A change in the weather begins

A mainly overcast day, fortunately the rain managed to hold off till after lunch. A SE wind.

Heysham skear (Malcolm) 09:30-10:30

I walked the tide in, but these high spring tides come in very quickly, so it didn't take long.

Eider 45

Male Eider, moulting out of eclipse 

Eider

Red-Breasted Merganser 8 female/immature, When one dives they all dive.

Great Crested grebe 7

Shag 3 juveniles at least

This juvenile Shag was resting amongst the north side honeycomb worm reefs

Later three were resting on conger rock on the south side of the skear

Little Egret 5

Gulls c100 mainly Herring

Oystercatcher 700

Curlew 35

Redshank 80

Turnstone 60

Ringed Plover 2

Swallow 5 singles south

On 5th September I posted this shot showing a 50m strip of mud right
across the skear. Which was unusual.

This is the same strip today, the power of the spring tides has removed all
the mud leaving a 50m wide strip of skear bottom. Which is even more unusual!

South shore (Malcolm) 14:00 - 16:00

I started on the shingles between the saltmarsh and the faux castle just after high water, then checked the saltmarsh and foreshore.

There were just four Ringed Plover on the shingles

Two Ringed Plovers in this shot

Juvenile Ringed Plover

Carrion Crows 28

19 Carrion Crows in the foreground of this shot

By this time the rain was quite heavy and I switched to my old pocket camera, which still produces adequate record shots.

Common Sandpiper 1 - it flew across the saltmarsh east to west then returned later

Rear view of a Common Sandpiper 

Wheatear 3 along the foreshore 

Linnet 33 on Ocean Edge grass

Some of the Linnet and a Pied Wagtail

Rock Pipit 3 on Red Nab

By late evening the rain was torrential, the wind freshening quickly and shifting to SW. Hopefully, we'll get something interesting blown in over the coming days.

Shelduck numbers growing quickly

A dry and largely sunny day with a freshening SE breeze.

Middleton Nature Reserve (Janet)

Unfortunately the treatment on the injured Swan's wing didn't fix it. He is not deemed fit to defend himself in the wild, so no release after all (see yesterday's post). 

Nine Tufted Duck on the main pond

Female Common Darter

Male Common Blue

Rush Veneer moth (it is in this shot!)

South shore (Malcolm)

Three visits today. The first 08:40-09:30, from saltmarsh to wooden jetty at low water.

Mute Swan 1 originally out from the saltmarsh, later just past Red Nab

Mute Swan

Shelduck 56 filtering the tiny snails from the mud, then flying over to the freshwater runoffs for a drink.

Shelduck having a drink

Wheatear 3 on the foreshore 

Wheatear

Meadow Pipit 12 south in just over an hour

This Meadow Pipit stopped off on the foreshore briefly

Rock Pipits 5 feeding on the sea wall, not so much bickering today

Rock pipits on the sloping wall at Red Nab, unfortunately the strong light
behind them

Little Egret 5

Plenty of gulls on No.1 outfall, but all Black-Headed

I walked out here at this time to check the feeding beach at low water.
This should have been an ideal tide for the Mediterranean gulls to feast
on Sandmason worms. But the whole beach has been smothered in fresh
mud, and there wasn't a single Sandmason worm tube to be seen.
No Mediterranean gulls were seen today

A second check out from the saltmarsh 11:00-12:30

Swallow 9 south in ones and twos.

Linnet 30+ on the the saltmarsh 

Wheatear 1

This Wheatear wasn't easy to see amongst the pebbles

Little Egret 2

Little Egret and Redshank waiting for the incoming tide in the saltmarsh creek

Shelduck now 75

There were no waders along the waterline and just 3 Ringed Plover closer in. There were waders further to the south beyond the recording area. I could see them from the recording area, but not well enough to identify all of them, so I walked further. A couple of shots at the end of the post.

A third check along the seawall 15:45-16:45. By this time it was warm, a fresh SE breeze and the tide was ebbing. Often this means insects coming in off the sea, but there wasn't any at all along the seawall.

Shag 3 juveniles on the wooden jetty

This Redshank was taking a particularly vigorous bath!

Redshank

Two Linnet and a young Pied Wagtail on the sea wall

There were quite a lot of insects in the Nature Park 

Common Darter 6

Migrant Hawker 3

Migrant Hawker

Red Admiral 2

Painted Lady 1

Small Tortoiseshell 1

Large White 8

Green-Veined White 1

Speckled Wood 5

Common Blue 2

Painted Lady

Heliport wall (Malcolm) - just a quick look on my way home towards high water at lunchtime 

24 Lapwings, 1 Redshank, 1 Turnstone and a "lot" of Oystercatchers!

Just out of the recording area - these are some of the waders just south of the faux castle which marks the southern limit of the recording area.

Grey Plover, Knot and Dunlin

Four Sanderling

Wrong sort of Sandpiper and an old "friend" returns.

A heavy shower first thing, and another early evening. In between it was dry with plenty of sunshine. A light SW wind.

South shore

I checked from the saltmarsh to No.2 outfall (Malcolm) 09:30 - 10-30

I had planned to go further, but had got the tide times mixed up (I used a 2024 tide table! It just shows that even when you think you know the tide time you should always watch what the sea is doing to confirm, everyone makes mistakes)

Swallow 4 south over the saltmarsh 

Grey Plover 2 out from the saltmarsh 

Grey Plover

Robin 1 by the saltmarsh 

There hasn't been a Robin here since early spring

Wheatear 2 along the foreshore 

Wheatear

Rock Pipit 4 feeding on top of the sea wall at Red Nab

Later, Janet had a walk along the sea wall

The four Rock Pipits were finding small insects and fighting each other

Rock Pipits

 Cormorants on the wooden jetty

Cormorants 

Curlew

In the Nature Park

Common Darters on the newt pond

Small Tortoiseshell 

A tatty looking White, probably a Large

I checked to the south of the saltmarsh around high water (Malcolm)

At 9.6m there is only a narrow strip of shingles remaining. I was hoping to locate a Curlew Sandpiper, probably hoping too hard!

There were two small groups of Ringed Plover 28 in total. One group landed to the north of me and were easy to see with the sun shining on them. As well as the Ringed Plover there were 3 Dunlin and a Sanderling 

Sanderling with Ringed Plovers and a Dunlin

Also Sanderling with Ringed Plovers and Dunlin

Another group was to the south of me with the light behind them, at first I thought they included 2 Curlew Sandpiper, but they too turned out to be Sanderling, so 3 in total.

Sanderling

Two Sanderling with Ringed Plover and Dunlin

Two of the six Dunlin in total

I did manage to see one sandpiper. Common Sandpiper, briefly on the rocky outcrop just south of the saltmarsh 

Common Sandpiper 

This Curlew made short work of a shore crab

Curlew

Middleton Nature Reserve 

The male Mute Swan, injured by a dog attack, it to return home tomorrow, by the sound of the following e-mail he has been as disruptive at the Sanctuary as he often is on the main pond......

Good afternoon guys. As some have met me but most haven't.. I'm Col from Bella's legacy Wildlife Rescue.. I was contacted by Jo Bailey reguarding the psychotic Swan now called "Swanable Hector" that was subject to a dog attack almost a fortnight ago... 

After what can only be described as a top tackle only performed by scrum halfs, he was carried to the car for a full examination.. Where he was given pain relief..

Apart from possible muscle & tendon/ligament soft tissue injuries, the visible injuries was upper wing (Feathers & abrasions, & lower wing where it had been dragging on the floor.. 

That was treated with a colloid dressing & manuka honey and his wing strapped up..

Fast forward 10 days of crate rest & strapped up wing & I've now got the terrifying experience of taking the strapping off (getting bitten, hissed at & no doubt wing slapped).. I will put some pics up later either of Swanable Hector wing stretching or of me in A&E...

But he will be coming home tomorrow... (🙏 thank the lord🙏)....🦢🦢🤕🤕...

An excellent e-mail and a job well done! Hopefully he will be more subdued now, but it doesn't sound like he will be in the best of moods when he returns.

Just out of the recording area. Black Tern - river Lune estuary