Gold strike and Moonshot upstaged!

Another dry and largely sunny day, with a south wind

Heysham Nature Reserve 

Report by Jean:

Struck gold again today - Gold-finches that is! 12 of the 28 birds caught were Goldfinches. Only 3 of them were retraps, including one from 2022. 
Other birds caught were as follows:
Blue Tit 1 new
Coal Tit 1 new
Great Tit 2 new, 1 retrap from 2023
Long-tailed Tit 1 new, 2 retraps
Greenfinch 4 new
Robin 2 retraps
Dunnock 1 retrap.

No warblers at all today either in the nets or on the reserve.

South shore (Malcolm)

I walked in with the tide out from the saltmarsh this afternoon. There was a reasonable selection of waders, but so not many of them.

Oystercatcher 200 feeding along the waterline (many more on Red Nab)

Curlew 131 flew from the north side in several groups.

Bar-Tailed Godwit 5 feeding at the waterline.

Bar-Tailed Godwit

Knot 5 

Grey Plover 2 along the waterline plus 5 resting higher up the shore

Knot and a Grey Plover (right)

Some of the resting Grey Plover

Redshank 33 near the saltmarsh 

No Lapwing seen

The Manxman was just heading out. This shot shows the Cormorants on
the wooden jetty, but also shows just how large the Manxman is

Little Egret 5 between saltmarsh and Red Nab

Linnet 19 on the saltmarsh 

Rock Pipit 3 (2 + 1 on the foreshore)

Rock Pipit

Shelduck 45 feeding on the mud

Wigeon 65 arrived to feed at Red Nab

The above clip plus these gull shots are actually from yesterday, but the Wigeon and the same selection of gulls were present today.

Four Great Black-Backed gulls

A Great Black-Backed with Black-Headed gulls

A Great and a Lesser Black-Backed gull
plus a Herring and a couple of Black-Headed gulls

No Mediterranean gulls located today or yesterday 

Cetti's warbler very vocal around the "no swimming" pond on Middleton Nature Reserve - Janet

Kevin Eaves took this lovely shot of 

Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS through his telescope 

last night. It is still quite bright, but fading quickly.

Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS
Somewhat more distant than yesterday's shot of the moon!

Hirundines still moving through

A dry, largely sunny day with a light SW wind.

Heliport yesterday 

Stonechat 2

Bar-Tailed Godwit 1

Knowlys Rd today

2 Swallows and a House Martin 

Both the above by David Kaye

Heysham skear - low water 09:40 (Malcolm)

Pink-Footed goose 128 in one flock south, just as I was leaving at 10:50

Pink-Footed geese

Shelduck 5 north

Eider 2 males 

Eider

Red-breasted Merganser 8

Two male Mergansers trying to impress a female

Great Crested Grebe 8

Little Egret 16

Little Egret amongst the Honeycomb worm beds on the south side of the skear.
Reefs do occasionally form on this side, but this is the side that takes the brunt
of the storms and they seldom last long  

Whooper Swan 8 south, including 5 immature birds.

Whooper Swans

Approximate wader numbers

Oystercatcher 1500

Curlew 30

Redshank 60

Turnstone 30

Ringed Plover 8

Knot just 100 grounded, but several thousand waders that looked to be Knot were flying very high to the south. 5 - 6 flocks but all around 09:00.

These grounded Knot were particularly approachable 

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Janet checked first:

Another adult Mute Swan landed on the main pond

Presumably it was a male as the resident male quickly saw it off

Female Pheasant 

Three different fungi growing from one bail of mown grass

Yellow Brain (Witches' butter) fungus

I just checked the two main ponds briefly this afternoon (Malcolm)

Wildfowl status as yesterday except there were 13 Gadwall today.

Male Gadwall

Cetti's warbler 1 singing

I believe that at least the lower insect here is one of the many Spider Wasps

I took this shot on the skear this morning, whenever I see a daylight moon I try
and get a shot of a bird flying in front of it. I've not managed it yet, but getting closer!

If anything was blown in, it was missed.

The heavy overnight SW wind had eased by morning and continued easing throughout the day. Dry and largely sunny after early morning showers.

South Shore (Malcolm)

Unfortunately I couldn't get down till late morning, and by that time the sea wall was closed for maintenance. A scan of the seaward end of No.1 outfall from Ocean Edge, resulted in just one identifiable gull.

Mediterranean gull 1 adult

Shelduck 42 feeding

Linnet just 2 around the saltmarsh 

An evening walk along the sea wall was very pleasant, by that time the wind was very light. Only Black-Headed gulls were feeding on the outfalls.

Wigeon 35 lingering around Red Nab

Rock Pipit 2 - sea wall and lighthouse 

The low evening sun makes for nice contrasts.
This is a Curlew directly overhead 

Lapwing 107 on the mud out from the saltmarsh 

Lapwing catching the last of the evening sun

Middleton Nature Reserve (Malcolm)

Just a brief late morning check of the two main ponds.

Mute Swan pair with cygnet plus another adult

Mallard 18

Mallard coming in to land

Gadwall 6

Tufted Duck 9

Tufted Duck and the lone Mute Swan

Coot 22 - there were 20 on the main pond.

Some of the main pond Coot

Moorhen 4

This clip catches some of all the above species except for the swan.

Little Grebe 2 (one on each pond)

Little Grebe

Chiffchaff 1 calling

Cetti's warbler 1 singing

A day of two halves.......neither good!

A strong SE wind this morning with heavy rain. A strong and freshening SW wind this afternoon with plenty of sunshine.

North shore 

Jean checked the waders roosting on the Heliport 

7800 Oystercatchers

550 Redshank

minimum of 35 Turnstone (many no doubt hidden in between the tightly packed Redshank)

9 Curlew. 

South shore (Malcolm)

I wasn't going to bother till this afternoon, but ended up walking along the wall on the rising tide in the morning rain and again on the ebbing tide late afternoon. 

Linnet 23 around the saltmarsh edge (where these spring tides have deposited the Sea Aster and Samphire seeds)

Rock Pipit 3 - 1 each, saltmarsh, foreshore rocks and Red Nab.

Rock Pipit making a wind assisted jump on the foreshore 

Peregrine Falcon 1 this morning 

Wigeon 84 counted waiting to move to Red Nab this morning, a similar number above the saltmarsh this afternoon.

Wigeon battling against the wind this morning 

Mainly Black-Headed gulls on the outfalls morning and afternoon.

Black-Headed gull in 1st winter plumage 

Mediterranean gull 1 adult was on No.2 outfall briefly this afternoon.

Some of the gulls on No.2 outfall this afternoon.
Mediterranean gull top, right of centre

c50 Cormorants on the wooden jetty this afternoon 

They were difficult to count as they were all hunkered down against the wind.

Still warblers on the reserves

Overnight showers, but a dry and largely sunny day. A very light SE to SW breeze.

Heysham Nature Reserve 

Report by Jean:

I set the nets in the feeder ride hoping to attract any Chaffinches or Redpolls passing over but the only vis all morning was a Skylark! There were Chaffinches that had been roosting in the Tank Farm but they disappeared south instead of north into the net!

It was a morning of two halves - a cloudy half and a sunny half. The cloudy half was a cold front which moved off eastwards at 11am. What was interesting was the effect of this on birds: during the cloudy half nearly all the birds caught were recent retraps but when the sky cleared all the birds were new ones. The weather also had an effect on the Carrion Crows which were silent while it was cloudy but as soon as blue sky appeared they began to gather on the pylon opposite the office making a great racket and calling in 32 birds. Once all the gang had gathered and exchanged caws they moved off southwards in small groups until none were left. The noise attracted a Peregrine, ready to chase off any Crows that were going to encroach on its favourite pylon (which is the next one to the west).

Ringing summary

17 new birds, 8 retraps, 10 species

Woodpigeon 1 new

Blue Tit  0 new, 2 retraps

Great Tit 1 new, 1 retrap. 

Chiffchaff 1 new

Blackcap 2 new (both males)

Goldcrest 2 new (i male, 1 female - they often appear in pairs)

Wren 0 new, 1 retrap

Dunnock 0 new, 3 retraps

Greenfinch 2 new

Goldfinch 8 new 1 retrap

The new Great Tit was a young female, and was going grey on top.

A fox trotted across the grass and disappeared into an area of brambles. Whether it was responsible for the half eaten rat behind the office I'm not sure. 

Pete Crooks had a look this afternoon:

A 90-minute afternoon wander around the reserve proved fairly quiet. A mixed passerine flock by the Dipping Pond included Blue Tit, Great Tit, Long-tailed Tit, Goldcrest, Treecreeper and 1 male Blackcap. Not the species of warbler I was hoping for!

21 Eider in low tide channel out from Knowlys  Rd - Pete (M)

South shore (Malcolm)

A walk from saltmarsh then along the sea wall on the rising tide late morning.

Linnet, just 3 on the edge of the saltmarsh.

Linnet

Skylark 1 south

Meadow Pipit 2 south

Rock Pipit 2 - sea wall and lighthouse 

Shelduck 29 feeding

Wigeon 59 were beside No.2 outfall as I passed, probably more arrived later.

Wigeon waiting for the tide to reach Red Nab

Heron and Black-Headed gulls on No.2 outfall rail

Turnstone and Redshank on No.1 outfall

Oystercatchers flying past the Cormorants on the wooden jetty

Middleton Nature Reserve (Janet)

Chiffchaff 1 singing

Cetti's warbler 2-3 singing in central marshes

Reed Bunting 1

Sparrowhawk one circling very high

Female Tufted Ducks with Black-Headed gulls

Grey Heron in its second favourite resting place.
First choice is the lower car park, but only when it's quiet

Migrant Hawker 1

Common Darter several 

Male Common Darter

A different day tomorrow with high winds and rain. A possibility of something on the outfalls by the afternoon.