds in this small area from Red Nab to Moneyclose Lane. So I decided to list all the species seen in a 10 minute amble along the tracks (MD).

Resulting in a reasonably impressive 19 species, without counting the gulls and waders passing overhead.

Tits - Great, Coal, Blue, Long-Tailed

Finches - Green, Gold, Redpoll, Bull, Chaffinch

Corvids - Carrion Crow, Jay - no Magpies despite several along Moneyclose 

Thrushes - Song, Blackbird

Chiffchaff 

Great Spotted Woodpecker

Wood Pigeon 

Robin, Dunnock, Wren

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Mute swan - 6 adult plus 3 juvenile on the main pond.

Plus two pairs nest building on two of the other ponds

One of these has a blue ring,
it seemed that everything I photographed today was ringed!

Canada goose 2 - still on the peninsula on the main pond

Coot 3

Moorhen 7

Mallard 5

Teal 4

Tufted duck 1 male

Pheasant 2 males calling (I can't bring myself to cal it singing!)

Chiffchaff - at least three singing males (one near the bottom car park), plus one silent bird

Chiffchaff 

This fine male Chaffinch was calling. Plus a Chiffchaff singing at the start of the clip.

Goldcrest - at least 1

Goldcrest

The Bullfinch are still eating the tree buds, these look like blossom buds, I don't know the species. A wren provides a couple of bursts of song.

Female Bullfinch 

There have been lots of frogs around, but this is the first toad I've seen this year.

It looked like it was warming itself on the road surface, between the marshes,
probably after emerging from a pile of landscaping chippings close by.

Mergansers displaying - unfortunately to wrong species

Light NW wind, hazy early on then becoming bright and warm in the sunshine.

North shore low water channels

Eider 210

Great Crested grebe 11

Red-breasted Merganser 16

This group of 8 merganser were quite agitated and the arrival of a male Eider prompted at least two of the males to display towards it.

It's a dicey place for a good looking Eider

Presumably seen as a threat more than a suitor (MD)

Heysham Nature Reserve 

Goldcrest at least 2

South shore

Wigeon c100

Rock Pipits 3 (1 saltmarsh, 1 foreshore and 1 Red Nab - lighthouse area not checked)

This is the Red Nab bird

Skylark 3 north

Grey Plover 1 - Kevin mentioned that the bird he saw here earlier in the year appeared to be limping. Today's bird definitely was.

Despite the bad leg, it managed to over winter successfully 

Black Redstarts move through

The winds still from the west, light at first but freshening later. Very low cloud with fine rain/mist early on. The sun broke through mid morning, after that it remained mainly sunny all day.

Heysham skeer - low water 07:30

It was very misty at this time, so only the close in stuff was visible.

Eider c50

Red-breasted Merganser 5. Three males and two females

The unattached male appeared attracted to a passing Eider

Pale-bellied Brent goose 27. They arrived at 07:20 and landed directly onto the middle of the skeer. Later, as I was returning there were two groups of 7 and 15 searching for weed along the north side of the skeer. Possibly the other 5 were still around, I didn't go too close.

This "atmospheric" shot shows the two groups.

There were two birds just out of frame in the first group.
The mid grey band, beyond the rocks, is the promenade and associated hotels etc.

South shore - high water 13:00

At 11:30 this Grey seal was showing at No.2 outflow

Just after this shot it dropped under the surface, so I (MD) was scanning the sea waiting for it to resurface. When I spotted two small, dark birds flying low over the water heading west parallel to the wall. I got my binoculars on them in time to confirm that they were

Black Redstart 2 female type. They weren't far out, c25m, but already past me when I spotted them and even further away by the time I was satisfied of their identity (fortunately with this species a rear view is all you need). So no chance of a picture. Kevin and Alison, then later Alan made a thorough check of likely areas further down the wall, but they were not relocated.

Rock Pipits 4 (Red Nab, sea wall, lighthouse  and waterfall)

Meadow Pipits 3-4 heading north

Common snipe 1

Jack Snipe 1

Both the above flushed from the saltmarsh by the rising tide - ref Alan Larsen.

Wigeon still plenty around, c100 today.

A couple of today's birds from Kevin:

Knot

Male Kestrel 

Not quite as uplifting as yesterday's Chiffchaff,
but this frogspawn in my garden pond is another sign of spring

Five warblers, two species.

The moderate WNW winds continue. Mainly sunny but some overcast periods during the day.

South shore

Wigeon only 62 seen today

Rock Pipit 3 (1 Red Nab, 2 near rocky outcrop on the east side of saltmarsh. Lighthouse area not checked)

Grey Plover 2

A couple of shots of one of the Grey Plover

Middleton Nature Reserve (MD)

It's been a while since I checked Middleton. It was a very pleasant stroll today

Mute swan 7 adult plus 3 immature - all on the main pond, I had expected the resident breeding pair to be on the "no swimming" pond, but that was deserted apart from 2 Moorhen.

Canada goose 2

The Canada geese seem to be making themselves at home

Coot 5

Moorhen 6

Mallard 6

Cetti's warbler 1 male singing on central marsh

Chiffchaff at least 4 including at least 2 singing males

This one was in the sun, but wouldn't stay still long enough for a decent photograph, but it was nice to hear this archetypal sound of spring!

This one provides good views, unfortunately looking into the light,  it appears to be watching another bird, and I'm not convinced its bill opens in sync to every chiff and chaff.

You might be able to pick out a few Bullfinch calls on both the above clips.

At one point I could hear two different Chiffchaff singing in different areas, so at least two males. But there could easily have been more, at one point near the golf course there was always one singing somewhere. Several sightings of none singing birds, but they were all quite mobile, but I was confident of a minimum of 4 different birds.

Plenty of eyes, but not much to see

The winds eased off and started just north of west again. Heavy overnight rain, but the day started dry and the rain held off till lunchtime.

Summary from various sea watchers, from WhatsApp via Pete:

Gannet 2

Red-Throated Diver 2

Kittiwake 2

Eider 234

Red-breasted Merganser 11

Both the above floating in with the tide

Pale-bellied Brent goose 9 Heysham Village bay early on (ref PC) then flew south, they didn't go to Red Nab

Four Eider heading out - note the much calmer sea conditions 

Wigeon 190 on Red Nab

Rock Pipit 1 Red Nab plus 1 displaying near waterfall

The Polish ringed Black-Headed gull is still hanging around the harbour 
This is the latest sighting so far of this bird in spring

This young Cormorant on Red Nab, looked to be worn out by the storms