Osprey doesn't leave empty taloned today!

The wind swung round from the east in the morning to north by evening. After a dry start there was rain mid morning, but a bright evening for a change.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Report from Jean:

Middleton NR was just on the cloud edge all morning with blue sky to the west and dark grey rain clouds to the east and almost overhead. At 10am the rain cloud was overhead and birds headed for cover in the bushes which is when a flock of Chiffchaffs was caught. Luckily the 'rain' at first was only very light and it was possible to wrap up the nets while they were dry. It was just in time because at 11am proper rain occurred but we were in the shelter of a car by then.

Vis before the (proper) rain:

Swallow 47

House Martin 6

A late SWIFT 1

Grey Wagtail - 26

Chaffinch 2

Linnet 1

Meadow Pipit 23

Goldfinch 13

Skylark 1

Goosander - 4 in one flock heading south

Gadwall 4

Ringing:

Grey Wagtail 13

Chiffchaff 8 (2 retraps)

Blackcap 1

Sedge Warbler 2

Reed Warbler 1 (a retrap)

Lesser Whitethroat 1

Meadow Pipit 1

Long-tailed Tit 2

South shore - high water 10:30 (MD)

No sign of the Kingfisher this morning 

Wheatear 8

Rock Pipit 3

Meadow Pipit c8

Swallow 2 south

Osprey 1 - the tide had barely reached the saltmarsh, even so it was hovering and diving towards the saltmarsh, unfortunately I was still at Red Nab. I "scampered" along the foreshore, stopping periodically to film a clip. All the birds were having a go at it, this compilation shows gulls and Carrion Crows mobbing it and Meadow Pipits (I think) zipping past.

By this time the rain had started and I was using my old (nearly worn out) camera, so struggled keeping it in focus for long. This clip shows it diving and then pans out to show location. At this point I was about half way along the foreshore. Even so enough detail was seen to see that it was an adult and not ringed.

This clip ends with its final, successful, dive. Unfortunately, I was still just too far from the slipway to see the water, perhaps as well as I lost focus during the dive anyway!

This last clip is only poor quality, but I'm posting it anyway as I like the Osprey's "shudder" to shake off the water. It is heading south with its catch, almost certainly a small Grey Mullet.

Twenty seconds later I reached the slipway and could see where it had been diving. The creek on the left hand side. We are moving back to spring tides now, and this will be be the first time in almost a week that the water will have reached this far. Plenty of time for mats of algae to form along the creek sides. A mullet shoal must have moved in to feed on it.

Grey Mullet would have been feeding in the creek on the left.
They still will be in this shot, but one less!

If the Osprey is still around and hasn't already caught something, there is a reasonable chance of an encore tomorrow. The tide will reach this creek between 09:30 and 09:45.

Heysham skear - low water 17:30 (MD)

Great Crested Grebe 5

Red-breasted Merganser 4

Eider 1

Mergansers and an Eider

Little Egret 6

Waders: Oystercatcher, Curlew, Redshank, Turnstone plus

Ringed Plover 13

Dunlin 2

Knot 2

Knot

Black-Tailed Godwit 1 (they have been very scarce here in recent years)

Black-Tailed Godwit with Oystercatcher 

Overhead Osprey

 The SE breeze continues. Mainly overcast with some light showers during the day, some sunny periods around lunchtime. Once again, heavy thundery showers started by early evening

South Shore - high water 09:30

The plan was to watch this morning's tide bring the waders close inshore. That didn't work! (MD)

Kingfisher 1 feeding on the large pool in the centre of Red Nab. It caught three Common Gobies in quick succession, quite surprising really as this pool won't have been "restocked" since the last spring tides.

Kingfisher with quite a large goby

This clip, shows it swallowing one

Linnet 18 feeding on the mustard seed at Red Nab

Wheatear 6

Rock Pipit 2

Meadow Pipit 3

Whinchat 3 female/immature - one just east of Red Nab and two at saltmarsh 

Whinchat near Red Nab

One of two saltmarsh Whinchat

Swallow 5 south

Lapwing 28 on saltmarsh 

But something didn't feel "right" the tide was making up the beach, but it was deserted, not even an Oystercatcher! Never mind, I like walking on a deserted beach so I walked out, and soon discovered why the beach was deserted......

Osprey 1 - unringed adult. 08:45, I'm guessing it had been patrolling the area for a while, but it now decided to head north over Ocean Edge, the gulls weren't happy!

09:00 - by this time I was alone at the water's edge. The Osprey returned. In this clip the Osprey is flying over the beach and looking to the sea on the left of the clip. Possibly looking for any dead fish being washed ashore?

It wheeled round and did another circuit, but this time continued directly over my head and on towards the Lune estuary 

Osprey 

The Oystercatchers returned, bringing with them 3 Bar-Tailed Godwit and a few Curlew

A flock of c100 Dunlin and Ringed Plover came from the south and circled before landing on the beach

Dunlin and Ringed Plover

Normality was returning 

This last shot is the "dried out" pool on Red Nab near the sea wall. But it is no longer dried out, the recent heavy showers have restored it to a "freshwater" pool. Two reasons for the inverted commas.

1. Not "fresh" in the sense that you would want to drink it.

2. Not "fresh" in that it will still be slightly saline from salt left by seawater that evaporated rather than seeped away.

Still, an interesting environment, but it won't last long, Sunday's or Monday's spring tide will fill it with seawater again. Worth keeping an eye on though, different  environments can lead to different sightings (MD)

The now, only slightly brackish pool at Red Nab

Plenty of stuff grounded and some interesting recent ringing recoveries

A very heavy downpour about 11:00 last night, almost certainly followed by more showers, but it was fine by the morning. It was overcast and dry till lunch then another heavy shower. Sunshine in the afternoon led to thunder showers by evening. East to ESE light wind all day.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Report by Jean:

42 birds of 11 species caught today between 07:30 - 10:45 at Middleton NR:

Grey Wagtail 4 were colour ringed

Chiffchaff 11

Willow Warbler 2

Sedge Warbler 2

Reed Warbler 1

Blackcap 4

Lesser Whitethroat 2

Meadow Pipit 1

Blue Tit 9

Great Tit 1

Long-tailed Tit 5 (2 were retraps)

Vis included:

11 Grey Wagtail (4 caught and ringed)

37 Swalliws

1 Snipe dropped in

5 Meadow Pipits

62 Goldfinch headed SW in 3 groups (30, 25, 7)

4 Gadwall flew in

Some interesting recent ringing recoveries:

Willow Warbler

LCN244                juv          10/08/2021           Lytchett Bay Poole Harbour (Dorset)

Re-trapped                            06/08/2022           Middleton NR 370km N 361 days

 

Sedge Warbler

ALL6172              Juv          01/08/2022           Middleton NR

Re-trapped                            13/08/2022           Hilgay Wetland (Norfolk) 274kmSE in 12 days

Our first Sedge Warbler from Norfolk out of many thousands ringed – autumn movement usually between SSE and SSW        

 

AXH0237             Juv         01/07/2020           Middleton NR

Re-trapped                          28/07/2022         Nanjizal Land’s End (Cornwall) 480 km SSW 757 days

I had a walk around in the hot afternoon sun (MD)

6 Gadwall  and 1 Shoveler on "no swimming" pond

Water Rail at least 3 squealing, including 1 somewhere on the industrial site side

Common Sandpiper 2 seen both on main pond and the "no swimming" pond, but think they were the same mobile birds

Common Sandpiper - another slightly uncommon underwing view

Two Common Sandpiper

House Martin 5 together south

Despite it being hot, the rain must have dampened the insects down as there were not many

Dragonflies:

Emperor several

Common Darter 3

Butterflies:

Red Admiral 6

Speckled Wood 6

Small White 3

Meadow Brown 1

This Speckled Wood was displaying to a potential mate, but I suspect the potential mate's mating days are over......

Silver Y moth

Achaius oratorius - wasp

South shore 

I checked this morning (MD)

Meadow Pipit 9 grounded plus 3 over to south

Meadow Pipit

Rock Pipit 2

Rock Pipit

Robin 5 grounded

Wheatear 5 - Janet also saw one below the Barrows on the north side. This is one of Janet's pictures of a typically sleek Wheatear 

I've posted Janet's picture here as a comparison to a, definitely not sleek, Wheatear on the foreshore. The larger birds are normally associated with birds that breed in the far north, as far as Greenland. But this might just be a big bird.

It obviously has its feathers fluffed out............

....but whichever way you look at it, this is a big Wheatear

Linnet 6 

No sign of the Kingfisher on Red Nab today, but the neap tides were not often visited last winter (the freshwater stream only has fish in it when the saltwater fills it, allowing the sea fishes to move along it). Mark Jones reports that there was one on the dipping pond on Heysham Nature Reserve, a week ago.

Shag 1 resting on wooden Jetty

Sandwich Tern 2 adult flying towards the Lune estuary - this is one of them, the other not far behind.

This next clip is of a Chiffchaff in the Nature Park catching a fly, it happens too quickly to see in real time, indeed too quickly for my camera to catch, but this shot is a blurry still from the end of the clip, showing the end of the fly!

Finally, this clip is from Middleton Nature Reserve this afternoon. It shows Black ants "farming" aphids. This is a great example of a symbiotic relationship, the ants protect the aphids from predators and the aphids provide the ants honeydew (the aphid's waste). Don't suppose the bramble is impressed though.

Will Kingfisher become a star?

The SE wind continues, overnight rain, but bright and sunny for most of the day.

Clouded Yellow butterfly 1 along old Heliport sea wall this morning (Pete)

South shore

I did two trips today. Morning on the ebbing tide and again in the evening before high water (MD)

Wheatear 15 along foreshore in the morning (7 possibly different in the evening)

You don't often get a chance to see a Wheatear's underwing 

Rock Pipit 6

Meadow Pipit 18 along foreshore (none in evening)

One of the grounded Meadow Pipit

Linnet 10 on foreshore/saltmarsh + 4 near lighthouse 

It's normally the colourful male Linnet that gets photographed 
This is a female or immature Linnet 

Kingfisher 1 on Red Nab, in the morning I just had a glimpse of it and couldn't relocate, but it was showing well in the evening along the freshwater stream, close to the sea wall. Last winter we had two birds regularly visiting Red Nab (although starting much later in November). Those birds proved very popular with visitors and locals alike. "It" even had a mention on local radio. It will be interesting to see if this one hangs around.

Kingfisher 

Mediterranean gull 3 adult plus one 1st calendar year on beach next to the wooden jetty.

The evening visit was to check the waders out from the saltmarsh, I don't normally do this in the evening as you are looking into the sun, but at this time it was quite overcast.

Lapwing 32 on saltmarsh 

The small waders were quickly moving south. These numbers are just estimates.

Dunlin c400

Knot c50

Grey Plover c30

Bar-Tailed Godwit 10

Sandwich Tern 1 adult with a 1st calendar year bird.

Adult Sandwich Tern

1st calendar year Sandwich Tern

It was only 18:30, but already it felt like the light was fading although the sun came out
later and it brightened up. But this shot does show the  difficulty of looking into the light.

Feeding, or at least trying to feed, Osprey

The light wind started SE and didn't vary much. Overcast with a few very light showers in the morning, but hot and humid in the afternoon, when the sun broke through.

South shore

Report by Pete Crooks:

An unringed adult Osprey lingered over the sea between the end of Heysham Stage One and Stage Two outfalls from 8.35 am to 9.53 am when it was last seen flying off SW towards Rossall Point. During this time it made several half-hearted shallow dives, passing low over the water surface, but only plunged into the sea once and failed to catch anything.

Heysham Stage One – Wooden Pier area:
8 Mediterranean Gull (5 adults – including green darvic ANLT, 2 1st summer>2nd winter, 1 juvenile>1st winter)
Also: 4 Eider, 18 Cormorant, 26 Turnstone

Red Nab:
13 Mediterranean Gull (7 adults – including yellow darvic, not read, 2 2nd summer>3rd winter, 4 1st summer>2nd winter)
Also: 2 Common Sandpiper, 2 Rock Pipit

I met up with Pete about 09:15 (MD)

This is the Osprey making one of its shallow dives

This clip starts just after its failed plunge into the sea, you can see it shaking itself dry.

The fish the Osprey would be seeing here will be Bass. Bass have very sharp dorsal fins, this Osprey appears to have learnt, presumably from experience, that it needs to grab them either behind or in front of the dorsal fin. This requires both precision and a bass big enough to present a decent target to grab, probably explaining the number of aborted dives (just speculation, based on today's observations (MD))

Osprey 

The gulls were happy to ignore it whilst it was hunting but became agitated if it moved towards them. This one followed it as it set off south after it did a circle out from the end of the wooden jetty.

A gull following the Osprey as it left

Wheatear 2 along the foreshore 

These ducks flew overhead with the light behind them, and in real time suggested Red-breasted Merganser. But checking my pictures revealed them to be female/immature Goosander (not common here). I've not pre sized these shots, so you can check the detail if you "open" them.

Female/immature Goosander, almost in silhouette 

Middleton Nature Reserve (MD)

I just did a quick circuit of the two main ponds. The "no swimming" pond was deserted apart from an adult Little Grebe and a couple of Moorhen. Don't know if yesterday's drama was too much for the Gadwall or if they were just passing through anyway.

Just the regular Mallard and Mute on main pond.

Water Rail 2 squealing 

Common Snipe 3 around edge of main pond

Buzzard 1 soaring on the east side.

Hirundines SW in a 20 minute visit:

Swallow 73

House Martin 4

A very brief check of Imperial way on my way back saw absolutely no hirundines, so it seems the flight path was close to the coast.

Saved by the wind....at least we were

A light east wind, later moving more SE. Mainly overcast with some very light showers.

Report from Pete:

Marsh tern sp 1 at the seaward end of No.1 outflow, seen only briefly and distant from Ocean Edge. Too distant and brief to be able to rule out a juvenile White-winged Black Tern, but probably a juvenile Black Tern

Heysham skear - low water 11:00 

I went down about 08:00. One reason for going early was that a White-Tailed Eagle with radio tracking was known to fly to Humphrey Head yesterday evening. It was a bit hazy, but at least I could see Humphrey Head, probably as close as I'll ever get to seeing a White-Tailed Eagle (MD)

Eider 7 female/immature plus a raft of 11 males

Wigeon - 2 + 14 north

Great Crested Grebe 5

Shag 1 x 2nd calendar year feeding

As I was leaving it was obvious that a serious fire was raging somewhere south of Heysham Head. Not only plumes of black smoke billowing across the bay, but a continuous sound of emergency vehicle sirens.

Serious fire south of Heysham, more on this later.
This was 10:00, David will be in this shot somewhere, see post below

Heysham Head

Report from David Kaye

9-10.30

Small group of house martins and swallows included a single sand martin

4 wheatear

1 shag (same bird as above)

1 very dark fox near the chapel

1300-1430

2 eider

2 new rock pipits chased off the regular single

4 wheatear 

Wheatear 

alas no eagle

After leaving the skear, I followed the smoke, it became obvious that it was somewhere close to Middleton Nature Reserve. I couldn't get too close as fire engines were already on the scene and more were arriving all the time. The main outpouring of smoke appeared to be just south of the Water Treatment Works within the industrial estate. I would have only been in the way if I had stayed, so I left, sincerely hoping that no one had been, or would be, injured.

Janet went to Middleton in the afternoon. The fire was still smouldering and she said that Middleton had been very lucky, if the wind had been from the more normal west the southern section of the reserve would have been at serious risk.

Still wisps of smoke visible in the afternoon, just beyond the
the western boundary of the southern section of the reserve

Some of the Goldfinch flying from just one tree

Heysham Nature Reserve 

Report from Jean

Despite the drama at Middleton, the Heysham birds just got on with attending the feeders behind the office and the following were caught and ringed between 10am and midday:

Greenfinch 10 (one was a retrap)

Chaffinch 2

Dunnock 3

Blue Tit 1

Chiffchaff 1

South shore - high water 16:40

I went down just before high water to check the waders on the beach out from the saltmarsh (MD)

Wheatear 2 on foreshore 

Rock Pipit 2 on foreshore plus 3 on the rocky outcrop just south of the saltmarsh 

Three Rock Pipits on the rocky outcrop. A bird held territory here all
last winter, but I couldn't find any evidence of them breeding here

Swallow 2, 6 and 2 south

There were a lot of waders on the tide line, but at 8.1m is was still coming in quite quickly and the smaller waders soon moved further south. The numbers below are what I counted but I didn't get them all:

Dunlin 570

Ringed Plover 6

Oystercatcher c500 (didn't count)

Knot 33

Grey Plover 85

Bar-Tailed Godwit 19

Curlew 60

When one takes flight it spooks others and soon most are flying. This is the point when most of the small birds and some of the larger ones took flight.

In this clip, it's mainly the  Godwits and Oystercatchers remaining, but it does show how quickly the tide was coming in.

Dunlin and Ringed Plover
I've not pre sized this one, in case you want to check the detail

There always seems to be one bird that behaves differently to the rest, while 570 Dunlin were feeding along the water's edge, this one was quite happily treading for small invertebrates just a few metres from me.

When all the other waders had moved on, I remembered this bird and looked around. It was still in exactly the same spot, although now up to its belly in water. Perhaps a different sub-species to the others or perhaps just a different "personality" (MD)

One of two Painted Lady resting on the saltmarsh rubble during a light shower

Footnote: Checking local media shows several reports of today's fire, but none mention any casualties.

Duck numbers growing plus another Clouded Yellow

Quite a fresh east breeze, mainly sunny with some overcast spells.

First some pictures by Kevin Singleton from yesterday:

Painted Lady - Middleton Nature Reserve 

Curlew - south shore

Eider - south shore

Heysham skear - low water 10:20 (MD)

Just the standard fare today

Little Egret 9

Grey Heron 1

Eider 5 including one eclipsed male

Great Crested Grebe 5

Red-breasted Merganser 5 (4 + 1)

Waders - just: Oystercatcher, Curlew, Redshank, Turnstone and 3 Ringed Plover

South shore

Clouded Yellow butterfly  one male by the saltmarsh slipway, seen by Pete this morning.

I checked it out early afternoon (MD).

I started on the eastern side of the saltmarsh where the bulk of the Sea Asters are. No sign of the Clouded Yellow but 15 Small White and 2 Small Tortoiseshell coming in/feeding

Small White, topping up on a Sea Aster before continuing inland

There were another 7 small white and 1 Small Tortoiseshell between saltmarsh and Red Nab, some obviously coming in. Then no more along the sea wall till No.1 outflow (where the tide had reached the sea wall). Between there and lighthouse another 8 small White and 2 Small Tortoiseshell - both the Tortoiseshell and a couple of the Whites seen to come in off the sea. Unusually, there were no butterflies along the scrub between lighthouse and waterfall.

Rock Pipit - just the 1 defending the drying "pool" on Red Nab

Linnet 18 on the rocks near the pool on Red Nab

Wheatear 5 - 1 on foreshore plus 4 taking advantage of the insects coming in off the sea near the roundhead.

A particularly rufous Wheatear 

This one seems to have a bee or wasp, either way, it wasn't prepared to swallow it. It didn't help this bee, but it might prevent others from being taken.

Middleton Nature Reserve (MD)

I just called in on my way home to check the "no swimming" pond 

Coot 1 

Little grebe 1 adult 

Little grebe - still in summer plumage, although fading slightly 

Shoveler 1 male

Male Shoveler in eclipse - they always make me smile (MD)

Gadwall 12 including 6 males coming out of eclipse. They were all preening and washing their new feathers. This male was typical (co-staring: Coot, Shoveler and Moorhen (not obvious))

Water Rail - I'm not sure about this. Loud squeals certainly sound like a Water Rail but they appear to be coming from the industrial area to the south. But unless they are castrating pigs in there, I can't think what else it could be.

Swallow 3

Janet took these shots

Migrant Hawker 

Brimstone - looking splendid with the sun shining through its wings