Red-Veined Darter lingers

The light east breeze and wall to wall sunshine continues.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Janet checked the main pond in the afternoon and relocated the Red-Veined Darter

Male Red-Veined Darter

One of several Black-Tailed Skimmers

South shore (MD)

I didn't have much time today, so just managed a quick check of the saltmarsh to Red Nab at high water ( 09:00)

Two female Eider plus one of five Curlew

Two Shelduck 

One of four Lapwing

One of five Linnet feeding on saltmarsh 

One of two Common Whitethroat in saltmarsh margins

Large Skipper 10

Male Large Skipper

Emperor Dragonfly 1

Then a quick evening walk along the sea wall, very few insects coming in despite ideal local conditions.

Red Admiral 4

Small Tortoiseshell 2

Rock Pipit taking food to nest hole near lighthouse 

The beach near the wooden jetty was again deserted. You can see why, the arrow points to the 
"normal" level of this beach. The few scattered rocks top right are normally a prominent peninsula.
The excess mud will not go in time for the gulls to feast on the Sandmason worms
unless we get significant storms.

Just out of the recording area - the lane to Heysham Moss.

Nothing unusual, but nice shots from Janet.

Narrow-bordered five-spot Burnet

Meadow Brown

Red-Veined Darter tops a mainly insect day

A light east wind, sunshine all day.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Janet checked it out early afternoon 

Red-Veined Darter 1 -  just the one darter seen today and it was elusive but Janet eventually managed to get some shots:

Male Red-veined Darter

The Coot are still battling 

Small Tortoiseshell 

I checked the main pond early evening (MD) and just managed the briefest glimpse of the Red-veined Darter, but at least it shows it hung around and will hopefully still be around tomorrow.

Both families of 8 Mallard ducklings were seen, the male Mute now seems to accept the almost adult sized brood, but still chases the slightly smaller brood.

Swift 4, Swallow 1 and House Martin 1 feeding.

This is odd, it is a juvenile Black-Headed gull bathing where I saw one bathing the other day. There was no sign of any adult and after its bath it flew off by itself to the west.

South shore (MD)

I had a walk along the wall late morning to see if any Mediterranean gulls turned up when the beach near the wooden jetty became exposed. They didn't, just Herring and Lesser Black-Backed gulls.

Lighthouse Rock Pipit still taking food to young somewhere 

There was a steady passage of butterflies coming in off the sea:

Small White 6

Red Admiral 5

Also 

Meadow Brown 2 each on scrub near lighthouse and Nature Park

Ringlet 1 Nature Park.

Clay tripple-lines moth, resting in the shade on the sea wall
Not common this far north

I checked Red Nab again in the evening as the tide was arriving, there were around 300 gulls on the mud just out from the foreshore.

At least:

Black-Headed gulls 227

Mediterranean gulls 3 - 2 adult and a second summer

Common gulls 18

Herring Gulls 24

Lesser-Black Backed gulls 16

Great Black-Backed gull 1

Kevin Eaves had some nice moths in his overnight trap:

Scarce Silver-lines

Blood-vein

Finally, the Barrel Jellyfish are still rolling out!

Barrel Jellyfish below the Barrows - Janet rolled it back in again!

The itch that, just about, could be scratched!

Light breeze, east overnight switching to west early morning to late afternoon, then back to east again. Hot and sunny.

Middleton Nature Reserve (MD)

Mute Swan pair plus 9 cygnets 

Mallard 3 eclipsed male plus 1 female with 8 large youngsters.

Gadwall 1 eclipsed male, 2 female, 1 with 5 small chicks. All on "no swimming" pond.

Male Gadwall in eclipse 

This is one of the females with her chicks, the dogs barking in the background are from a large group on/in the main pond.

Coot 5 adult, 2 large young and 5 small chicks

Moorhen 2

There wasn't loads of warblers singing, but again managed eight species.

Cetti's Warbler 4, only Chiffchaff more than this. Willow Warbler, Blackcap,

Common Whitethroat, Lesser Whitethroat, Reed Warbler and Sedge Warbler.

Sedge Warbler 

Surprisingly few butterflies 

Meadow Brown 2

Large Skipper 3

Speckled Wood 5

Red Admiral 2

Lots of dragon flies.

Emperor, Four-spotted Chaser, Broad-bodied Chaser, Black-Tailed Skimmer, Common Darter.

Male Black-Tailed Skimmer

These are female Emperors ovipositoring, with a couple of males flying above.

Also lots of Damselflies, Janet took this shot.

Common Bluetail Damselflies

South shore (MD)

A walk after lunch, unfortunately not ideal for insects with the west breeze. Presumably this Poplar Hawk-moth came in overnight when the breeze was from the east.

Poplar Hawk-moth, resting in the shade 

There was also a Mother Shipton in the scrub near the lighthouse (ref Kevin)

Rock Pipit 2. 1 display calling near the waterfall plus 1 feeding near the lighthouse.

Whimbrel 1 heard flying past the roundhead.

Curlew 7

Black-Headed gulls, strangely only c20 with most of those resting on the mud out from Red Nab. 

Mediterranean gull 3 with the resting Black-Headed gulls.

The metal ringed adult Mediterranean gull with a first summer 

Unfortunately a second summer bird has lost its right leg from the knee down and has adapted by walking on its left knee.

Second summer Mediterranean gull with the lower half of its right leg missing

It has obviously adapted very well and appears to be in good health otherwise. But it is clearly handicapped and will struggle to capture any Sandmason worms near the wooden jetty, where the gulls have to run to capture exposed worms. Although most gulls will struggle again this year, there was another 5cm of mud on that beach today. Hopefully the outflows will provide it a feeding option. Either way it will be an easy one to keep track of.

You have to feel for it here, it clearly has an itch that needs to be scratched......

.......just about managed it!

In the Nature Park:

Ringlet 1 - first this year, but too flighty to get a shot

Meadow Brown 2

Speckled Wood 3

Common Blue 2

There were 14 spikes of Bee Orchid in this group.
See post 3rd June for location details 

The Honeysuckle looked, and smelt, nice too

Med numbers increasing

Heavy, but brief overnight and early morning showers. The light early east wind shifted to the west and freshened from mid morning. The sun shone all day and felt hotter in the increased humidity.

Report from Pete Crooks:

A morning walk along the sea-wall on the ebbing tide produced:
7 Mediterranean Gull – 2 adults in full summer plumage on the tideline off Red Nab (Shaun Coyle and Jonathan Stretch), 1 moulting adult (the regular bird with right leg metal ring), 2 2nd summer and 2 1st summer – all around the Stage One outfall / Wooden Pier area or flying past offshore
18 Cormorant – on / around wooden pier
1 Sandwich Tern – offshore
1 female Eider – offshore
1 Grey Seal – off Stage One outfall
1 Rock Pipit – lighthouse / inner harbour wall area
Butterflies on the vegetated area near the lighthouse comprised 2+ Meadow Brown, 2 Common Blue and 2 Small White

Pete Crooks, Shaun Coyle and Jonathan Stretch

I just managed a check of the foreshore, before giving up and heading for home - too humid for me! (MD)

This was interesting though, well I thought so! There were two young Pied Wagtails feeding on top of the vent for the groundwater drain near the slipway. On close inspection, it could be seen to be surrounded by small (drain?) flies. They had obviously been breeding in the largely empty drain, till this morning's groundwater surge flushed them out.

And that was it as far as the shore birds went. Still, the SeaCat was speeding in, you don't have to look you can feel the throb of its powerful turbines from a great distance. This clip it is about 2 kilometres away and still at full speed. You can just about hear it in the clip,

Willow Warbler in the Nature Park, carrying small caterpillars.

Heysham Skear

A mid afternoon check on the rising tide, I wasn't expecting to see much, but it was pleasant in the now quite fresh sea breeze.

Little Egret 2

Great Crested Grebe 2

Red-breasted Merganser 3

Mergansers resting on a sand bar

Eider 1 male - it is trying to prise off some of the smaller mussels. One of the Great Crested Grebes makes a guest appearance.

Oystercatcher c60, Curlew 26

Curlew

Middleton under the microscope!

Almost breathless till mid morning then a steady ESE breeze continued for the rest of the sun filled day.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Jean provided this report from this morning's Wildlife Trust outing:

Main pond
2 ad Mute Swan with 9 juvs
3 moulting male Mallard, 1 female and 7 young birds that were more or less fully grown
5 Coot and 1 juv
1 Little Grebe “tittering”
2 Moorhen 
3 Swift and 1 Swallow feeding over the pond
1 Reed Warbler singing on the edge of the pond

Around the main pond were several Northern Marsh orchids and Bee orchids. Also a few Common Spotted orchids and some hybrid marsh orchids which were pink rather than purple.

Northern Marsh Orchid

Bee Orchid

It was very dry on the edge of the main pond so many flowers were miniature in size eg Ox-eye Daisies 3cm high, Common Centaury even smaller. The pink flower may be Centaury but it should have 5 petals not 4. The yellow flowers look like buttercups but are in fact Lesser Spearwort and you can see some Cotton Grass in amongst it.

Lesser Sprearwort and Cotton Grass

Four petalled Centaury?

These flowers are typical of wet conditions but it was far from that - more like desert! 

 

A pregnant Alder beetle. Many of the alder leaves had been
ravaged by the larvae of this species.

This looks like an ear of grass is one called Bishop’s Mitre Shieldbug and is found
in dry grassland. It’s common but easily overlooked.

Here is a hoverfly that mimics a white tailed Bumblebee and even buzzes like one. The larvae develop in Bumblebee nests. It has a kind of beak and only has one pair of wings. It landed on a grass stem which bumblebees never do. 

Not a bee!

Pupae of a 5 spot Burnet moth.

Common Blue Damselfly

Female Common Darter - main pond

Black tailed Skimmer
 several on the small dragonfly pools to the west

At least 3 singing Cetti’s Warblers 
1 NW end of main pond
2 N end of No swimming pond 
3 N end of ringing area/near dyke

The best sighting was a line of 5 weasels running across the track just before the little brick building but they were so quick I didn’t get a photo.

A small selection of the 15 people who were on the walk today.
 Steve has got his head buried in the sweep net looking for beetles! 

Janet also visited earlier and took some nice dragonfly shots.

Male Broad-bodied Chaser

Black-Tailed Skimmers mating. You seldom see the lower abdomen
of a female (lower insect). This one is particularly blue

A more typical view of a female Black-Tailed Skimmer

You can see some of the lower abdomen in this ovipositoring female,
just a shade of blue

The Coot are still squabbling, they've been at it all year!

Heysham skear - low water 11:50 (MD)

Little Egret 5

Great Crested Grebe 1

Eider 1 male

Red-breasted Merganser 3 - these two were "snorkelling". They spot their prey before diving for it. I normally associate this feeding method with catching crabs, but if it was crabs they were diving for, they would have caught one (as the gull behind does). Presumably they were after more elusive prey, probably Butterfish.

Oystercatcher 100+

Curlew 10

Sam

Sanderling 1 - flushed by the rising tide from the north side Honeycomb worm reefs.

Emperor Dragonfly 1 north

South sea wall (MD)

I had a walk along just before the tide reached the sea wall at the wooden jetty.

Red Admirals 11, in the last 10 minutes of the walk to the end of the wall 6 flew in off. But I got there at the same time as the tide and after that there was only one more till I was walking back and had reached the point where the tide hadn't reached the sea wall.

This was the only Red Admiral to pause briefly on the sea wall, the rest just piled through.
They are surprisingly difficult to see on the wall when they rest with their wings closed.

There was a Meadow Brown, several Common Blues in the scrub near the lighthouse, but the only other butterfly I saw come in off was a Small White.

Swallow 1 in off

Rock,Pipit 4. 1 displaying near No.1 outflow. 2 near lighthouse, one appeared to fly to a different hole in the wall. 1 near waterfall.

Linnet 5

Curlew 19 flew south

Imperial Rd (MD)

Just a quick stop off on my way home, no sign of any Buzzards.

Stock Dove 2