Dragonflies emerging

A very light mainly NW breeze. Plenty of sunshine and very wam peaking at 23°C mid afternoon.

Heysham skear - low water 08:00 (Malcolm)

Shelduck 1 north

Eider 85 - these are a few of them still squabbling over partners.

Red-breasted Merganser 11 - these are five of them.

Great Crested Grebe 6

Little Egret 3

A pair of Lesser Black-Backed gulls resting on a honeycomb worm reef.

Not many waders around today, partly because the outer skear was also exposed and some would have been there. But there definitely was a reduction.

Oystercatcher 400 (although many more were seen flying from the outer skear as it was covered)

Knot 450

Curlew 1 (no Whimbrel today, it sounded strange as their calls have been a constant soundtrack on the skear during recent visits)

Dunlin just 1

I went as far as the middle skear goes this morning, all the pools out there are full of Hydroid colonies (see yesterday's post). I cant recall seeing this many before. They are quite delicate, perhaps it is just down to the recent calm conditions. This clip gives a better idea of their form, remember they are not a plant but made up of tiny individual animals.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Janet checked in the morning before it really warmed up. Still there was insect activity 

Female Green-veined White

Male Common Blue Damselfly 

Four-Spotted Chaser - first of the year - seen by Janet but passed to quickly for a shot.

I checked in the very warm mid afternoon (Malcolm). I managed to locate two very fresh looking Four-Spotted Chasers.

Four-spotted Chaser

This is the other one

There were lots of teneral damselflies around but a few more mature ones as well.

Large Red 1

Common Blue 2 males 

Azure Blue 1 female

Female Azure Blue

Male Common Blue

Butterflies:

Orange Tip 6 male 2 female

Green-veined White 2

Brimstone male and female

Speckled Wood 1

Common Blue 1 male

Warblers, were less vocal than of late, but still plenty to be heard. These numbers reflect singing birds.

Cetti's warbler 5 

Chiffchaff 2

Willow warbler 3

Blackcap 1 

Reed warbler 3

Sedge warbler 2

Reed Bunting 2

Wildfowl:

The only Mute seen were the nesting pair. But Tim Butler pond not checked.

Coot 4

Moorhen 3

Little grebe at least 1, but very elusive on the main pond.

Gadwall 3 males

Mallard 7 (1 female). These two male seem to be guarding this female, but for no obvious reason. There were no chicks around (Reed Bunting and a Reed warbler (plus a Blackbird) singing in the background).

An odd day!

 A light west breeze. An overcast morning then a combination of sunshine and mist in the afternoon.

A couple of shots from Janet:

A Herring Gull collecting nest material at Half Moon Bay yesterday 

Another Silver Y on Middleton Nature Reserve today

I escorted a field trip around Heysham Head 10:30 - 12:00 (Malcolm)

Greylag goose 12 flew low to the south, east of the Head. 

Eider 4

Little Egret 2

Swallow 6 north

Rock Pipit at least 2 below the cliffs.

Linnet 3

Goldfinch 9

Chiffchaff 1 singing 

Blackcap 1 singing near the car park

Willow Warbler 1 seen

Common Whitethroat 3 - 2 singing males and a female

Lesser Whitethroat 1 singing

House Sparrow 30 plus in the two fields to the south of the head

Kestrel 1 female hunting

Jackdaw 5

Magpie 2

Carrion Crow 1

Wood Pigeon 6

Robin, Dunlin and Wrens singing.

Heysham skear (Malcolm)

I went out this evening on the ebbing tide. It was almost surreal. I was in bright sunshine the whole time, but a fog bank came in......

........first obscuring the harbour and Power Stations

Then the Head and Heysham village disappeared 

Then all of Morecambe was gone - the fog bank then continued north and reality slowly returned.

Eider 53

Red-breasted Merganser 4

Little Egret 5

A sunlit Little Egret with fog bound Morecambe for a backdrop 

Oystercatcher 1,000

Knot 350

Curlew 2

Curlew and Lesser Black-Backed gull

Whimbrel 7 at least

Whimbrel, with the now returning Heysham in the background 

Turnstone 11 in one flock 

No Godwit, Redshank, Dunlin or Sanderlings seen

These are doing very well this year

There are always some around, but every pool seems to have a population this year. I say population because although they look like a feathery plant they are in fact colonies of tiny animals. They are Hydroids (part of the Hydrozoa class). I believe this species is Whiteweed, but I would be happy to be corrected (Malcolm)

Buoy watch

A misty start with a light SW breeze drifting more towards the west during the day. Some hazy sunshine in the afternoon.

"Seawatch" Pete and Jean.

Report by Pete:

Visibility only just beyond buoys for an hour then twice that distance for the second hour of very intermittent seawatching.

A few bits on the sea in poor vis late stages of the tide : 

1 Razorbill

5 guillemot

1 Gannet

25, 7, 15 common scoter

7 sandwich tern

2 porpoise

10 swallow.   

South shore

It was still very misty when I went down the sea wall this morning (Malcolm), although visibility was starting to improve. 

There are a lot of young large gulls around at the moment. This is what No.1 outflow looked like, and this is a big improvement to when I set off.

Immature Herring and Lesser Black-Backed gulls resting on the sea wall

Bar-Tailed Godwit 54 feeding between the outflows.

You may have noticed an immature Herring Gull instinctively collecting nest material towards the end of the above clip. The mature birds were at it in earnest.

Lesser Black-Backed gull collecting nest material

This Herring Gull in the harbour is already sitting

Rock Pipit 2 - one near the waterfall was feeding itself. But this one by the lighthouse was taking food to the nest.

It will never go to its nest site when it knows it is being watched.
 It is waiting here on the sloping roundhead wall, its nest is in the harbour wall.

Linnet 2 between the lighthouse and waterfall.

This is what the two buoys out from the north wall looked like when I arrived.
The southern yellow buoy was faring better than the northern buoy 

But only a few minutes later the southern buoy is almost submerged
and a minute or so later it was completely under

Janet checked later in the tide.

Post readers often ask where Potts corner is. It is the car park at
Middleton sands, and these Eider are heading straight for it

These shots are also from Janet, taken at Middleton Nature Reserve yesterday.

Male Pheasant 

This shot isn't about the Whitethroat, but look at all the insects around the bush!

Heysham skear (Malcolm)

Just a very quick check,as the inner skear was becoming exposed.

Sandwich Tern 2

Eider 51

Great Crested Grebe 2

Little Egret 3

Grey Heron 1

Oystercatcher initially c300 but they were arriving all the time at least 800 before I left

Whimbrel 7

Knot none at first then c800 arrived

Turnstone 1

Dunlin 31

Dunlin

This moth was trapped in Kevin Eaves' garden. But not in Kevin's trap! Alison Hayward is now running a separate moth trap in Kevin's garden.

She had this rather stunning Orange Footman last night. 

Orange Footman - It has a southerly distribution in the UK and is not at all
common this far North. A first for Alison..... and me! (Kevin)

While we are talking orange, this clip, also from Kevin close to his home to the east of the recording area.

This railway line marks the eastern boundary of the recording area.
Fortunately not a very busy line!

Avocets and a lonely buoy.

A dry and largely sunny day. A light NW breeze after an even lighter early NE breeze.

Seawatch - Pete, Jean and Mark Prestwood

Report by Jean:

Seen from the North Harbour Wall and going into the Bay unless stated 06:20-10:50

Canada Goose 1

Shelduck 1

Common Scoter 3

Great Crested Grebe 2

Bar-tailed Godwit 85

Kittiwake 17

Sandwich Tern 48 out, 41 in 

Arctic Tern 51

Guillemot 6 out 28 floating in

Razorbill 1

Swallow 27

Linnet 2 north and 2 present

Redpoll 8

Goldfinch 2

Rock Pipit present

Carrion Crow 2 present and 3 others seen but chased off by the residents.

3 Porpoise close in.

The southern yellow buoy was dragged under by the strong tidal current. The pilot boat came out to look for it, gave up and went back to the harbour. Close to high tide it resurfaced - the buoy returned! At first it looked like a shark’s fin then the rest of it emerged from the deep.

A lonely north buoy with the southern buoy under water

From Knowlys Rd - Pete

Avocet 4  distant flying north along the low tide channel.

Middleton Nature Reserve (Janet)

Sparrowhawk 

Common Whitethroat 

First Silver Y of the year

Female Orange Tip

This female Orange Tip appears to be laying an egg.

Teneral Damselfly

Heysham Skear - low water 18:25 (Malcolm)

My only outing today, it's a busy week. The skear is a very large area at low water on these spring tides, and many of the waders would have been on the outer skear. I probably saw more birds yesterday when the skear was only postage stamp sized!

Little Egret 6

Eider 92

Great Crested Grebe 1

Oystercatcher 500

Knot 60

Turnstone - just one heard

Whimbrel at least 16. I am very disappointed with this clip of 3 flying over. They were calling constantly and I was sure I would get a decent recording, as it is you can barely hear them at all.

Dunlin 92 in three feeding groups. Not sure what they are finding here, they don't seem to be catching shrimps. Possibly tiny molluscs.

Dunlin

Ringed Plover 1

Male Ringed Plover

Auks moving through

A light west breeze began at 09:30. Prior to that it was almost still. Just a couple of light afternoon showers with some sunny spells.

Seawatch report by Pete Crooks:

6.55 – 9.45 am (with Mark Prestwood)
3 dark morph Arctic Skua – 1 flew into the Bay at 8.26 am, with presumably the same bird returning back out of the Bay at 8.40 am; 1 flew in and landed on the sea at 9.10 am, then another flew in at 9.15 am and landed alongside the previous bird, before both flew off further into the Bay separately at 9.25 am and 9.30 am.
c.130 Auks – mostly Guillemot, but including 10+ Razorbill drifted in on the incoming tide between 8.20 and 9.30 am. Mostly distant (beyond the two buoys) and in groups of up to 20, with quite a few flying back out as others were still drifting in on the flat, calm sea.
c.65 Common Scoter – groups of 15, c.40 and 9 flew into the Bay, but mostly distant.
3 Red-throated Diver – 1 in at 7.50 am, then 2 in at 8.58 am
2 Great Crested Grebe
8 Sandwich Tern
c.250 Bar-tailed Godwit – flew from Half Moon Bay towards the Wooden Pier
2 Harbour Porpoise
No passerine movement; just 1 Rock Pipit flew from Near Naze towards the harbour

Additional after Pete left - Mark Prestwood

2 red-throated diver

25 common scoter

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Ringing report by Alan:

I set three nets again at Middleton and a very modest catch was the result.

Sedge Warbler  2

Reed Warbler  1 retrap

Lesser Whitethroat  1
Blackcap  1

Willow Warbler  1

Lesser Redpoll   7

This brings the total number of Redpolls for this spring to a respectable 68, mostly at Middleton with a few at Heysham also. Surprisingly no birds captured elsewhere have been encountered so far.

I walked out to the waterline on the rising tide out from Ocean Edge (Malcolm)

Cetti's warbler 1 male singing on territory from bushes along shoreline where Pontins used to be. I could hear it from 300m out on the shore.

Not quite as vociferous, but more conspicuous was a male Common Whitethroat in the same general area. Here he is, not happy as a Wren was also singing in his patch.

Carrion Crow 19 on the mud

Some of the Carrion Crows. All 19 flew north towards Ocean edge, when moved off by the tide. 

Shelduck 6

Great Crested Grebe 1

Little Egret 3

Common Gull 45

These spring tides come in very quickly and the waders were very flighty. Best assessment of numbers:

Oystercatcher 30

Bar-Tailed Godwit 130

Knot 450

Dunlin 50

Curlew 7 (3 on saltmarsh)

Whimbrel 4 (1 on saltmarsh)

This is a Whimbrel at the edge of the saltmarsh trying to outpace the incoming tide.

This clip begins on a Whimbrel on the saltmarsh, then pans across to 3 Curlew.

Wheatear 2

North shore just as the ebbing tide was exposing the inner skear rocks (Malcolm).

Going down early has one main advantage, there is less space for the birds to occupy, so they are more concentrated. Unfortunately two disadvantages, not all the birds arrive this early, and a dense concentration of birds attract predators!

Peregrine Falcon 2 at least. Three attacks seen.

Peregrine Falcon - they looked particularly formidable as they were zipping
past  my head at close range! I was pleased not to be a Knot!

Resting places are a premium early on. These two Sandwich Tern were on prime real estate. They had been being buzzed by a group of Oystercatcher and finally gave way.

But the Oystercatchers didn't benefit as this young Herring gull took possession of the rock

Turnstone and Dunlin on another rock

The Turnstone are at various levels of moult to summer plumage.

How many Knot can dance on the head of a pin?

Oystercatcher 350

Curlew 2

Whimbrel 11

Knot c800 till cleared off (and culled) by the peregrines 

Turnstone 45

Dunlin 10

Red-breasted Merganser 1 male

Eider 20 close in.

The RNLI hovercraft was out and about, hopefully just exercises.

Just out of the recording area

Manx Shearwater 11 - would have been within visual range from OE - off plover scar just after high tide almost certainly went past Heysham first 

Decent coverage and a decent day

 

The early south breeze gradually swung round to NW by evening. A dry day with plenty of warm sunshine in the afternoon.

First some overnight news.

23:30 last night - Whimbrel "flock" flew over Angela Gillon's house in the NE of the recording area.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Ringing report by John:

Warm again with a light wind. Arrived at 6am and three nets set.

Numbers caught were small, but all were new birds apart from one Chiffchaff.

They comprised ;

Lesser Redpoll           5

Sedge Warbler           4

Tree Pipit                  1

Great Tit                    1

Chiffchaff                    1

Lesser Whitethroat      1

North Harbour wall - Mark Prestwood 6.30 - 8.30 am

3 dark morph Arctic Skua 

26 Gannet 

Flock of 7 red-breasted Merganser in 

25 common scoter

Short seawatch prior to the high water webs survey - Pete (Marks birds additional)

10 gannet 

7 kittiwake 

1 guillemot

3 common scoter

15 sandwich tern, plus 5 on green buoy on the south side.

Whinchat 1 male briefly on Ocean Edge foreshore 

Porpoise 2

Seen from Stone Jetty, by Josh Hedley,  there will be some overlap with Pete's and Mark's records

07:21- 09:30
Red-throated Diver- 1
Gannet- 7
Common Scoter- c.25
Pink-foot- 362
Mute Swan- 3
Eider- 78
Whimbrel- 7
Turnstone- 80
Sandwich Tern- 14
Sand Martin- 5
Swallow- 20

Pete and Jeans webs included:

900 Knot on Heliport

193 Turnstone on heliport at high tide plus 22 on wooden jetty. 

I just checked Red Nab to saltmarsh towards high water (Malcolm)

No sign of the Brent geese today

Shelduck 2

Whimbrel 7

Rock,Pipit 1 on Red Nab

Wheatear 8

Wheatear

Linnet 7 on the saltmarsh 

Swallow 2 in

Lesser Whitethroat still singing from scrub behind Red Nab

Kevin and Alison checked along the sea wall in the warm afternoon sun.

Common Whitethroat 1 in the scrub near the lighthouse 

Lots of invertebrates along the wall again, despite the less than ideal wind.

Heysham skear - low water 16:50 (Malcolm)

Just a very quick check early in the ebbing tide (3 hours before low water)

Eider c70

Red-breasted Merganser 7

3 female Red-breasted Merganser

Oystercatcher c1,000

Knot c1,000

Curlew 5

Curlew

Whimbrel 3

Whimbrel and male Red-breasted Merganser

Whimbrel

Bar-Tailed Godwit 284 feeding along the water line to the south of the skear.

Mainly Godwits along the south waterline

Dunlin 80 (no Sanderling with them today)

Turnstone 30