Arctic Skua best of the day

A dry day, but more cloud than of late. A NE cool breeze.

Seawatch report - Pete

Heysham 0630-0830

1  light morph Arctic skua

10 Common scoter

44 Sandwich tern

1 Guillemot

1 Red-Throated Diver

6 Whimbrel 

2 Pale bellied Brent Geese

Heysham Nature Reserve (Janet)

Female Common Blue

Male Common Blue

A fresh Female Speckled Wood

Very worn female Speckled Wood

Common Carpet moth

Alder Leaf Beetles

Red-headed Cardinal (quite apt for today)

An elusive Rabbit was the only mammal seen

Heysham skear (Malcolm) 12:30 14:30

Eider 6

Little Egret 2

Oystercatcher 1,000

Whimbrel 13 minimum, but likely twice that. They were everywhere you looked, but also flying around making eliminating duplication difficult.

The bottom left bird has something in its bill

This one appears to eat a small mussel

Curlew just 1

Gulls, mainly Herring 600 - fewer than yesterday but I managed to check more of them for rings today. Slightly surprisingly, after yesterday's five, I only managed to find one and that was a Herring gull that I also saw yesterday.

Colour ringed 2nd calendar year Herring gull - details awaited

Avocet passes through and dragonflies emerging

Another dry sunny day with a light variable breeze.

Seawatch report - Pete - 0620-0800: 

Pretty dead this morning at Heysham after first 20 mins - should been there earlier.    

41 Sandwich tern in (16? of these out)

Gannet c19

guillemot 7

razorbill/guillemot 2

common scoter 23

Avocet 1 in - first, possibly the only, one of the year.

Canada goose 2

whimbrel 2

Middleton Nature Reserve (Janet)

Common Whitethroat 

Four-Spotted Chaser - first of the year
Also a glimpse of a dragonfly with a blue abdomen 

Female Orange Tip

Small Heath

Cranbus lathoniellus

Noon Fly

Second day in a row a large military plane flew low over the reserve 

Heysham skear (Malcolm). 11:45 - 13:45

Eider 7

Little Egret 2

Oystercatcher 1,300

Whimbrel 6

Whimbrel

Dunlin 4

Dunlin

Swallow 2 north 

Gulls 850 - mainly Herring but c50 Lesser Black-Backed

These neap tides do not expose much of the skear and the gulls were waiting 

for the seed mussels to become exposed.

Not always patiently

At least it was possible to get closer to the gulls today and I managed to read five ringed birds, all from the  North West England gull project - see the link to this scheme on the sidebar

One Lesser Black-Backed......

....and Four Herring gull - note the Whimbrel in the background 
Details of all birds awaited

Then the low military plane went over. It really was quite intimidating,
particularly when its shadow zipped over me and everything around me!

It lifted everything!

Look how lush the gutweed is now in places. The oxygen released by
photosynthesis becomes trapped in the tubes it is made of, when it
is like this, it's similarity to gas filled guts is obvious.

Barrel Jellyfish 

A good early start

Very calm early on with just a hint of an east breeze. A light west breeze from mid morning. Sunshine all day.

Seawatch report by Pete:

Sea Heysham 0600-0815 (2 obs): 

316 inbound Arctic tern

19 ‘Comic’ Tern

absolute min of 210 Sandwich Tern

129 Common Scoter

6 Gannet

4 Guillemot

1 Red throated Diver 

2 adult Kittiwake embedded in an Arctic Tern flock

Middleton Nature Reserve (Janet)

The Mute Swan family had moved to the "no swimming" pond, possibly influencing what happened next.

A gaggle of 8 Greylag geese were circling over the main pond and then landed,

One brave one to begin with

Then they all landed

No sign of the Mallard chicks today, possibly in hiding.
These two Mallard were "squabbling"!

One Shelduck over

Sparrowhawk

Azure Blue damselfly and an Alder Leaf beetle

North shore

Several (at least 7 of each) six-spot Burnet larvae and pupae along the sea wall today, especially towards the end. Looks like it's going to be a good year for them! - Kevin

I exercised my daughter's dog along the sea wall (Malcolm) I couldn't resist taking a clip of a six-spot Burnet larvae. Not exactly action packed but it has some therapeutic merit. The shadow is the dog passing by.

Rock Pipit 3 - one at Red Nab, one standing "guard" over the lighthouse nest hole while another was flying directly to it (too quickly to see if it was carrying food).

Rock Pipit above the lighthouse nest hole

Whimbrel 7 (3 + 4)

Three of the four Whimbrel resting on No1 outfall

There were a couple of Black-Headed gulls checking out the just
emerging Sandmason worm tubes

The Puffin Island Cormorant still electing to rest on No.2 outfall

More Arctic Terns

A dry day with long sunny spells. The NE breeze occasionally shifting to NW in the evening.

North sea wall

0530-0730: (PJM later PC)

Flocks of 9 , 16, 6 Arctic tern in

c30 Sandwich tern in/fishing

18 Common scoter out first thing 

I checked for an hour this evening (Malcolm)

2 Sandwich Tern in

1 male Eider in

4 Ringed Plover heading south

Ringed Plover

South shore 09:30 - 11:00 (Malcolm)

Shelduck 2

Little Egret 3

Linnet 4 around Ocean Edge plus 1 near the lighthouse 

Linnet in the foreshore edge

There has been a male Blackbird hanging around the edge of the saltmarsh 

for a while. I suspected a nestling attempt. Today this female had joined him,

unfortunately I didn't see her collecting food. But she was busy eyeing me up!

Meadow Pipit 1 by the saltmarsh.

Meadow Pipit

Rock Pipit just 2 seen. Red Nab and sea wall.

Red Nab Rock Pipit

Common Sandpiper 1 feeding just below the sloping sea wall.

Common Sandpiper 

The only other waders seen were 20 Oystercatcher 

The main reason for this morning's walk was to see if the green ringed 2nd calendar year Cormorant was resting on No.2 outfall again. It wasn't at first, but there were several others. Then a similar plumage bird arrived but with its ring leg hidden. 

2nd calendar year Cormorant at the very end of No.2 outfall

Even so I was confident that this was the ringed bird. The other Cormorants were steadily moving on and I thought that the ringed bird was likely to join them. So I scampered down the sea wall and scurried out across the soft mud........perhaps not the most accurate verbs, but the bottom line is that I got to the waterline just in time.

One of a Puffin Island, Wales scheme Cormorant. More details awaited

On a serious note, I have many year's experience of walking on the shore. The mud in this area can be treacherous. It was all soft, but I could see sections that were dangerous. It meant taking a longer route than ideal. 

Do not attempt to go out here, unless you have the appropriate experience.

Six-spot Burnet caterpillar on the sea wall
(Thanks to Kevin and Alison for the identification)

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Alison and Kevin checked the warblers. Eight species seen/heard.

Whitethroat
Lesser Whitethroat
Blackcap
Willow Warbler
Chiffchaff
Reed Warbler
Sedge Warbler
Cetti's Warbler

Some shots by Janet

One of two Small Heath - first of the year

Common Blue

Common Whitethroat 

Robin with a bill full of grubs

All the cygnets looking healthy