It felt a bit more like summer........despite the awful weather!

A mainly dry morning till a very heavy thunderstorm at lunchtime. The rain eased but continued till mid afternoon. A light variable breeze.

Heysham skear - low water 13:30 (Malcolm)

I reasoned that if anything had been passing over, the thunderstorm would have grounded them, so I set off just before low water, not far to go, the tide barely uncovers the middle skear on these neap tides. It was still raining but the lightening had stopped. Just as I reached the western edge there was a flock of ducks on the sea, unfortunately just 18 female Eider. Still, having made the effort I was determined to get a clip. The rain was heavy, not raining as heavily as earlier, but the individual drops were large and heavy.

It was easier walking back with the wind to my back and the rain easing further.

Little Egret 6

Curlew 5

Oystercatcher 300

Nothing else on the sea.

South shore (Malcolm)

A quite pleasant walk along the sea wall as the rain stopped in the afternoon.

Shelduck 1

Little Egret 2

Mediterranean gull 1 adult 

Originally resting on No.2 outflow rail

It then flew down to rest on the shore

Black-Headed gulls have been notable by their absence so far this summer, but today there were 10 including the first juvenile. Shrimps have also been notable by their absence until recently, but these Black-Headed gulls, including the juvenile seemed to be catching plenty.

The Herring gulls nesting on one of the harbour platforms have at least 3 chicks

Curlew 42 - there were already 15 resting on the mud out from Red Nab and they were joined by 27 more flying from the north side.

Curlew

Peregrine Falcon 1

Rock Pipit - no activity near the lighthouse, this lone bird at No.1 outflow was collecting food, but only for itself .

Linnet 4 - 2 each at the lighthouse and on foreshore 

Grey Seal 1 female resting between the outflows.

Chicks are getting bigger quickly

The threatened morning thunderstorms never materialised and it was dry all day, with warm sunshine after lunch. A light SW wind.

Heysham Head (Janet)

Canada geese 19 north this lunchtime 

Canada geese

Middleton Nature Reserve (Malcolm)

A pleasant afternoon walk in the warm sunshine 

Mute Swan 2 the female is still sitting on the nest, the male was back on the main pond.

Mallard 12

Tufted Duck 2

The female's "tuft" is at least discernible now

Gadwall not seen, but presumably around somewhere 

Coot 7 adults with at least 6 chicks. These two chicks on the main pond are just transitioning from the orange faced early stage.

Moorhen just 2 adults seen.

Little Grebe 3 adults (1 on main pond) and 2 chicks seen.

This clip begins with a chick then follows a larger chick with an adult. It wasn't clear if the larger chick was from a different brood or just a more favoured/adventurous one. They pass adult and chick Coots, then watch the end of the clip closely. As the adult gets low in the water look in front of it, there is a pair of damselflies ovipositoring. The grebe dips below the surface and grabs them from below.

Little grebe feeding chick a damselfly (or two)

Meanwhile, the smaller chick remained close to the margins catching its own small flies. Possibly why it was smaller.

Warblers seen/heard: Cetti's, Willow, Reed, Chiffchaff, Common Whitethroat 

Reed Bunting 1 male

Sparrowhawk 1

Sparrowhawk 

Swallow 4

Swift 1

The only butterfly seen was a Small White

Dragonflies:

Broad- bodied Chaser several

Male Broad-bodied Chaser

This female was ovipositoring 

Four-spotted Chaser several

Four-spotted Chaser

Black-Tailed Skimmer 1 male

I thought this very worn Silver Y was doing really well for itself drinking nectar. Then it fell off!

It must have been good stuff!

Canada Goose moult migration continues

A slightly warmer south wind freshened throughout the day. Dry till mid afternoon then showers.

Half-Moon Bay (Malcolm)

I escorted a school outing from the Cafe to the high cliffs at Heysham Head along the shoreline. The pile of wrack below the cafe was still providing easy pickings of Kelp fly maggots, but today it was mainly "feed yourself". These are male and female/immature House Sparrows.

Also seen feeding here

Rock Pipits 2 

Pied Wagtail 1 juvenile 

Juvenile Pied Wagtail 

Rock Pipit there were at least 5 along the foreshore below Heysham Head, possibly including the 2 feeding near the Cafe. This one looks fluffy, but they are difficult to age.

Canada Goose 73. First a flock of 59 flew north at 09:40.

At 10:30 this flock of 14 came in on the sea. They are not drifting in with the tide, the tide is going out. They are swimming in against the tide.

For information regarding these geese likely destinations see post 09/06/24

Heysham skear - low water 11:40 (Malcolm)

Just a vey brief check.

A flock of 14 Canada geese flew north from the skear as I was walking out, almost certainly the same 14 seen earlier on the sea.

Eider 3

Red-breasted Merganser 1

Great Crested Grebe 1

No egrets today, but I was there before the tide started making.

Oystercatcher 500

Curlew 6 were the only waders.

Curlew flying over the lush green centre of the middle skear (gutweed)

Herring Gulls 450 mainly immature, feeding on the seed mussels towards the western edge of the middle skear, although there are now seed mussels forming closer in, but not where the gutweed has a foothold. Interestingly, a few Lesser Black-Backed were feeding with them today. There is no reason why this source of food is not as beneficial to them as it is to the Herring gulls, but swallowing a small mussel whole won't be much different to swallowing a small pebble. Presumably tasteless, and requiring a leap of faith that they will sustain you. There are two Lesser Black-Backed with this feeding group.

Middleton Nature Reserve (Janet)

Grass Vaneer - Thanks to Jean for the Identification 

No Burnet seen on the wing here yet, but their cocoons are showing 

Pheasant, with just about enough feathers to fly away

Sanderlings still moving through

Another cool dry day with a lighter west wind.

These shots from Janet from the grassland walks to the west of the railway line that marks the eastern boundary of the recording area.

The Narrow-bordered five-spot Burnet are now emerging 

Large Skipper

Middleton Nature Reserve (Janet)

The Tufted Ducks were on the main pond

Male Gadwall

Moorhen

Grey Heron

Kestrel 

Young buck and a doe Roe Deer

The buck's spindly antlers with no forks show him to be a yearling
(One of last years fawns)

They quickly disappeared 

This Lesser Black-Backed gull "saw Janet off" as she passed Surefreight
on Middleton Rd. One of the 78 nesting pairs in the recording area (see post 10/06/24)

Heysham skear - low water 10:50 (Malcolm)

Eider 3

Red-breasted Merganser 3

Great Crested Grebe 1

Little Egret 8

Little Egret

Oystercatcher c800

Curlew 11

One of the distant Curlews, but this shot is really to show the extent of
gutweed on the middle skear now.

Knot 11

Knot

Sanderling 4 - two lots of two. This is the first pair, note the completely rufous face of the second bird.

Sanderling in full summer plumage

This is the second pair, neither quite so rufous.

This one catches three small shrimps in this clip. It swallows them so quickly you can hardly see it.

Sanderling with a shrimp

The tide brought them right up to me.

Swallow 1 north

It's all about feeding, and being fed.

Another dry day, the cool NW wind continues.

I popped down to Half Moon Bay at 09:30 to take some lugworms for a school trip to release (Malcolm). This pile of flotsam, mainly wrack, was in the corner just below the cafe. 

I noticed that several birds were feeding on it and easily finding Kelp Fly maggots. Unfortunately, I only had an old pocket camera with me, but it proved good enough. This first clip shows a female House Sparrow collecting maggots for her chicks. She collects six in less than 30 seconds before flying off. You can hear the school children in the background plus the groundwater waterfall that discharges onto the shore here.

In contrast, this Rock Pipit was just feeding itself. It eats five in this clip.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Janet checked in the morning.

Grasshopper warbler 1 reeling from the western marsh

Common Whitethroat feeding newly fledged young

Adult Chiffchaff with food for a chick

The Coot are still not tolerating the Mallard

Watched over by the regular Grey Heron

Male Common Blue

I checked in the afternoon (Malcolm)

Wildfowl as yesterday.

Warblers: Cetti's, Willow, Common and Lesser Whitethroat, Chiffchaff and Reed. This adult Reed warbler was unhappy with me, I must have wandered too close to its nest/family.

These Hoverflies are Helophilius pendulus
 which, apparently translates to "dangling marsh lover" 

I thought (hoped) this Moorhen was going to cross the road, so I could ask "why did the hen cross the road.....". 

But it didn't, it clearly didn't want to get to the other side.

Lots of gulls, nesting and feeding

Just a few spots of rain during the day after heavy overnight showers. The NW wind freshened considerably in the afternoon. Despite sunny spells, it was cool for this time of year, it didn't make 15°C

This is part of Jean and Pete's nesting gull survey for this year.

On the rooves of the industrial units at Middleton Business Park there were 78 LBB nests, 16 HG nests and 1 GBB nest. 

Around the Heysham port area: 38 LBB nests, 32 HG nests, 2 GBB nests. 

On Ocean Edge reception building roof: 10 LBB nests, 3 HG nests and 1 GBB nest. 

So the overall totals were 126 Lesser Black-Backed gull nests, 51 Herring gull nests and 4 Great Black-Backed gull nests.

Heysham skear low water 09:20 (Malcolm)

Eider just 5

Red-breasted Merganser 3

Great Crested Grebe 2

Little Egret 3

Pete and Jean counted 1150 Oystercatcher roosting on the Heliport wall as part of their webs survey this weekend. Today something spooked the Oystercatcher on the north side of the skear, and they in turn lifted all the other Oystercatcher. I never saw what spooked them, but at least it allowed me to see all the waders at once allowing a better estimate of numbers than usual.

Oystercatcher c1,000

Curlew 8

Knot 1

The white line across this shot are Herring Gulls feeding on the narrow strip of seed mussels
near the western limit of the middle skear. It just shows how localised the seed mussels are this year.

This clip shows some of the gulls feeding. The dark surface in the foreground contains the seed mussels, the brown strip beyond is just broken shells and stones, then the first channel. The gulls beyond the channel are feeding on the outer skear, and judging by colour there are plenty of seed mussels there.

Herring gull 750 mainly immature (250 each feeding on middle and outer skear plus 250 resting on a sand bar.

Lesser Black-Backed gull 50 feeding mainly along the northern edge of the skear

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Yellow Shell moth seen by Janet this morning 

I just did a quick check of the main ponds this evening (Malcolm)

Mute Swan 1 - only the female still sitting on the nest. No sign of the male.

Shelduck 2 - a female was on the main pond then later two birds flew off to the east.

Shelduck 

Gadwall 1 male

Mallard 15 on the main pond, some looking like well grown chicks.

Coot 6 adult seen, the main pond birds were not happy with the influx of Mallard!

Moorhen 2 adult

Little Grebe 1 adult seen on the main and the "no swimming" ponds.

Warblers heard: Cetti's, Willow, Chiffchaff, Lesser and Common Whitethroat 

Kestrel 1 male hunting (we both managed to hold our heads perfectly still).

Male Large Skipper - first of the year