New ringed meds narrowly avoid being read!

It was dead calm early on, a light north breeze picked up by mid morning. Mainly overcast, but dry.

Shaun had a look around the south side this morning:

Mediterranean gulls 11 - 9 winter plumage adult plus two 1st winter, on beach near the wooden jetty. Later Pete and Jean checked the high water roost, numbers were similar but with the addition of a 2nd winter bird, a yellow and a white darvic ringed birds (both new)  just escaped being read, hopefully they will hang around.

Rock Pipit 5

Wheatear 10

Little Egret 11

Swallow 45 in lose group heading south over Middleton Nature Reserve.

Heysham skear low water 10:15

The light was strange, great visibility but the low cloud was hanging like a blanket over everything.

Low cloud hanging over the bay in the still air

Great Crested Grebe 13

Red-breasted Merganser 4 ( looked like a female with three immature)

Eider 53  - 46 were a distance out mainly female/immature, but some males coming out of eclipse with them. Inshore there were 7 males, either moulting out of eclipse or into first summer plumage (MD). This is one of them. I like this clip as you can here St Peter's church bells in the background.

This is St Peter's church on the north side of Heysham Head, over a kilometre away, but sound travels far over mud and water.

St Peter's church looking back from the skear

Little Egret 12

Knot 69 - 61, 5 and 3

Not many other waders on the middle skear, but included: Oystercatcher, Redshank, Turnstone and Ringed Plover.

Swallow 1 south

Meadow Pipit 3 south

Finally a nice flock of fighter jets. These hardly affect the birds at all, probably because they are gone before the sound arrives. If you ever see a heavy Hurculese transporter flying low over the bay, they lift everything, especially when the tide is out and the birds are resting on the sand bars. This clip shows 3 + 4 fighters over the middle of the bay, followed by a single plane, probably monitoring the manoeuvre.

Black and White news

Quite a fresh west breeze. Mainly overcast with showers, but the sun broke through occasionally.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Rosemary and Peter Silvester spotted this female Black Darter on 8th September. They are uncommon here, as far as I can tell, the last record was 18/07/17

Female Black Darter
This is a high resolution picture, best viewed by opening it.

It wasn't really a dragonfly day today, I had a look round just after lunch (MD).

Emperor 2

Brown Hawker 1

Migrant Hawker 3

Common Darter 15

Cetti's warbler 1 male singing from the "no swimming" pond

South shore

I just paid a quick visit to the beach, where Pontins used to be, at high water, accessible by the public footpath on the south side of Ocean Edge.

Wheatear 2

Redshank c180

White Wagtails - There was a feeding flock of 8-9 White/Pied Wagtail. The only males seen were 3 White, unfortunately I can only really pick the adult males, but I suspect that the whole group were White (MD)

 Adult Male White Wagtail 

Another adult male White Wagtail, foreground 
Another bird, not an adult male, upper left.

This is the best clip that I managed of some of the group 

This is the Kestrel that hunts over the saltmarsh as it is being covered. By this time it was already covered so it moved further inland to hunt, revealing itself to be a female or a juvenile.

Robin Day, and Mergansers return

Light SSW breeze freshened during the day and moved to SW. Overcast all day with light showers, very misty early on.

Heysham skear - low water 09:00

Great Crested Grebe 11

Red Breasted Merganser 7 (5 + 2 all female/immature) - first record this autumn 

Eider 28

Teal 2 - flew in from the east and appeared to land on the skear, but not relocated,

Little Egret 13

Grey Heron 2

The middle skear was pretty much deserted, Turnstone being the most abundant wader. There were Oystercatcher on the mud, and presumably on the outer skear. 

Knot c25 - a small flock with Curlew and an even smaller flock alone.

Small flock of Knot and Curlew, with a misty Heysham Head behind

Mediterranean gull 1 adult on the mud beyond the north edge of skear

A quick check of the heliport wall at high water found that it too was bereft of Knot.
It's mainly Redshank with a few Turnstone in foreground, Oystercatcher beyond

Red Nab and Ocean Edge towards high water

Mediterranean gulls 4 adult + 4 1st calendar year. The four youngsters stayed around Red Nab at high water, making for easy viewing. This one takes something from the water surface, probably a whelk egg cluster. 

Wheatear 11

Rock Pipit 5 on Red Nab

One of five Rock Pipits on Red Nab at high water

Common Snipe 2 on saltmarsh 

Linnet 15 on saltmarsh 

Lapwing 12

Ringed Plover c40

Dunlin 2

Robin 2 on Red Nab plus another on Near Naze (not sure if this qualifies as "Robin Day", but it sounds good, and will get a few disappointed Google hits (MD))

Red Nab Robin

Raven 4 together, but not in close formation north over the saltmarsh 13:00

One of four Raven heading north

There were several butterflies in the nature park behind Red Nab. These are nice comparison shots of a Red Admiral and a Painted Lady.

Painted Lady

Red Admiral 

Lots of finches and a White Wagtail

 Very light breezes again, mainly SE. Overcast all day, but still warm. Some short but heavy showers

South shore 

These are some of the Canada geese seen on Tuesday.
A Curlew is setting the pace

Just my records from a short visit at high water so far today.

No snipe flushed from the saltmarsh as it was covered.

Wheatear 7

Rock Pipit at least 6. This one looked a bit of a fluff ball!

Ringed Plover c30 no Dunlin today

Mediterranean gull 2 1st calendar year (I suppose the correct status is Juvenile, moulting to first winter plumage (MD))

1cy Mediterranean gulls 

Mute Swan 1 immature again feeding in the freshwater stream on Red Nab

Kestrel 1 started hunting over the saltmarsh as it was being covered.

There had been a heavy shower just before I began my walk, possibly bringing some of these birds down.

There were 23 Goldfinch and 1 Greenfinch sat together on the Power Station fence.

Linnet 29 around the saltmarsh plus 4 on Red Nab - the Linnet around the saltmarsh were eating the bracken seeds.

A male White Wagtail was on the sea wall briefly (White Wagtails are not always easy to confirm in autumn)

Migrant Hawker 3 together in the nature park

Finally, I've been watching this sunflower grow amongst the rubble on Ocean Edge foreshore. It is a bit battered and has been fortunate that these last two tides have been calm otherwise it would have been covered by the incoming waves. But it has made it to flowering, I'll see what happens if it manages to produce seeds.

Self seeded Sunflower, albeit a smallish one
growing on the foreshore.

Swallow movement increasing

The light breeze from SE to E sunshine all day.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Ringing and vis report from Alan

A different morning again today, clear and sunny. Only two Grey Wagtails seen today (one only trapped).

Other captures:

Sedge Warbler 2

Blackcap 3

Chiffchaff 1

Willow Warbler 1

Blue Tit 1

Great Tit 4

A fairly constant steady trickle of Swallows (c60) flying south at least until I left just before 11.00.

I also had a quick check 10:00 - 11:15 (MD)

Swallow 36 in small groups 8, 6, 16 and 6

Mute the adult pair now on the "no swimming" pond with one of the cygnets. The other 8 cygnets still on the main pond

Mallard 8

Gadwall just 1 male

Little grebe 1

Not a lot of dragonflies around considering how warm it was

Emperor 3

Brown Hawker 2

Migrant Hawker 2

Common Darter 5

Butterflies included:

Red Admiral 

Small Tortoiseshell 

Speckled Wood 

Meadow Brown 

Silver Y moth

Silver Y, perfectly camouflaged against the dead leaves 

South Shore

These records are a composite of two checks each by myself and Kevin.

Common Snipe 10 flushed by the tide covering the saltmarsh.

Small Copper on the saltmarsh 

Small Copper - first one seen for a moth or so

Wheatear 6

Rock Pipit 3

Ringed Plover c50

Dunlin c15

Both the above were close in on the few remaining rocks on Red Nab at high water.

Dunlin 

Adult Ringed Plover with two juvenile plus a Dunlin 

A few of the Dunlin took the opportunity to forage the flotsam, the front bird never took its eye off me.

Mediterranean gulls at least 3 adult, 3 first winter, 1 second winter. The other day at Red Nab, a regular blog reader commented that they sometimes get confused with the different age groups (most of us do! MD). Perhaps this clip may help. There is an adult with completely white wings, a second winter (currently a 2cy) with just a few black spots on the wing tips and  first winter (currently a 1cy), with fully black primaries plus other dark upper wing markings. 

This is just a still from the clip. The adult is on the right, the 2nd winter middle 
and the 1st winter back. The other gull is a Common Gull

Just to add a bit more confusion, the "adult" could be 3rd winter bird, but that is arbitrary as there is no way to tell now, as 3 winter plumage is as adult.

The weather was perfect for drawing any migrating insects in off the sea, the tide was out, making the lighthouse area the only direct sea to land point. The sun was shining and it was hot, the breeze nicely  from ESE. Unfortunately, only a few butterflies were trickling in about 1 every 3 minutes 

Small Tortoiseshell 9

Small White 2

Painted Lady 1

There was still quite a lot of insect activity around the nature park behind Red Nab.

Red Admiral 3

Painted Lady 1

Comma 1

Large White 3

Small Tortoiseshell 7

Speckled Wood 5

Migrant Hawker 1

Common Darter 3

Kevin spotted this moth on the fence (the jury is still out on whether it is a Lesser Treble-bar or just a Treble-bar)

Kevin photographing the Treble-bar sp

A decent selection in the sunshine

Very light breeze between SE to NE. Sunshine all day.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Ringing and vis report from John

Grey Wagtail Bonanza

Thirteen were caught this morning. This in not ideal ringing condition, being clear and bright quite early. Also at least another ten were seen.

Other birds were few and far between with only another eight bird caught comprising.

Chiffchaff x 2

Willow Warbler x2

Blackcap x 1

Great Tit x 1

Wren x1

Robin x 1

South shore

Decent coverage today between myself, Janet and Kevin.

Rock Pipits 5 

Meadow Pipit just one south

Wheatear 5

Sandwich Tern 4 together south

Canada goose 6 south

Mute Swan 1 immature turned up just before high water and was feeding in the fresh water from the culvert in the afternoon 

Mediterranean gulls 4 adult 2 juvenile on Red Nab, unfortunately none ringed today - not sure what this juvenile was after, but it needs to hone its skills somewhat!

Janet took a nice selection of pictures, as ever best viewed by opening the images.

Starlings flying from the wooden jetty

Rock Pipit on the sea wall

Little Egret on the shrinking Red Nab

Wheatear near the lighthouse 

Oystercatcher making their way to the feeding grounds

Juvenile Black-Headed gull

Adult Black-Headed gull

At this time of year, most if not all of the above birds can be seen during a walk along the sea wall. On a warm day like today, it is a very pleasant walk with a nice sea breeze.

Insects:

There were butterflies flying east along the sea wall, mainly Small Tortoiseshell but at least one Painted Lady. Also a large dragonfly (probably a female Emperor) came in off over Red Nab.

Around the nature park behind Red Nab were

Red Admiral 4

Comma 1

Large White 3

Small Tortoiseshell 6

Meadow Brown 1

Speckled Wood 3

Dragonflies:

Emperor 2

Migrant Hawker 1

Common Darter 4

 

Pair of Common Darter

A second visit in the afternoon as the tide left the beach looked promising for insects, but surprisingly there were none coming in off near the lighthouse and no butterflies on any of the nearby vegetation. The only factor that perhaps wasn't quite right was that this was the point in the day that the breeze was most northerly. Even so, I would have expected some movement (MD)

Robin 1 near the lighthouse 

Chiffchaff at least 3 - there were three together in the brambles near the waterfall. Also one near the lighthouse, which could have been one of the three.

Kevin managed a shot of one of the waterfall area Chiffchaffs

Tawny Owl - one heard from Kevin's home early this morning. Not often heard away from Heysham Head.

It had been a hot day and these Turnstone took advantage of the calm sea to take a bath.

The north south divide

Very light variable breeze mainly S to SW. rain in the early morning then sunny from mid morning.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Ringing and vis report from Alan:

Ringing this morning produced a steady trickle of captures, with 24 birds caught in total.

8 Grey Wagtails trapped and colour ringed but 7 more seen but not caught. Remaining captures consisted of :

Dunnock 3

Cetti's Warbler 1

Sedge Warbler 1

Whitethroat 1

Blackcap 3

Chiffchaff 2

Willow Warbler 4

Great Tit 1

Three Swallows passing through at 07.00 and another two at 10.15 were the only passage birds noted. A Kestrel was hunting over the eastern side of the reserve.

South shore mid morning before high water

Wheatear 5 (2 on foreshore 3 on Red Nab)

Rock Pipit 1 between Red Nab and the foreshore

Rock Pipit on the table on beach between Red Nab and foreshore

Mediterranean gulls adult 7 juvenile 4.

One of the adult Mediterranean gulls had a yellow darvic ring.
This is a new ringed bird and still needs to be read, perhaps a chance tomorrow 

The immature Mute Swan was feeding on the weed from the freshwater culvert again, this is a nice shot of it with two adult and three juvenile Mediterranean gulls on the island behind it.

Mute Swan with 2 adult and 3 juvenile Mediterranean gulls behind

Kevin checked after I had left, by that time a Sandwich Tern had arrived.

Sandwich Tern with a juvenile Mediterranean gull

Kevin also managed this shot of one of two Willow Warblers feeding/drinking on the newt pond in the nature park behind Red Nab

Willow Warbler 

Janet had a look on Heysham Nature Reserve 

One of two Painted Lady (slightly worn)

Heysham skear - low water 18:30

Great Crested Grebe 3

Eider 4

Little Egret 3

There were plenty of waders, including Oystercatcher, Curlew, Redshank, Turnstone and Ringed Plover. But, this is where the north south divide comes in. Grey Plover and Bar-Tailed Godwit are always scarce on the north side, but Knot have historically been common on both sides. There were none today despite thousands seen on the south side yesterday.

This is something I've not seen before (MD). This young Herring Gull has a small Common Starfish. The gulls often don't even bother with starfish, and when they do the technique is to put them on their back and  then peck their guts out. Even large starfish "eaten" this way look intact, with only a small hole where their guts were. I had always presumed, and still do, that the legs are effectively indigestible. But this gull swallows it whole. I expect the end result will be the same, with the guts being digested and the legs regurgitated.

The other day I mentioned that the Grey Mullet on incoming tides, on the south shore often clamour to reach the algae that forms on the mud between tides on sunny days. I have had couple of comments of surprise, not disbelief, that significant algae mats can grow so quickly. This evening on the north side, the mud was turning green with algae as I watched. Not sure what other factors other than sunshine prompt this, but obviously algae spores and nutrients are required.

These couple of shots are mud at the edge of the skear just after low water. They can only have been exposed for a couple of hours at most. The mud below the sea wall on the south side where the Mullet feed can be exposed for six hours. There are Grey Mullet on the north side too, but I suspect that this particular bloom is destined to become shrimp meat.

Green algae forming on wet mud between the tides - better than watching grass grow!

Hobby tops a decent bill

The breeze was more to SE this morning and remained so all day. Sunshine for most of the day.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Ringing and vis report from Jean:

It was a much better ringing session than of late with 35 new birds and just 2 retraps. The retraps were two juv Cetti’s, one on the east side of the track and one on the west side. In all 9 species of Warbler were caught.

Birds caught and ringed:

Lesser Whitethroat 3

Whitethroat 3

Blackcap 6

Garden Warbler 2

Willow Warbler 5

Chiffchaff 1

Sedge Warbler 2

Reed Warbler 2

Reed Bunting 1

Meadow Pipit 3

Grey Wagtail 2

Dunnock 2

Robin 1

Great Tit 2

Visible migration:

Grey Wagtail 7 (including the 2 ringed)

Meadow Pipit - only 5 detected but there must have been more out of visual range if 3 were caught.

Swallow - 11

Linnet - 5

Greenfinch - 2

Goldfinch - 2

Kestrel - 2

Sparrowhawk - 1

HOBBY - 1 seen over the power station heading south.

A further 2 Kestrels were hunting over the site. 

South shore 

Towards high water

Rock Pipit 3

Meadow Pipit 7 ( 3 grounded, 2 + 2 over)

Big flocks, 3,000 plus, waders mostly making their way to Potts corner. Mainly Knot, but including:

Bar-Tailed Godwit 60 

Grey Plover 50

Dunlin 150

Not a good shot, but it gives a flavour of the density of waders passing 
These are mainly Knot with a few Dunlin

We are now moving to spring tides and the birds "know" they will not be able to roost on the beach over high water, so most move straight through. Some stop off for a while though, this is a flock of mainly Knot and Grey Plover coming in.

The wind from the SE does not hold back the waves from lapping on the tideline (see yesterday's post). This clip shows a more typical movement of waders as the tide encroaches. It includes mainly Grey Plover and Knot, but also a Bar-Tailed Godwit and a couple of Dunlin.

Mediterranean gull 5 adult plus 4 juvenile on Red Nab

Also on Red Nab was an immature Mute Swan and a sleeping Grey Seal passing by, this clip shows both.

A check in the afternoon to see what insects were coming in off the sea, didn't find much. About 1 butterfly every 2 minutes were coming in off near the lighthouse, but only Small Tortoiseshell and Small White in a ratio of 3-2 in favour of Small Tortoiseshell.

Plenty of insects in the nature park behind Red Nab

Red Admiral 4

Large White 2

Comma 1

Small White 2

Small Tortoiseshell 4

Meadow Brown 2

Speckled Wood 5 

Migrant Hawker dragonfly 2

Creeping tide clears the beach!

The breeze still from the east. Overcast all day apart from 30 minutes sunshine mid afternoon.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Ringing report from Alan:

An improvement in the catch this morning with a small selection of warblers that may have arrived over the night before last. Also caught were three Grey Wagtails. The catch comprised 3 Willow Warblers (+ 1 retrap), 3 Chiffchaffs, 2 Wrens and singles of Dunnock, Cetti's Warbler, Lesser Whitethroat, Common Whitethroat, Garden Warbler and Blackcap.

I had a quick check mid afternoon (MD)

Gadwall just 4 again, no sign of Wigeon

Teal 5 on "no swimming" pond, later flew off to south

Common Snipe 1 flushed from edge of main pond - first record this autumn 

Dragonflies:

Emperor 4

Brown Hawker 2

Migrant Hawker 4

Common Darter 5

South shore

Rock Pipit 1

Wheatear just 2 along the same stretch and at same time that I counted 37 yesterday!

Again, the objective of today's walk was to check out the waders on the water line out from the saltmarsh, I could see there were high numbers from a distance, but as I got closer most of them flew off south, not a raptor today, and I was nowhere near enough to spook them. It was only when I got closer that I realised what had happened (MD).

The morning breeze was fresher than of late and due east, and the sea was quite calm. The net effect of this is that the wind holds back the waves that would normally lap the waterline. When this happens I think of the tide as "creeping" in. This is what a creeping tide looks like coming up the beach.

Creepy, isn't it! This is what it looks like looking down on it, you can just make out some very slight wave action at the end of this clip.

When waders normally stand on the waterline, it is the incoming waves that force them to move forward. But the wave only reaches one or two birds at a time and the flock tends to shuffle forward following the same wave action (even when there is no breeze at all, there are inevitably still small waves lapping the water line). When it creeps in like this, there is no single stimulus to move, the birds tend to just stand there till the water is higher than they are comfortable with, unfortunately this happens to all the birds at the same time, so when one moves they all move, this then spooks nearby birds. As they fly off they spook all the others further south in a domino effect, that is what happened this morning. 

By the time I'd reached a reasonable viewing distance, the only waders remaining were this group of Grey Plover and Bar-Tailed Godwit. The only reason they were still there, is that they would have been the northern end of the original line of waders. It was obvious that the Plover were as deep as they get without swimming and an exit was imminent. The water looks quite choppy in this clip, but that is a foreshortening effect, the birds were over 5m beyond the waterline.

Best estimate of waders seen:

Knot c600

Grey Plover c80

Bar-Tailed Godwit 50

Dunlin c150

Curlew c50

Redshank 12

Oystercatcher c300

Shelduck 4 juvenile together, no sign of any adult. I'm posting this clip, not so much for the birds, but it does clearly demonstrate how the east breeze was pushing back the waves that normally lap on the waterline.

Mediterranean gulls 8 adult - this was a bit frustrating, I could just make out that this one had a white ring, too far away to read, and as soon as it made its way to join a small group of Meds it promptly sat down. If it had remained stood, I might have tried to get closer, but I decided to leave them in peace.

4 of the 8 Mediterranean gulls roosting on the beach

Wheatear surge

Almost still first thing the slight air movement from the east, increased slightly by mid morning. Overcast all day.

South Shore - high water 09:45

Rock Pipits 3 - between Red Nab and the start of the foreshore 

Linnet 2

Goldfinch 16 

Both the above on the saltmarsh 

Swallow 5 (2 + 3) south

Wheatear - just the stretch from Red Nab to the rocky outcrop on the east side of the saltmarsh checked. The absolute minimum was 37.

They continued along the shore, Janet was just beyond the southern limit of the recording area and was seeing them there too.

There were almost certainly many more on the north side, Howard took these pictures of two birds on the Near Naze yesterday 

Wheatear on the Near Naze

Mediterranean gull 3 roosting with a small group of mixed gulls on the beach just out from the saltmarsh. One was the long staying green ringed German bird.

German ringed Mediterranean gull with
two Common and a Lesser Blacked-Backed gull

I went down to check the waders on the water line towards high water, but on these very low neap tides (7.3m high water today), the waterline is still a long way out, even at high water. Before I was close enough to check the wader numbers in detail they were spooked by, presumably, at least one raptor. This is them leaving before I got close, their erratic flight patterns suggesting that they were still under attack. I suspect that the two birds flying upwards towards the end of the clip could be raptors. (MD)

What I managed to count before they were spooked, plus those that remained:

Knot 400+

Grey Plover 50+

Bar-Tailed Godwit 43

Dunlin c140

Curlew c100

Oystercatcher c50

Greenshank 1

Heysham skear low water 16:20

Only half of the middle skear was exposed, and not a lot of birds.

Great Crested Grebe 1

Eider 3

Little Egret 2

Grey Heron 1

Bar-Tailed Godwit 1

Oystercatcher c500

Curlew c40

Turnstone c30

Ringed Plover 25

This feeding group was a bit of a puzzle, the tide had almost stopped ebbing. Both large and small gulls plus waders appeared to be finding plenty to eat in this shallow drain. It can only have been shrimps, but the feeding technique seemed too slow for the decent size of shrimps currently available. I can only think that another population of tiny shrimps have emerged (MD)