Gull feeding puzzle, lots of Chiffchaff and a Pearl trio

A dry sunny day with a light south(ish) wind.

Heysham Nature Reserve 

Report by Jean:

Another ringing session at the Heysham "feeder ride" with even more Goldfinches! 17 were caught today.  Here's the full list:

Blue Tit 1 new, 1 retrap

Great Tit 0 new, 1 retrap

Chiffchaff 6 new

Dunnock 0 new, 2 retraps

Bullfinch 1 new

Greenfinch 3 new

Goldfinch 13 new, 4 retraps

All retraps were recent (from mid September onwards).

Many of the Goldfinches, like the Chiffchaffs, are passing through. Some end up as far south as Spain for the winter. 

4 Fieldfare seen this morning and 2 groups of Siskin over (heard only) - Nick Godden

South shore (Malcolm)

A walk from the saltmarsh then along the sea wall.

Shelduck 83 feeding on the mud.

Wigeon 143 resting by Red Nab then next to No.2 outfall.

Some of the Wigeon by No.2 outfall

Rock Pipit 3 (foreshore, Red Nab and Lighthouse)

Lighthouse Rock Pipit

Linnet 13 initially near the waterfall then flew across the harbour to the old sandworks.

Linnet

By this time it was 10:30. Looking north from the lighthouse were three huge swarms of feeding gulls more or less where the skear is.

One of three feeding groups of gulls, all this size.

A bit of a shaky clip, they were some distance away, but it shows the activity.

So, after lunch, I went out on the skear for a closer look.

By this time it was 13:15 and the gulls were still feeding, although only two and smaller groups now, one on the north side and one on the south side of the skear. This is the south side group. You can see the gulls diving into the water.

The gull bottom centre is diving in

The gull bottom, left of centre looks to have a small fish or at least 
part of a small fish

They continued feeding till slack water at 14:00. Whatever is happening it is obviously something to do with these very low neap tides. The water only moves very slowly, so it must have been concentrating something at either side of the skear. Not shrimps as they are bottom feeders and the water would have been a couple of metres deep when I saw them from the north side. I need to give it some more thought, but my only current theory is that plankton was being concentrated in pockets, which then attracted small fish, likely Whitebait, which the gulls duly fed on. But it is hard to imagine shoals of whitebait hanging around for three hours whilst being attacked by gulls. 

The gulls were mainly Black-Headed, but also young Herring and Lesser Black-Backed. Plus at least one Mediterranean gull. You would have to expect a repeat performance tomorrow.

No Eider or Mergansers seen

Great Crested Grebe 2

Great Crested Grebe

Oystercatcher 1500

Curlew 30

Redshank 60

Knot 1,000

Knot resting on the skear

Two were colour coded, but I only managed to read one - details awaited 

This time it was a raptor that spooked them.
A Peregrine Falcon attacked twice

Turnstone 65

Ringed Plover 36 at the shore side of the inner skear.

Some of the Ringed Plover

Middleton Nature Reserve (Janet)

Redwing 1 south

Meadow Pipit 5 feeding

Meadow Pipit

Stonechat 1

Stonechat 

The young Mute Swan was getting flying lessons

Common Darters

Both Kevin and Alison had Olive-tree Pearl moths in their traps this morning, three in total.

Palpita vitrealis (Olive-tree Pearl) Another migrant from Southern Europe

Knot news and a Gem

A dry day with sunny spells, after the morning mist lifted. No wind till mid morning, then a gentle SE breeze

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Ringing report by Jean:

Went to Middleton for a change. Pete predicted Redwing. Reed Bunting and Redpolls. I was skeptical but he was spot on! Reed Buntings seemed to be everywhere while it was cloudy and humid but as soon as the weather cleared a little and the wind sprang up it was as if they had lifted off en masse and disappeared (well, continued migrating). 

Today's catch:

Redwing 2

Lesser Redpoll 5

Reed Bunting 9

Coal Tit 1

Blue Tit 4 and 4 retraps

Cetti's Warbler 1

Chiffchaff 2

Goldcrest 2 retraps

Wren 2

Goldfinch 2

We also had a new ringer to ring the new birds - Lauren. 

Welcome, Lauren. Hope you come ringing again!

From Janet:

Male Bullfinch, there was also a female about

Migrant Hawker 1

Common Darter several 

Male Common Darter

Roe Deer 2

I just checked the wildfowl on the two main ponds (Malcolm)

Gadwall have now increased to 17

Cetti's warbler 1 singing frequently at the "no swimming" pond

Jay 1

Whooper Swan 11 south. I could hear them coming, but I was surrounded by trees with just a small window above. Fortunately they passed right above my head.

Most of the Whoopers

North shore (Malcolm)

I walked the tide out from in front of the children's play area until it exposed the inner skear this morning. There was no wind and the sea was flat. The light mist still lingered, making for surreal lightning conditions.

Cormorants 

Little Egret 5

Little Egret

Great Crested Grebe 4

Great Crested Grebe

Red-breasted Merganser 5

Red-breasted Merganser 

Eider 15

Eider

The light mist quickly cleared when the SE breeze began

Wigeon 14 flying south, they are normally only seen on this side in passage

Wigeon

Pink-Footed goose 39 SE

Oystercatcher there was c100 feeding along the water line but several hundred flew to the exposing skear.

Oystercatcher 

Curlew 15 

Redshank 150

Turnstone 25

Ringed Plover 3

Dunlin 2

Knot 300 landed on the newly exposed skear, plus several flocks were seen flying south, when the skies cleared.

These are the two orange flagged Knot from yesterday. 
Both ringed at the same place, on the same day, but they have not been travelling
companions. The one on the left is the adult referred to in the comments below

These comments are from one of the scheme organisers Peter Knight, and demonstrates the value of schemes like this in identifying key locations that can then be prioritised for conservation.

Both were flagged on 8th May this year near Southport, but have very different resighting histories because one was an adult and the other was a 2CY bird. 

The adult was seen in SW Iceland only two week after flagging, on its way north to breed, and this sighting has now shown that it has successfully returned to the Irish Sea. 

The other like almost all 2CYs, didn’t go north, spent June, well-watched, at Leighton Moss, then joined the summering flock that fed on the north coast of Wirral and roosted at Seaforth NR which contained many of the 2CY birds flagged in that May catch. That flock has shrunk in size in recent weeks, and this sighting indicates where some of them have gone.

So, I approached today's smaller feeding group with caution to see if there were any more coded birds. 

But before I could get close enough all the waders lifted!

I looked around for a raptor, but it hadn't been a raptor that had spooked them

A gently bobbing helium balloon had cleared the skear of waders!

Kevin Eaves caught this moth in his trap last night

The Gem.
It's a Migrant from Southern Europe and has been rather uncommon
in Lancashire in recent years.

Colour coded Knot were a bonus

A dry and mainly sunny day with a SE wind.

Heysham skear - low water 11:25 (Malcolm)

At 3.25m today's low water just about exposed the beginning of the middle skear. 

Little Egret just 2, their normal feeding areas not exposed 

Little Egret

No Eider

Great Crested Grebe 2

Red-breasted Merganser 6

Red-breasted Merganser coming in to land

Oystercatcher 1500 (it's easier getting a more accurate estimate when you can see most of the birds at the same time)

Curlew 50+

Knot 600

Knot landing

Two had orange flags - details awaited

Redshank 100+

Redshank 

Turnstone 30+

Turnstone

Ringed Plover 18 

The Ringed Plover were close to shore, with a few Turnstone 

There were three attacks by Peregrine Falcon.

Peregrine Falcon

Red Nab - high water 17:20 (Malcolm)

These tides (7.5m) only just reach Red Nab

Pink-Footed goose 57 south along the shipping lane

Wigeon 60+

Shelduck 8

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!