Good moth day

A dry but mainly overcast day. A light west breeze.

Middleton Nature Reserve (Janet)

These scarce Copper-Tipped Longhorn moths were in the same area in the
southern section of the Reserve where Janet found them last year. It looks like a
breeding population. But no males have been seen. Copper-Tipped Longhorn
moths can reproduce by parthenogenesis. i.e. without a male

If you want to have a look, this is the location map from last year.
The pond top right is the main pond, the one to its left the "no swimming" pond
This part of the reserve is on the south side of the road from the main pond.
Blue highlight marks the spot

Shaded Broad-Bar

Common Blue

Green-Veined White

Faded Ringlet

Small Skipper

White-Tailed Bumblebee 

Honey Bee

One of the many solitary bees

Lacewing

There are at least 2 Coot families on the main pond

South shore (Malcolm) 13:00 - 14:15

Wheatear 1 juvenile on the foreshore 

Rock Pipit 1 on Red Nab

Mediterranean gull 17 - there were 3 adults on Red Nab as I walked out, presumably some of the 11 adults that arrived at the feeding beach by the wooden jetty as it became exposed. Also on the beach 2 x 2nd calendar year and a 3rd calendar year. A juvenile and an adult feeding on No.2 outfall plus an adult seen flying to the feeding beach as I walked back.

These are some of the Meds as the beach was just becoming exposed 

2cy Mediterranean gull

Adult Mediterranean gull

Juvenile Mediterranean gull

Whimbrel 2 - one near No.2 outfall and one calling from Red Nab

Whimbrel 

This moth was In Alison's trap this morning.

A nice European visitor to the Heysham moth trap this morning.  Bedstraw Hawk moth - Hyles gallii. It's resident from the east of southern France as far north as southern Scandinavia and Russia.  

Insect gallery

A dry mainly sunny day with a light west breeze.

First some shots taken by Rosemary and Peter Silvester, at Heysham Nature Reserve. During Rob and Belinda's Insect Identification Workshop on Saturday. 

Common Green Grasshopper 

Bumblebee 

Alder Leaf Beetle larvae 

Male Gatekeeper 

Female Gatekeeper

Dingy Footman

Female Speckled Wood

Funnel Web Spider
Peter and I really enjoyed the workshop even though it highlighted just
 how much we didn't know we didn't know!!

Janet is back after a well earned break. These shots from Middleton Nature Reserve today.

Female Southern Hawker near the pond on the southern section of the Reserve

Red-Veined Darter on the west bank of the main pond 

Common Darter

Meadow Brown

Comma

Red Admiral

Looks like the spider has already incapacitated the "insect"

Mallard with two small chicks

Bald as a Coot.........chick

South shore (Malcolm) 10:30 - 12:00

Wheatear 1 juvenile near the slipway

Mediterranean gull 1 adult flew along the sea wall, 1 juvenile briefly on No.2 outfall

All four juvenile Herring gulls raised on the two platforms in the harbour 
have now successfully fledged

Summer Plumage Redshank was the only one seen

Dunlin 88 resting on No.1 outfall and the rocks below the wooden jetty.

Some of the Dunlin resting below the wooden jetty

Curlew 200+ plus flew to the north side.

Whimbrel 1 near No.2 outfall

Rock Pipit 1 Red Nab

Linnet 5 together near the waterfall 

In the scrub near the lighthouse 

Common Blue 60+

Gatekeeper 5

Red Admiral 1

Small White 1

In the Nature Park

Meadow Brown lots

Gatekeeper lots

Common Blue 6

Large White 2

Small White 3

Red Admiral 3

Peacock 2

Comma 2

The tiny white mark on the underwing is the comma that gives this 
butterfly its name

Chiffchaff 

Heysham skear (Malcolm) 15:30 - 16:30

I started at low water, hardly any birds were still feeding, they were just resting till the tide moved them on.

C150 gulls scattered all around the skear, mainly Herring.

Little Egret 4

Eider c25 females and young.

Eider resting on an island 

No mergansers seen

Great Crested Grebe 1

Oystercatcher 500 (probably an underestimation, it is difficult when they are spread over a large area)

Curlew 60 (ditto)

Redshank 48 in two flocks

Turnstone 25 in two flocks, several small groups may have been additional 

Oystercatcher and a summer plumage Turnstone 

A variety of plumages

Knot 2 - first returning birds

Female Knot leave the nesting grounds as soon as their eggs hatch.
Dad takes care of the young till they fledge. If breeding fails then 
both males and females return early.

Plastic puzzle, is a plastic problem

Warm, despite heavy showers in the morning, turning to steady rain in the afternoon. A light east breeze

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Report by Alan:

A modest catch of 20 birds from my ringing session today at Middleton included nine species of warbler.

Total catch: Singles of  Wren, Blue Tit, Lesser Whitethroat, Garden Warbler, Dunnock, Common Whitethroat & Cetti's Warbler.

Willow Warbler  2

Sedge Warbler  2

Chiffchaff  1 + 1 retrap

Great Tit  2

Blackcap  3

Reed Warbler  2

 

A Weasel scuttled across the roadway, and later a Roe Deer stood around on the road staring at me for at least fifteen minutes, apparently not too bothered by a human.

Heysham skear (Malcolm) 09:30 - 11:30

My walk timed to watch the inner skear being exposed by the ebbing tide.

Gulls 600+, but most were on the water some distance out, likely where a shoal of small fish were. The gulls need the fish to be disoriented from attack by larger fish for them to have any chance of catching one. They seemed to be anticipating such an attack.

There were c150 large gulls around the mussel beds, mainly Herring gulls. There were also more Black-Headed gulls than recently 40.

A juvenile and 3rd calendar year Mediterranean gull landed to see what the attraction was.

3cy Mediterranean gull 

The 3cy clearly wasn't impressed with what was on the menu and quickly headed off south, followed shortly afterwards by the juvenile 

The large gulls on the mussel beds are still finding small seed mussels. Seed mussels continue to arrive all through the summer, but are tightly packed between larger mussels in most areas. The inner skear has fewer large mussels so still provides a feeding opportunity.

The ringed Herring gull is N:04S. It was ringed at Bowland in 2023.
The gull on the right is holding a seed mussel the size they prefer.

Bizarrely, the only other ringed bird seen was the next in sequence N:05S
A reasonable chance that they are siblings, both have been seen here before
but not previously on the same day

This is N:05S feeding, I took the clip to show them eating seed mussels, and you can see that if you watch closely. But at the end of the clip it finds something other than a mussel

The problem with eating seed mussels is that they are just hard, shiny and
tasteless. As is a piece of plastic, or a pebble for that matter. Whatever criteria 
they use to identify seed mussels as food, thankfully this piece of plastic didn't qualify.

This juvenile Black-Headed gull looks to have something eel like

It is something eel like. It's an eel like strip of plastic, eventually discarded.
To be fair there isn't a lot of plastic on the skear, mainly as the strong currents
regularly purge the surface, but small pieces can and do remain in the crevices.
And there is an awful lot of plastic in the sea!

Eider just 1 male in eclipse 

Male Eider in eclipse 

No mergansers seen

Great Crested grebe 5

Oystercatcher 500

Curlew 80

Redshank 35

Turnstone 1

Dunlin 2 south

Turnstone 

Little Egret 2

This Little Egret looked odd flying with its legs apart......

.......but there was a reason. The lesson here is that if you see an Egret
flying overhead with its legs apart......put your hat on! Quickly!

The offshore wind was ideal for today's kite festival. Shame that it
rained for most of the afternoon