Chick feeding time

A freshening NW wind. Mainly sunny but still quite cool, it never reached 15°C.

Middleton Nature Reserve

Both myself (Malcolm) and Janet checked around lunchtime. There were only a few insects on the wing, and most of those were disturbed. Between us we managed.

Dragonflies:

Emperor 1

Broad-Bodied Chaser several

Four-Spotted chaser several

Black-Tailed Skimmer 3

Common Darter 1

Black-Tailed Skimmer

Butterflies:

Peacock 1

Speckled Wood 4

Orange Tip 1 female

Common Blue 1 female

Small Heath 1

Moths:

Silver Y several

Burnet Companion 3

Mute Swan female still sitting on nest, male seemingly becoming more detached

Shelduck on main pond

Tufted Ducks on "no swimming" pond

Mallard 13

Gadwall 1 male 

Coot 4 plus 1 chick.

Moorhen 3 plus 1 chick

Little Grebe 1 plus 2 chicks. First it was feeding.

Whatever it caught, it must have been tiny as it wasn't visible in its bill as it dashed over to feed a chick. Or, perhaps it had just been feeding itself and was keen to get back to its chicks.

Warblers, not many were singing, but eventually the following were heard.

Cetti's warbler, Reed warbler, Common Whitethroat, Lesser Whitethroat, Chiffchaff and Willow Warbler.

This Chiffchaff was singing both the regular notes plus a variation at a different pitch, sounding like an echo of itself. Its bill looks "pursed" when it was making the softer notes, a bit like a bad ventriloquist!

Young Blue Tit being fed
Other youngsters seen today included Common Whitethroat and Bullfinch 

An unusually plump, likely pregnant, Grey Squirrel

This year's Rock Pipit nest hole finally located

The cool west wind continues. Overcast all day, but the rain held off till evening.

Middleton Nature Reserve (Janet)

Very little going on, so just a few shots of the birds taking advantage of the feeders at the main pond.

Coal Tit

Blue Tit

Robin

South wall (Malcolm)

Just a walk along the sea wall on the ebbing tide in the afternoon 

Curlew 3 on Red Nab

Peregrine Falcon 1 hanging on the wind again.

Peregrine Falcon 

This Rock pipit was above the harbour wall near the lighthouse with a bill full of small grubs. 

They won't go down to the nest when they think they are being watched. So I walked towards the waterfall, pretending not to watch. Eventually when I was 50m away it flew down, I then pointed my camera at the hole and filmed it flying back up.

This still from the following short clip shows where to watch.
You can just see the tail of the Pipit in this shot as it feeds the young

This appears to be a better location than the holes selected last year, when no chicks managed to fledge. Not least as it is much closer to the wooden structure and steps, which may provide a safe landing for a first "flight". The angle of the wall doesn't let you see the actual opening, but it must be large enough to allow the chicks to move close enough to be fed from the opening. Hopefully, it will be large enough for them to at least stretch their wings before their perilous leap of faith.

This Herring Gull is eating a mussel that it has just broken, meanwhile a young rabbit munches the grass.

Lesser Black-Backed gull, fending very well for itself despite having only one leg.

This Lesser Black-Backed gull very definitely has two legs. He is defending his nesting territory, the nest
 is in the Power Station grounds and he bombards you as you walk along the sea wall past his territory 

He wouldn't risk harming himself by flying into you, but it's not called "bombarding" for nothing. They only have one thing to bomb you with, and fortunately he was out of "ammunition". Still, best to wear a hat! This is a compilation of a few sorties.

Common Whitethroat in the copse behind Red Nab. It's perched on the old weathervane.

Dwindling wader numbers

Still a cool west wind. Dry with plenty of sunshine but temperature never reached 15°C.

Middleton Nature Reserve (Janet)

Shelduck on main pond

Chaffinch in full song

Black-Tailed Skimmers

Orange Tip

Speckled Wood

Silver Y

An exceedingly worn (Burnet Companion?) moth.

North shore 

I watched the ebbing tide uncover the inner skear rocks this afternoon (Malcolm)

Eider just 1 female seen

Red-breasted Merganser 3 - a bit of a wobbly video this, as I was precariously balanced!

Great Crested Grebe 1

Oystercatcher initially c150 but 300 before I left.

Bar-Tailed Godwit 1

Bar-Tailed Godwit

Sanderling 1 - it flew in then settled, if I hadn't have seen it fly in I wouldn't have seen it at all. They almost disappear in this terrain when they don't move.

Initially it had its back towards me

So I skirted around it for a front view. It never moved, but each time I looked back I had to search for it again.

It clearly needed to rest so I left it in peace.

200 Gulls, mainly Herring with a few Lesser Black-Backed waiting for the tide to go out further.

About a quarter of the waiting gulls

Lots more Canadas

A cool NW wind. Sunny spells, somehow it managed to stay dry, although rain threatened several times. 

Seawatch - Pete 0730-0845: 

Canada geese 102 - 50 plus 35 plus 27 north past Heysham north wall 

20 Sanderling south, probably displaced from skeer

2 Common scoter out 

Lack of post breeding season small gulls around outfalls as opposed to the 2cy Common Gulls - much later than eg last year

Heysham Head

These shots by Edward Wilkinson were taken on Saturday 

Mating Linnets

Wren

Goldfinch 

Greenfinch 

Dunnock

There's always a fox watching you here, but you don't always see them.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Janet checked in the morning

Common Blue Damselfly 

Lesser Whitethroat 

I waited till mid afternoon, hoping things would warm up a little (Malcolm). But it never got above 14°C at any point today and my short visit was accompanied by the darkest clouds of the day!

The only dragonfly seen was a single Four-spotted Chaser, and that was accidentally disturbed.

The warblers were subdued just: Cetti's 3, Willow 2, Chiffchaff 3, Common Whitethroat 1, Reed 1.

This Chiffchaff had the decency to sing in clear view.

Reed Bunting 1 singing male

The female Mute is still sitting with her mate in attendance.

Gadwall 1 male

Mallard 15 - 2 female

Tufted a pair were on the "no swimming" pond, the female with no discernible tuft.

Coot 3

Moorhen 2 plus 1 chick

Moorhen with quite a well grown chick

Little grebe 1

Female/immature Bullfinch - just as I got back to my car, the sun came out again!

Another Skua, Scoters, Kittiwakes, Canadas and a boat.

A strong SW wind freshened further as it drifted to NW. showers, some very heavy in the afternoon. Sunny spells by evening.

Seawatch from North wall - Mark Prestwood

c90 plus c55 plus 5 Common scoter in

flock of 50 kittiwake out

dark morph Arctic skua in at 0825, 

12 plus four Canada Geese north

South wall (Malcolm)

I managed a dry walk in the morning

The flock of 12 Canada geese were on Red Nab till moved on by the rising tide.

Canada geese

Another flock of 5 came in and landed on the sea, so at least 21 through this morning

There were lots of gulls feeding on the outflows and they appeared to be finding plenty to eat.

The young Herring gull's feeding technique isn't exactly graceful........

.....but it got what it was after. Only a small titbit, possibly a shrimp

This Peregrine falcon was just hanging on the wind high above the sea wall

Occasionally it got too close to the nesting gulls and was chased off.

Peregrine Falcon being seen off

By mid afternoon the rain had "stopped", and the wind stronger and still not yet from the north, so I went out to see if the outflows had anything more interesting feeding on them.

As I was walking out the skies ahead were black and getting blacker and closer quickly. I needed to get to the shelter of the lighthouse before the rain! But I stopped to take this short clip of the dredger heading to the Lune deeps to dump its load. It seemed very low in the water for such rough seas, and seas that were about to get much rougher. It made my risk of getting wet seem insignificant.

I just reached the lighthouse in time, the rain was heavy and almost horizontal 

As the squall eased, a very wet looking Rock Pipit turned up above the nest site,
with quite a large morsel

There was still nothing but the regular gulls on the outflows.

Curlew 3

Middleton Nature Reserve (Janet)

These shots from yesterday 

Carrion Crow with a looted fat ball

Mallard getting in a flap!

Cormorant feeding on the main pond today.

Mussels provide the main interest.........yes, it was a quiet day.

Largely overcast, but it managed to reman dry. A NW to west wind.

South shore (Malcolm)

A check around high water, mainly to see if there were any waders on what remained exposed of Red Nab. There were:

Oystercatcher 1!

There were 8 Curlew resting on the saltmarsh before flying off south.

Eider 1 female south

Little Egret 2

Linnet 6 - 3 each saltmarsh and near lighthouse 

Rock Pipit just one seen today, gathering food between the lighthouse and waterfall 

Plenty of Oystercatcher on the north side heliport wall

Heysham skear - low water 16:20 (Malcolm)

Little Egret 7

Eider 81

Eider

Oystercatcher 300

The only other waders were 6 Curlew. These are three of them.

And that was it apart from the gulls

Lesser Black-Backed gull 30 feeding mainly on the northern side of the skear

Herring gull 100 scattered all over the skear.

This time last year there were seed mussels all over the skear and hundreds of Herring gulls feeding on them. I hadn't seen any seed mussels at all this year, until I reached the western limit of the middle skear. And here, it was covered in them, and quite well developed considering that I didn't see any when I last checked here a couple of weeks ago.

Seed mussels

You can see the Herring gulls scattered around, many not bothering with the seed mussels

A few were pecking at them, but not with any enthusiasm.

It will be interesting to see how this develops, the seed mussels have been a major source of food for the, mainly immature, Herring gulls for the last few years.

The Sea Cat was coming in. It is still a long way off the harbour and at full speed.
The speed lifts it high above the waves.