Interesting early Hawker

A warmer day with a freshening SE breeze. Sunny spells all day.

Heysham Nature Reserve 

I escorted a lunchtime field trip (Malcolm). 14:15 - On the return along the dog walk path c100m from the main reserve a Hawker dragonfly was also making its way north, green thorax with blue and black markings along the abdomen. Its small size suggested a Migrant Hawker, but far too early for them. Indeed early for any of the regular hawkers here. Pete advised that the only realistic possibility is a Hairy Hawker which would be only the fourth Lancashire record.

I eventually lost it in the scrub near the road, the nearest pond would be the dipping pond. A return with the help of Jean scoured the likely areas but failed to relocate.

It was the only dragonfly seen today, but there were lots of Damselflies. These are Azure Blue and Large Red ovipositoring (the Chiffchaff wasn't exactly sat on my shoulder, but it wasn't far away).

Large Red Damselfly

Common Blue Butterfly

Other butterflies:

Orange Tip

Small White

Large White

Green-veined White

Speckled Wood

Burnet companion moth 

Not really any birds of note, but an obliging Peregrine Falcon circling the Power Stations provided entertainment and good binocular practice.

North shore (Malcolm)

Just a quick check as the ebbing tide began exposing the inner skear.

Little Egret 13 - this one using an unusual stalking method for this terrain, but it appeared to work (note the quick check behind, to ensure there was no competition, before grabbing its target).

Eider 5

Red-breasted Merganser 2

Female Red-breasted Mergansers with a Herring gull

Oystercatcher 400

Knot 400

Sanderling 4

Things were different today. The waders were finding small invertebrates (almost certainly tiny shrimps) in the shallow water and wet mud. This is the feeding technique I expect here at this time of year, but haven't been seeing up to now. This clip begins on the four Sanderling then pans across some of the Knot.

As the tide exposed more of the skear, the Knot moved further out. But the Sanderling were happy to stay and feed, again, something that they haven't been doing of late.

There is no obvious metrological or tidal reasons for tiny shrimps to suddenly become available. Perhaps they have just been late developing this year. Hopefully, if they are here to stay, we might see higher numbers of Sanderlings feeding here.

Quite a productive short seawatch

Early morning showers were over by 08:00, after that dry but mainly overcast. A light west wind.

Seawatch report - Pete

Sea Heysham 1010-1110:  all heading out, perhaps entered bay during earlier murk: 

1 light morph Arctic Skua

1 adult kittiwake

1 subadult Gannet

2 Manx Shearwater

3 Common Scoter

4 Razorbill/guillemot 

flock of c35 Sanderling plus c20 Dunlin

South shore (Malcolm)

30 Knot out 10:00

Still lots of Lesser Black-backed, Herring, Common and Black-Headed gulls around the outflows, but fewer feeding today.

Gulls along No.2 outflow railing

Middleton Nature Reserve (Malcolm)

I just went to see if the Mute's nest was still above water. I had nothing to fear, despite the heavy rain the water level remained the same, presumably most of the rain soaked into the soil.

High, dry and virtually impregnable 

Gadwall 1

Mallard 6

Coot 2

Little grebe 1

Swallow 2

Reed Bunting 2

Singing warblers: 

Cetti's warbler, Chiffchaff, Willow warbler, Common Whitethroat, Sedge warbler, Reed warbler.

There are two Reed warblers in this reed bed along the western bank of the main pond. Meanwhile, a Sedge warbler is singing from the scrub behind it and a Chiffchaff behind me.

This Goldfinch was having a nice duet with a Blackbird.

North shore (Malcolm)

The exposing rocks of the inner skear, were almost deserted when I arrived this evening, just 150 Oystercatcher and 4 Knot. Eventually Oystercatcher numbers reached 450, but 4 Knot was all there were.

This Knot was having a drink and a bath, the water here will be quite brackish with all the groundwater draining out.

Sanderling 2 - interestingly, as the Sanderling approached, the four Knot flew up and joined them. They circled a couple of times before landing to the south. For the only time today the sun had come out and made seeing awkward.

Sanderling (left and right), four Knot and Oystercatchers

The Sanderling quickly moved on, but the Knot remained.

Little Egret 10

Eider 14

These Eider are not today's, but the pair that regularly feed out from the heliport
at high water - taken by Kevin Singleton yesterday 

Red-breasted Merganser 3

Great Crested Grebe 1

Better variety

A fresh NW wind. It did really well not to rain today, it threatened to all day. Surprisingly cold, the warmest point in the day was 12.5°C, and that was at midnight! 

South shore (Malcolm)

Just a walk along the sea wall mid morning on the rising tide.

There were lots of, mainly large, gulls feeding on both outflows. Clearly plenty of food was coming through, hopefully they will attract something different. This is No.1 outflow.

Osprey 1 - all the Power Station gulls lifted and looking up it was high above me. There was no obvious white showing as it was in silhouette and it wasn't immediately obvious that it was an Osprey.

Gull mobbing a very dark looking Osprey (the gull also looking dark)

Its white features becoming more obvious as it moved away

It was in no rush to move on and did a couple of circuits around the Power Stations before continuing north.

Linnet 3 between lighthouse and waterfall 

Rock Pipit 1 displaying between the outflows.

North shore (Malcolm)

Once again I checked the inner skear rocks as the ebbing tide was exposing them.

Sanderling 55 minimum. It was quite frantic today, the birds were very mobile and it wasn't easy avoiding duplication, 55 was the most I could account for any one time. And right from the start small groups were heading off into the NW wind. Within 30 minutes they had all moved on and most of the skear still to be exposed.

These are some coming in with a single Knot.

31 in this clip, and a Dunlin at the end.

One of the small groups regularly heading off to NW

Oystercatcher 500

Knot 1

Dunlin 2

Bar-Tailed Godwit 21 heading NW

Some of the Bar-Tailed Godwit passing through 

Eider 45

Eider framed by the South Lakes

Little Egret 2

Shearwater-logged!

It rained all day, becoming heavier in the afternoon as the NW wind freshened.

Fortunately Pete managed a 30 minute check towards high water.

Manx Shearwater flock of 3 out

No Knot roosting on the heliport.

Middleton Nature Reserve (Malcolm)

Just a quick evening check of the two main ponds, in what was probably the heaviest rain of the day!

Mute 2 nesting on the "no swimming" pond. Hopefully today's and the forecast rain to come will not raise the water level and swamp the nest again!

Nothing else on the "no swimming" pond.

Main pond

Coot 1 

Mallard 6 (1 female)

Gadwall 1 male

Gadwall (and rain)

Shelduck pair over to east

Reed Bunting 1 seen

The only birds singing were

Cetti's warbler 1

Blackbirds 2

This female Large White was along the foreshore yesterday 

This shot from Janet - also from yesterday. One of many Burnet
moth cocoons towards the eastern boundary of the recording area.

These shots are outside the area, but too nice not to share (I've been saving them for a rainy day - Malcolm)

I escorted a field trip to the stone jetty last Tuesday. This male Holly Blue came in off and landed on the finger of one of the group - pictures by Amber Woods.

Kittiwakes still coming through today, but probably the last we'll be seeing

A dry but largely overcast day. A light east breeze to begin with ended up,from north.

Seawatch report - Pete

Sea off Heysham a quiet mill pond this am but still a flock of 70 kittiwake in. Unprecedented passage of presumably high Arctic Kittiwake population has been the highlight this week, some 1.5 months after the usual peak passage of Kittiwake

2 Red-Throated Diver

c25 common scoter

300 plus 700 Knot heading north

Grey Seal 1

Last day of lengthy seabird monitoring.  

South shore (Malcolm)

Just a check from the saltmarsh to Red Nab towards high water.

Pink-Footed goose 3 initially on the mud out from the saltmarsh 

Pink-footed Geese with Lesser Black-Backed gulls and the only waders on the south side - Oystercatchers.

The tide caught the geese up and they drifted in with it.

Shelduck 2

Shelduck on the saltmarsh 

Eider 15 north

Most of a flock of 15 Eider

Carrion Crow 8 - making a living beachcombing on an otherwise deserted shore.

Common Whitethroat 4 singing males between the old Pontins and the copse behind Red Nab 

The previously vocal Cetti's warbler not heard today.

Wheatear 1 on the saltmarsh 

Peregrine Falcon 1 flew over the deserted Red Nab

North Shore (Malcolm)

Just a quick check on the ebbing tide as the inner skear became exposed.

Eider 13

Red-breasted Merganser 3

Great Crested Grebe 1

Little Egret 2

Knot c700

Knot

Turnstone 2. These are clips of them feeding and hinting at why more small waders have not lingered to feed (e.g. Sanderling). Some years at this time there are lots of brown shrimps at just the right size for small waders to feast on. But these two are working hard for meagre return.

This is a summer plumage bird.

This one still largely in winter plumage.

Pouring down and no car tomorrow!

A bit quieter today

A mainly SE wind, moving to NW for a while in the afternoon. Dry with sunny spells in the morning.

Seawatch reort - Pete

Quiet on the sea from north wall with c55 Common Scoter in 6 flocks and two sandwich tern.  A quick check from Ocean edge however saw 21 plus 14 Kittiwake floating in with the first group taking flight and climbing high.

Another c60 small gulls on sea very distant from Ocean edge with a few lifting up and dropping definitely kittiwake (Distant Kittiwake flocks on the sea: past history suggests not to assume they are all Kitts - they have a habit of temporarily reining in eg wandering 2cy Common gulls of which there are plenty in the Heysham area)

South shore (Janet and Malcolm)

Very little along the sea wall, but just for a bit of continuity, this clip of a 2nd calendar year Common Gull feeding on the outflows.

Little Egret 3on Red Nab

The only waders on Red Nab were 60 Oystercatcher 

Lighthouse Rock Pipit still standing guard

Nice shots of a partially blue variant of a female Common Blue butterfly. 
In the Nature Park.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

These shots from Janet are from yesterday.

Worn Peacock butterfly 

Four-spotted Chasers enjoying.......the sunshine 

I checked early evening today (Malcolm). It was cloudy but still quite warm, but no dragonflies seen. Lots of Damselflies.

Warblers heard/seen

Cetti's warblers 7 at least singing, including 2 from the south side of the road.

Also: Sedge, Reed, Willow, Chiffchaff, Blackcap and Common Whitethroat.

Just a short clip of a Reed Warbler.

Swallow 3 and House Martin 2 stopped off briefly at the main pond for a drink before continuing north.

Flag Iris are looking splendid 

The Alder Leaf beetles are feasting on the Alder again.
This female is heavily swollen (gravid) with eggs.

Alder Leaf beetles

The sea still providing

A hot sunny day, the breeze again light from SE till mid morning then freshened slightly as it shifted to NW.

Summary of today's seawatching by various observers from Stone jetty and Heysham - Pete

Arctic skua - dark morph in SJ at 0629, dm and lm dropped from height then landed on sea drifting in off Heysham at 0645.  Typical behaviour before heading up and overland so not surprised not seen at SJ

Kittiwake - 121 in at SJ just one flock of 37 flying out at Heysham - SJ birds clearly on sea to north of Heysham before watch started 

Arctic Tern - latish flock of 14 past SJ - not seen Heysham - presumably through before watch started 

Red throated Diver - 3 in, one floating in Heysham

Gannet - about 12 in total

Sandwich Tern - just two seen at both locations 

Guillemot - three floating in, one in, one out

Common Scoter - c70 in three gangs off Heysham - none reached SJ

Goosander - male in Heysham

South shore (Malcolm).

Just a walk along the sea wall and foreshore 

Shelduck 4 - two were resting on the sea near the saltmarsh till the male of another pair saw them off.

The dominant Sheldrake left and duck right 

Little Egret 1

Little Egret flying east (to nest?) with a decent sized fish

Four wader species on Red Nab

Oystercatcher 7

Turnstone 11

Dunlin 1

Ringed Plover 1

Solitary Ringed Plover

Three Linnet, and slightly unusual, at this time of year, a Reed Bunting on saltmarsh.

Reed Bunting, unfortunately with the light behind it.

Heysham skear - low water 16:30 (Malcolm)

Just a quick circuit a couple of hour before low water.

Eider 83

Red-breasted Merganser 2

Great Crested Grebe 1

Oystercatcher 400

Curlew 1

Knot 1

Bar-Tailed Godwit 3

So seven wader species today, but four of them with only a single representative.

Middleton Nature Reserve (Janet)

Willow Warbler

Male Blackcap

Chiffchaff 

Four-spotted Chaser

Kittiwake surge and a feeding Osprey

A warm and mainly sunny day. The light NE early morning breeze switched to NW mid morning then became variable by the afternoon.

Seawatch report - Pete:

Sea Heysham (MP, JR, PM).  Headwind today with no easterly element.  Large chunks of watching paint dry but this all changed 20 mins before HT with massive Kittiwake movement.  606 were counted heading in and up and judging by all the calls two significant north-east bound flocks couldn’t be picked up overhead in the blue sky.  Amazing how far the sound carried from these flocks.  All but handful passed through in a 35 minute period up to and over HT

Another 83 kitts on the sea to the south of the outfalls which hadn’t made a move before we left so different birds (MD). So minimum total 689

Others:

Fulmar 1

Gannet - 12

Common scoter 10 plus 7

Guillemot - 10

Sandwich Tern - 33 in, 16 out - no blogging today 

(Probable v distant little tern) 

I would suspect any skuas or arctic terns today would have been way up out of sight before reaching heysham based on the behaviour of the usually more reluctant to overland Kitts

Also on south side (Malcolm)

Osprey 1 - it tried fishing but failed to catch anything.

It has a blue ring on its right leg, unfortunately characters not legible 

It rested on the post at the seaward end of No.2 outflow for a while

Before heading off, empty taloned, to the east.

An influx of Herring gulls, there were c170 on the wooden jetty - more on this later

Linnet 3 between lighthouse and waterfall 

No sign of the Rock Pipits

Willow Warbler 1 in scrub near lighthouse 

Silver Y all along the foreshore grass.

Heysham skear - low water (Malcolm)

Eider 128

Red-breasted Merganser 5

Little Egret 3

Just three wader species today

Oystercatcher 400

Knot 35

Turnstone 1

There is always a gull presence here, up until today roughly split 20 each Herring and Lesser Black-backed. But today the influx of Herring gulls seen earlier on the wooden jetty was feeding here. I estimated 160 Herring gulls. The seed mussels are not showing yet, but they were clearly finding something to eat. Presumably there is more food to go around now that the bulk of waders have left. These are just some of them.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Broad-bodied Chaser by Janet this morning

I just had a quick look at the main pond this evening (Malcolm). The only other dragonflies seen were 3 four-spotted Chaser.

This Little grebe has caught quite a sizeable (relative to its size) fish, but makes short work of it!

But less than three minutes later it had caught an even larger one. This was a struggle to swallow. It took over two minutes and it had three goes before finally managing to swallow it. This clip shows the initial preparation, then skips to the final, successful attempt to swallow it.

And then it went back fishing again!

Kittiwake still moving through in numbers

A light east morning wind switched to NW in the afternoon. A dry day with some late sunshine.

Seawatch report by Pete:

0600-0930 (MP, JR, TW, PM). 

All about second day of late adult Kittiwake passage - are these high Arctic eg Svalbard-bound? Just half a dozen or so 2cy.  A bit murky for overlanding though:

Kittiwake - 312 in (85 largest flock), 92 out - not necessarily same based on flock sizes

Common scoter - 153 in, 40 out

Red throated diver - 5 in, 4 out

Sandwich tern - 16 in, c25 blogging 

Manx Shearwater - 3 plus 7 in - first of year for heysham and year tick

Gannet - just 2

Common Tern - one out

Arctic Skua - lm and dm together with another dm trailing 300m behind - in at c0910

One swift and about 5 swallow

Just a grey seal mammal wise

Also singing male whitethroat north harbour wall 

Common Whitethroat on Heysham Head - Tim Woodward 

Heyshan Skear - low water 14:40 (Malcolm)

Eider 127

Red-Breasted Merganser 4 - these three females are having, what can only be described as, "an exchange".

Great Crested Grebe 2

There were only Oystercatchers (500) as I was walking out, but eventually 6 wader species were seen.

Turnstone just one

Bar-Tailed Godwit 27 - 20 along the western edge of the skear plus 7 along the shoreline 

Knot 18 - 14 along the western edge of the skear, plus 4 along the north edge.

These are some of the Godwit and Knot along the western edge.

Ringed Plover 19 in single flock

Most of the Ringed Plover

Whimbrel 2

Whimbrel on sandbar just north of the skear

Middleton Nature Reserve (Malcolm)

Just a quick afternoon check on the way home.

Mute 1 nesting pair

Gadwall 3 male

Mallard 10 (1 female)

Coot 4

Moorhen 4

Little Grebe 2 on "no swimming" pond.

Singing warblers

Cetti's, Sedge, Reed, Willow, Common Whitethroat, Blackcap and Chiffchaff 

Pheasant 2 calling males

House Martin 8 stopped off briefly at the main pond, before continuing north.

House Martins

Butterflies:

Orange Tip several

Large White 2

Small White 1

Brimstone 2 - this short clip shows a male and female mating. They seldom rest with their wings open, so this is a nice opportunity to see just how pale the female's upper wings are, compared to the yellow of the male and her underwing.

Female and male Brimstone 

Silver Y - 10+

Common Blue, Azure Blue and Common Bluetail damselflies now abundant.

Four-Spotted Chaser 5

Four-spotted Chaser

Broad-bodied Chaser 1 each male and female.

Male Broad-bodied Chaser