Excellent Marsh Harrier and Little Gulls.......but eclipsed by a moth!

A light NE wind. Overcast with light showers.

Report from Pete:

Heliport 

520 Redshank 

235 Turnstone

1 snipe 

Red Nab/Ocean Edge

Mediterranean gull at least 38 (22 2cy, 3 1cy)

Little Gulls 2 juvenile 

Marsh Harrier highish to south over golf course about 0900

I had a walk on the shore (MD). Normally I thoroughly enjoy walking out on the mud, but today wasn't right. There was dead Whitebait strewn all over the mud. Gulls and Crows seemed to be ignoring them and just standing around. But two of the biggest opportunistic feeders wouldn't ignore such easy pickings, they must have woken up to a feast and gorged themselves silly! All the Whitebait were the same size and quite small, obviously all members of what was once a large shoal. There were tens of thousands of them and I only covered a relatively small area of the shore. I can't think of any natural cause in these tides and weather conditions. I have an idea for a possible cause, but only speculative, so I shall keep it to myself (nothing too bad).

This is out from the foreshore, which held the densest concentration 
It was like this for 200m x 50m. And there were still lots further out on the shore

This section near Red Nab was covered in gull footprints and droppings and still there were
hundreds of Whitebait remaining, goodness knows how many there were when the tide left them!

No gulls feeding on the outflows this morning, all too full!

Presumably the glut of free fish is what enticed the Little Gulls to hang around, although where they were resting didn't have too many fish on the mud.

These are the two juvenile Little Gulls, they appear to be resting on a young Mediterranean gull's patch of shore (we're not in black and white mode, but the wet mud was reflecting the grey sky and all three gulls were basically shades of grey).

Little Gull with 1st calendar year Mediterranean gull

Juvenile Little Gulls

Redshank 200

Knot 220 - these are some of the Knot coming in.

Bar-Tailed Godwit 2

Lapwing 13 (on saltmarsh)

Plus the Oystercatchers and Curlew. There was only a few each Ringed Plover and Dunlin while I was out on the shore, but their numbers were increasing as I left.

Linnet 6 on saltmarsh 

Rock Pipit 1 on Red Nab

Meadow Pipit 43 east in small groups - none closer than 50m from the shoreline.

Wheatear 29 - including 5 on Red Nab, Kevin Eaves saw 15 - 20 on Red Nab mid afternoon 

Robin singing its heart out on the saltmarsh edge

Pink-Footed Goose 507 in 8 skeins, the last at 10:20. Janet had 20 south early on. Jean had 731, of which at least 561 didn't overlap with mine. So minimum number today 1,088

Full report from Jean, from along the sea wall.

Pink-footed Geese - 731 in total as follows:

0840hrs 50 over HNR heading south, then 70 and then another 50

0955hrs 200 heading S over the sea

1000hrs 40 SW

1015hrs 200 S high SW over the power station

1020hrs 24 SW

1030hrs 40 SW coming over the power station m then 55 SW and finally 2 high S

Other vis:

Meadow Pipit 8 east

Pied Wagtail 1 heard

Grounded:

Goldcrest - 1 in the bushes at the harbour

Robin - 1 in the bushes at the harbour

Linnet - 4 on the wire at the harbour

Grey Wagtail - 1 flew along the sea wall and possibly the same one heard within the power station later

Goldfinch - 12 juvs in the bushes near Red Nab

Red Nab of note:

Redshank - 390 roosting at high tide

Kevin Eaves had this special moth in his overnight trap:

A rather special moth in the trap this morning. A very rare Clifden Nonpareil. A rare
migrant which may have established itself in one or two locations in the south of the country. 

They are huge!

More Curlew Sandpiper

A light SW to W wind. Overcast withe light showers in the morning, a relatively dry afternoon but more steady rain in the evening.

South shore

Pete and Jean checked from Ocean Edge on the rising tide.

Curlew Sandpiper 2 together at the edge of a feeding flock of Ringed Plover out from the saltmarsh.

Mediterranean gull 24 most on Red Nab

Sandwich Tern 4

I had a walk onto the shore (MD), but had left it a bit late, the tide was already ebbing and the Ringed Plover 100+ and Dunlin 20+ were moving to the newly exposed mud.

There were tiny sea snails everywhere on the mud that had been covered by the sea. It's not clear what the birds were actually eating. The Dunlin were probing and the Plovers picking. If they were eating the snails here, they were being very selective. This clip shows the different feeding techniques of a Dunlin and a juvenile Ringed Plover. Every dark speck is a tiny sea snail, you can see the vast quantity are ignored.

Curlew 150

Oystercatcher 200

Bar-Tailed Godwit 1

Grey Plover 3

Turnstone 3 

Slightly unusual seeing Turnstone resting on the mud here

Lapwing 12 on saltmarsh 

Pink-Footed goose 17 low to the south

Little Egret 7

Wheatear 2 - foreshore

Linnet 10 - saltmarsh 

Rock Pipit 1 - Red Nab

A nice group of Mediterranean gulls on Red Nab. 3 adult, 4 second calendar year and 1 first calendar year.
No rings seen today. Yesterday's white ringed bird was ringed in Holland as a nestling in 2019.
From May 2020 to May 2022 it was seen in Germany, Wales, Spain, Portugal and France.
But yesterday was the first sighting in 16 months.

Janet was having a walk along the sea wall. This is the view of the Red Nab gulls from the wall.

Mainly Black-Headed Gulls on Red Nab. There is a small group at the top
towards the left that are probably the same group of Meds pictured above

Little Egret on Red Nab

This is a nice sequence of a young Black-Headed Gull picking up a fish (Whitebait) from the outflows. Worth opening these to appreciate the detail.

You can see the stunned Whitebait in the water. If gulls could smile, this one is!

This adult Mediterranean gull was also after Whitebait on the outflows

Cormorants on the wooden Jetty

Osprey day

A light east wind. A sunny start and warm, but the clouds were building and they broke just after lunch in a thunderstorm, several other showers throughout the afternoon and evening.

South Shore - high water 09:10. (MD)

I checked the shore out from the saltmarsh, it may have been high water, but the main waterline was still over half a mile out. The tide height was only 7m and the shore is pretty flat here.

Most of the waders were to the south of the recording area, but still:

Curlew 150

Oystercatcher 70

Bar-Tailed Godwit 4

Grey Plover 2

Ringed Plover 29

Dunlin 4

The Ringed Plover were just resting on the dry mud

A solitary Grey Plover patrolling the waterline

At first glance this wader with a pale belly looked interesting, but it turned out to be just a Dunlin moving to winter plumage.

Osprey 2 sightings, likely to be two individuals as Pete advises that Ospreys were everywhere on lune east area this am!

The first sighting heading south was unusual in the respect that although it flew over a gull roost then along the waterline it wasn't mobbed and it didn't lift a single wader! In contrast the second sighting heading north lifted all the gulls, including a yellow ringed Mediterranean gull that I was trying to read, despite the Osprey being well inland. Thinking about it now, it could have been something closer that lifted the shore gulls and the inland bird just coincidental.

10:15 Osprey came high from the north over Ocean Edge Caravan park before dropping lower continuing south along the waterline. Fortunately this flight path took it directly over my head, albeit still quite high.

Osprey. Blue ring with white characters on the right leg

10:50 Osprey being mobbed by gulls as it flew north, but it was well inland over Middleton Nature Reserve which has its own contingent of gulls.

Mediterranean Gull 14 adults with the Black-Headed gulls on the shore. I didn't manage to read the yellow ringed bird and it wasn't with the group that resettled after whatever flushed them had gone. There was a new white ringed bird though.

Mediterranean gull with white darvic ring - details awaited

It's three days now since this area of the shore was covered by the tide. This gull pellet has remained undisturbed and the few light sowers removed the binding matrix.

Mainly fish bones with a couple of large crab claws. Every scrap of flesh has been digested 
Note the holes in the mud where the sea snails have buried down. Quite deeply now I expect.

Red Admirals 16  - they were constantly flying over the mud to the SE. 

No wind. No tide. No good!......well, not much good

Almost breathless, what air movement there was came from the south. Overcast and warm till mid afternoon then the skies cleared after a short shower. Then sunny and hot.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Some shots from Janet:

Swallows bathing

Male Common Darter

I just did a quick check of the main pond late afternoon (MD)

Mute Swan pair plus 7 well grown cygnets 

Coot 6

Moorhen 1

Mallard 5

Little Grebe 1 in summer plumage, dived as soon as it saw me and didn't surface in view again. First one seen in quite a while

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

Common Darter 3

Migrant Hawker 3

This time last year we fixed a branched post in the NE corner of the pond, hoping to attract fish eating birds. Today, it did just that, but not exactly the target species!

Grey Heron perched on top of the perching post.

Heysham skear - low water 14:30 (MD)

Low water today was only 3.4m. This morning's "high" water was 6.8m. So the tide moved a total of 3.4m in 7 hours! I've seen bigger waves!

No Eider.

Great Crested Grebe 1

Red-breasted Merganser 4 - what I took to be a female with 3 immature flew in together.

Then started feeding

Little Egret 6

Oystercatcher c300

Curlew c150

Redshank c150

Turnstone c60

Knot c800 - it was nice seeing flocks of Knot flying around again. These are two of the four main groups.

They often just rest on the skear, but today they were actively feeding, and seeming to find food easily.

Dunlin 2

Ringed Plover 10 restricted to a small area of inner skear near the Sandylands groyne, that remains mussel free.

Black-Tailed Godwit 4 - a single bird plus three together. All in fading summer or juvenile plumage.

This is the lone bird. The Herring gulls continue to find some small mussels

It flew off to the middle of the inner skear

Two of the three together, one clearly showing its black tail

These are all three.

Early morning Merlin

A very light east breeze till lunch, when it freshened slightly and shifted to west. Bright and sunny after a hazy start.

South shore

Janet had an early morning walk along the sea wall

Oystercatcher, silhouetted by the sun's haze through the Saharan dust

Red Nab Robin

Red Nab Rock Pipit

The outflows were busy, this is No.2

Curlew 

Oystercatcher(s)

Redshank 

Grey Heron - more on this later

Cormorants on wooden jetty

This Merlin flew high over the harbour. 
Not easy to get a shot of these, they do fly quickly 

I had a walk along the wall later in the morning (MD)

Timed to watch the beach by the wooden jetty become exposed but the only gull to turn up was

Mediterranean gull 1 second calendar year

2nd calendar year Mediterranean gull

Pink-Footed goose 55 flew SE over the harbour at 10:15. Mark Jones picked them up as they left the recording area, 4 broke away and headed up the River Lune while the others continued south.

Grey Heron, there were more around than the usual single bird today. Janet saw two, I saw three including this juvenile that was chased across the harbour mouth. 

It might only be young, but it had excellent balance, better than mine trying to film it! I suppose you need extra long legs, when you have an extra long neck to scratch.

Wheatear 3 - 1 at lighthouse and 2 on foreshore 

Rock Pipit 3 - 1 on Red Nab and 2 on foreshore 

I checked the shore out from the saltmarsh again this evening (MD). As expected the inshore mud was dry and waderless. This is the mud where the Curlew Sandpiper etc were feeding yesterday.

The mud was dry and not a snail in sight today. There is a snail, relatively safe, under every pimple here.

High tide was only 7m. It didn't even cover the sandbars to the south of the recording area where most of the waterline waders were feeding. There were a few within our area.

Oystercatcher c200

Curlew c100

Whimbrel 1 heard only

Redshank 40 

Bar-Tailed Godwit 18

Grey Plover 4

Knot 24

Dunlin 30

Ringed Plover 6

Lapwing 12 on Red Nab

Mediterranean gull 7 adult seen on the shore, but the gulls were well spread and it is likely that there were more.

Just south of the recording area

10:55 - Osprey flew from inland, west over Mark Jones' caravan. It was mobbed by gulls as it reached the shore and veered off to the south, before being lost from sight. 

Lots of small wader food = lots of small waders.......and some good ones too!

Very light east breeze. Overcast but very warm all day. There must have been lots of Saharan sand in the clouds, as a light shower covered everything in fine dust!

South shore (MD)

We have, very quickly, moved back to neap tides, so I walked to the waterline out from the saltmarsh late afternoon as the tide was coming in. On the way out, there were areas where the small sea snails were covering the mud. They are always present, but normally hide just below the mud surface when the tide is out.

This is about a square metre of mud. You can see the density of the snails.

These are the snails, if you look in the bottom left corner it appears greenish, this is the 
algae that I suspect the snails are feeding on.

This is one of the snails. The waders eat them whole, but they normally have to dig for them

This is another section of drier beach, the snails have all attempted to hide in the mud.......

........but the detail shows that some are barely hidden

I suspect that a combination of a quick change from spring to neap tides, leaving much of the mud wet, and the very warm weather allowing the algae to form quickly tempted the snails out to feed, they were only visible in numbers on the wettest sections of the shore.

Mediterranean Gull 7 adult

Shelduck 14

There were a lot of waders on the waterline and many more just resting on the shore, presumably well fed!

Oystercatcher c600

Curlew c200

Bar-Tailed Godwit 121

Grey Plover 22

Knot c300

Redshank 10 

Dunlin c1,000

The tide only comes in slowly on neap tides, but this is the moment, that the wake from the Seatruck reached the shore. You can hear it lapping about my feet and it moves the Godwit, Knot and Dunlin further up the shore.

As I was walking back I noticed a group of small waders feeding on a wet section of shore near the saltmarsh. Sure enough, as I got closer the density of snails was increasing. The group was quite flighty but roughly consisted of. 

Ringed Plover 35

Dunlin 25

Curlew Sandpiper at least 3 juvenile 

Sanderling 1 juvenile 

These are two of the Curlew Sandpiper

Juvenile Curlew Sandpipers

Three juvenile Curlew Sandpipers in this shot (white rumps)

This is the juvenile Sanderling, you can see it, the plovers and Dunlin picking up the snails.

Sanderling, Curlew Sandpiper, Dunlin and Ringed Plover

Unfortunately, it is unlikely that there will be a repeat performance in the same place tomorrow. Today's tide would not wet this area again and the mud here will likely be dry, but other areas should provide opportunities.