Sleepy sort of Saturday

A light east wind till mid morning when it switched to the west and freshened slightly. Sunshine for most of the day but hazy at times.

South shore (MD)

A morning walk on the ebbing tide and very little was moving. Even the gulls on the outflows were resting.

Kittiwake 1 x 2nd calendar year on the pipe in the harbour

Cormorant - only the immature birds remain on the wooden jetty.

Shelduck 2

Little Egret 6

Greenfinch 2

Linnet 8

Rock Pipit 3 - there were two adults above the next hole near the lighthouse.

Rock Pipit taking food to lighthouse area nest.....

........and this one, presumably the male, standing guard

A third bird near the waterfall was also carrying food and flew out past the platforms to an unknown nest site. Presumably a hole in the harbour wall, but the location not seen, if indeed it is visible from this vantage point.

There were no waders at all apart from the Oystercatchers.

There was a male and female Bullfinch feeding on the dandelion seeds in the Nature Park. This is the female.

Heysham skear - low water 13:10 (MD)

Another pleasant but uneventful stroll.

Eider 13 males plus 1 pair

Great Crested Grebe 3

Little Egret 3

Oystercatcher c400

Turnstone 2 (quickly flew off north)

Curlew 7 together flew onto the skear from SE

Curlew 

There were plenty of Herring Gulls, they were feeding on what seed mussels were exposed on this neap tide. This focuses them on the higher beds, which are the ones on top of the honeycomb worm reefs, once again, favouring the worms. Even though much of the feeding activity of the gulls does favour the preservation of the honeycomb worm beds and reefs, there does seem to be a lot of seed mussels this year, and they do grow quickly.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Janet managed some even better shots of the swallows collecting mud for nest building near Tradebe.

Heysham Head (Janet)

This male Linnet looks tempted by a passing fly, but they tend to stick to seeds

A slightly unusual angle of a Wren

Wren and Linnet

Common Whitethroat 1 male

It's mainly the little beasties today

A light NE wind, mainly sunny and quite warm.

Heysham Nature Reserve (Janet)

Burnet Companion moth

Common Carpet moth

Holly Blue butterfly - Moneyclose Lane

Reed Warbler - Moneyclose Lane

South Shore (MD)

I went along the sea wall in the afternoon sun and NE breeze, hoping some interesting insects might be coming in, but it is a bit early in the year and I only managed a few butterflies 

Small White 3

Small Tortoiseshell 1

Brimstone 3 all males

A terrible shot! But it does show a Brimstone coming in over the roundhead wall.
This is a regular insect flight line in these conditions, but not many around today.

Shelduck 8

Swallow 14

Linnet 6

Wheatear 2

Rock Pipit  - there was a male display calling within the Power Station grounds behind Red Nab. Plus at least one adult taking large food items to the nest hole below the lighthouse. I only ever saw one adult at a time, but four visits in five minutes suggests they are feeding young rather than just a sitting female.

Not sure what this large grub is.......but it looks tasty!

They will not go down to the nest hole when they are aware that they are being watched. This shot shows the location of the nest hole.

This short clip shows an adult returning to the top of the wall after taking some food to the nest.

The Carrion Crow is still sitting on the nest on the wooden jetty. It's a risky site with all the large gulls around, I doubt they will be able to leave the chicks unattended.

One 2nd calendar year Kittiwake is still resting on the pipe in the harbour

The only waders seen apart from Oystercatcher were these resting on No.1 outflow

Three Turnstone, three Dunlin and two Ringed Plover

Grey seal 1 - this clip begins with the seal then pans across the gulls (mainly 2nd calendar year Common) feeding on the seaward end of No.1 outflow.

The same blanket of mud that covered the seed mussels on the north side has also covered the Sand Mason worm tubes on the beach between the wooden jetty and No.1 outflow. This doesn't affect the worms, but a soft mud surface seems to make it difficult for the Mediterranean Gulls to catch them. A couple of weeks ago this beach was looking promising, but at the moment looks even worse than last year, which wasn't good! We need a storm to clear the soft mud before the Meds return.

The currently featureless beach next to the wooden jetty.
Not a sand mason worm tube in sight!

These are small Grey Mullet swimming up the channel alongside the outflows to feed on the algae that has formed on the mud between tides. You can't see the fish in this clip, just their shadows and their bustling to get the best algae first! I've seen them reach onto the mud to feed in their fervour.

As I was coming off the wall Kevin Eaves was just beginning and he is much more diligent at little beasties than I am!

A few beetles (and other invertebrates) along the wall today

11 spot Ladybird

Poecilus cuprous/versicolour

Sun Beetle

Almost certainly a Water Lily Leaf Beetle

Six-spot Burnet caterpillar

Teneral damselfly

Finally this nice record also from Kevin Eaves:

I was sitting on my doorstep, putting on my shoes, when this delightful Wasp Beetle came to join me. One of several wasp-mimicking invertebrates, they're not particularly uncommon, though this was the first one I remember seeing.

Nine warbler species on Middleton

A light west wind, with some south in it to begin with then more NW later. Mainly sunny.

To further qualify yesterday's comments regarding poor seawatching at Heysham. Walney had a good early morning seawatch yesterday 0600-0900hrs (eg 7 Arctic Skuas and puffins) but there was no water in the bay at that time and nothing happened from 1030 on as the tide started coming in!

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Janet had a walk around exercising a dog.

The Mute Swan pair had their young on display - 9. This is the same number as they hatched last year.

Some of the nine cygnets

Male Common Whitethroat 

A nice sequence of the swallows feeding......

.......and collecting nest building mud near Tradebe

Male Orange Tip

Immature male Azure Blue damselfly 

Common Blue Tail damselfly
All the above are high resolution shots, this is a particularly nice one, 
and definitely worth opening to appreciate 

Kevin Eaves had a walk around the reserve in the afternoon and managed to tick off eight warbler species singing. The ninth was not heard today, but yesterday Janet heard a Grasshopper Warbler singing, and it will still be around.

I didn't have much time today and just managed a short walk on the north shore towards low water (MD).

Eider, Great Crested Grebe and Red-breasted Merganser similar to yesterday.

The only waders, apart from Oystercatcher were Whimbrel 3, Ringed Plover 5, Turnstone 1

Turnstone - looking splendid in summer plumage 

Male Ringed Plover

Female Ringed Plover

Despite their bold markings they are well camouflaged in this terrain 
There are three Ringed Plover in this shot

The sea not really providing

A light south to SW wind. Occasional and short showers.

Seawatch report from Pete:

Arctic Skua 1 dark morph

Sandwich Tern 7

Grey seal 1 

All the above early on, nothing later on the rising tide.

Heysham Skear - low water 09:45 (MD)

Shelduck 7 south

Eider 53

Great Crested Grebe 7

Red-breasted Merganser 3 females. This one flew off north before low water when they normally prefer to feed.

Waders continue to deminish

Oystercatcher c300

Curlew 2

Whimbrel 3

Turnstone 1

Watch this Carrion Crow catch a small Common Goby, I think this is very impressive. Turnstone etc feed like this instinctively, but this crow has worked out, or learned to feed like this!

There was no additional sediment over the skear today. I try to avoid stepping on the seed mussels, but sometimes it is unavoidable. Today it felt like walking over a carpet with a thick underlay. Which is, of course, exactly what it was......a carpet of seed mussels over a new underlay of mud.

South shore - high water 15:20 (MD)

I checked from Red Nab to saltmarsh towards high water.

Little Egret 2

Shelduck 2

Wheatear 3

Linnet 3

There were no waders at all on the shore from saltmarsh to Potts Corner

Middleton Nature Reserve (Janet)

Sedge Warbler

Mallard with 9 chicks on "no swimming" pond

Subtle changes can make significant differences

A light SW to west breeze. Overcast in the morning sunny periods in the afternoon. Sea mist around high water.

Heysham skear - low water 09:00 (MD)

Eider 49

Mane and female Eider

Great Crested Grebe 12 - they have very complex displays, this is just a small part of one

Red-breasted Merganser 2 femals

Little Egret 5

Sandwich Tern 2 feeding

Again very few waders, although many of the Oystercatcher would have been on the outer skear.

Oystercatcher c200

Curlew 1

Whimbrel 3

Dunlin 1

As I was crossing the upper beach, it was obvious that there had been a lot of sediment dropped by the previous tide. The mud was at least 1cm thicker than yesterday and the top layer was slippy as it was not compacted. Yesterday's rain coupled with a fast ebbing spring tide must have cut a channel through one of the sandbars. Once they are breeched like this the ebbing tide quickly scours tonnes of mud from the bars. 

I thought no more about it until I was approaching the skear and realised that there were nowhere near as many gulls feeding on the seed mussels, and those that were feeding were on different areas to yesterday. 

This is why......

The seed mussels were covered in mud, even the ones still showing would be difficult to dislodge

This isn't an immediate concern for the mussels, they will release their bond to the rocky bottom and move  above the mud. But this then means that they are no longer anchored to the substate, just to each other, which makes them more vulnerable to being swept away when we have storms.

The only location today allowing the gulls easy pickings where along the edges of the honeycomb worm beds.

Up till now the seed mussels had been doing well growing on top of the honeycomb worm beds, but I don't know what will happen now that these have a coating of mud.....

.......but you have to imaging that additional mud must favour the worms who actively use the mud to build their tubes and grow the beds.

I don't know if this was a coincidence, but you don't commonly see sea slugs on the skear. This one had managed to get itself stranded.

Common grey sea slug

I placed it in a pool, unfortunately upside down at first.

I turned it over, it would have managed itself in time, but they are not the fastest movers. Here it is shooting off

This was another stranded creature, a barrel Jellyfish. I've always known them as Medusa Jellyfish and you can see why.

Barrel Jellyfish 

I moved it to a nearby pool, they are safe to handle by their dome.

Another slow mover, but at least it was moving

South shore 

Janet had a walk down the sea wall but the sea mist prevented her from seeing far, but she managed these shots at Red Nab

Little Egret through the mist

Ringed Plover

Dunlin and Ringed Plover

The House Sparrows in the Duke of Rothesay garden are feeding fledged young

Pete's check of the sea was also thwarted by the mist

Sea: two porpoise, one swallow and one sandwich tern then mist came in!