Not again!

A dry and brighter day with a very light SE breeze.

Heysham Nature Reserve 

Marsh tit caught again! That's the third time in four days on two different Nature Reserves. It was still calling in the tank farm mid morning.

Heysham Skear (Malcolm) 08:30 - 10:30

Pink-Footed goose 15 in one skein south

Wigeon 2 south

Eider 6

Red-Breasted Merganser 4

Great Crested Grebe 9

Grey Heron 3

Little Egret 12

Heron and Little Egret

Shag just one juvenile seen

Juvenile Shag (left) and Cormorant 

Gulls c100 mainly Herring gulls

Oystercatcher 800+

Curlew 40

This Curlew was ringed at Llanrhystud near Aberystwyth, Wales 10/02/2016
Amazingly, this was its first sighting, after almost a decade!

Redshank 140

Knot 280

Knot amongst the Honeycomb worm reefs. It was difficult to check for any 
colour coded  birds, but there was one orange flagged, unfortunately I didn't 
manage to read it

Turnstone 40

Ringed Plover 9

Common Snipe 1 flying around

South shore (Malcolm) 15:00 - 16:15

It was warm with an east breeze, albeit a gentle one. These are conditions that favour insect migration, normally better when the tide is out, which it wasn't. Today, unlike yesterday, the Nature Park was devoid of butterflies other than Speckled Wood.

There were a few butterflies coming in off the sea though.

Small White 16

Red Admiral 5

Small Tortoiseshell 1

Comma 1

The perimeter wall to the Power Stations get very warm in the sun and some stop for a rest

Red Admiral

Small White

Small Tortoiseshell 

Silver Y - spotted by Kevin

Juvenile Great Black-Backed gull and juvenile Herring gull in the harbour 

Shag 4 juveniles - three were resting on the wooden jetty and this one between the wooden jetty and the roundhead.

Juvenile Shag

It tried a bit of fishing 

Then headed off to the north (the skear would be exposing about this time)

Two Cormorants in the harbour 

Rock Pipits 3

Reserve hopping Marsh Tit

Another dry day but overcast for much of the time. Calm early on then a very gentle SE breeze.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Ringing report by Jean:

The ringing list for today, dominated by Chiffchaffs:

Chiffchaff 17

Long-tailed Tit 11 Including 3 recent retraps)

Goldfinch 7

Blue Tit 7 (including one from a brood of 10 at Middleton)

Grey Wagtail 6 caught out of 10 over

Cetti's Warbler 4 (inc a recent retrap)

Great Tit 4 (all recent retraps and including 2 birds from the same brood in a Heysham nest box)

Goldcrest 3

Reed Bunting 1

Meadow Pipit 1

Robin 1

Chaffinch 1

Wren 1

Dunnock 1

Marsh Tit 1 - the same one that was at Heysham on Monday. It had travelled 2km.

7 skeins of Pinkfeet flew over. A Raven was heard to the east. Two Buzzards calling and seemed to be heading south, a Sparrowhawk flew north. A Water Rail squealed in the marsh. Kingfisher 1 mid morning.

Heysham skear (Malcolm) 08:30 - 10:00

Pink-Footed goose 180 in four skeins south. These will be additional to those seen from Middleton as they were all far to the west.

Four ducks flew in high from the north:

Shoveler 1

Wigeon 3

Shoveler leading 3 Wigeon

Eider 9

Red-Breasted Merganser 8

Red-Breasted Merganser

Great Crested Grebe 5

Great Crested grebe, juvenile on right

Shag at least 2 juvenile feeding

Shag having a spruce up

Shag diving with Great Crested Grebe and a Red-Breasted Merganser

Grey Heron 1

Little Egret 14 - these are some of the Egret and Mergansers feeding

Gulls c100 mainly Herring

Oystercatcher at least 1500 flew from the shear to rest on the shore to the south 

Curlew 25

Redshank only 30 seen 

Knot 150 many of them juveniles 

Turnstone 25

Ringed Plover 6

Common Snipe 2 came in off the sea and continued east

These are some of the Knot, it doesn't show much, but there was no wind, so all you can hear is the sound of the tide coming in and the soft calls of the Knot.

South shore (Malcolm) 14:30 - 16:00

By this time it was quite warm and there was or had been some insect movement.

Nature Park:

Migrant Hawker 1

Common Darter 3

Red Admiral 2

Painted Lady 2

Worn Painted Lady topping up on clover nectar

Large White 2

Small White 6

Common Blue 1

Common Blue

Red Nab:

Common Darter 1

Small White 5

Foreshore:

Small White 10

Saltmarsh:

Common Darter 1

Male Common Darter

Small White 26

Red Admiral 1

Small Tortoiseshell 1

Common Blue 1

I didn't go along the sea wall as I wanted to see what waders were on the shore. I'd have been better off going along the wall as there were only 5 Ringed Plover and 2 Dunlin on the mud.

Lapwing 4 on the saltmarsh 

Wheatear 3

Rock Pipit 1

Curlew Sandpiper.......finally!

Another dry sunny day. A very light NE breeze switched to NW after lunch.

South shore (Malcolm) 10:15 - 12:30

A check of the shore out from the saltmarsh finally located a Curlew Sandpiper. Juveniles have been seen in higher than average numbers close by, but this is the first one seen in the recording area this year.

Juvenile Curlew Sandpiper 

It was feeding with 40 Dunlin and 30 Ringed Plover at the southern limit to the recording area, just out from the faux castle. Although, it wasn't really feeding "with" them, it was always on the outskirts of the feeding group.

This is the faux castle. It used to be a feature in a holiday camp. 
Now it is in the grounds of a new residential area.

Grey Plover 3

Two Grey Plover a Dunlin and a Ringed Plover

Oystercatcher 1200

Curlew 150

Redshank 58

Pink-Footed goose 51 - just one skein south 

Little Egret 3

Grey Heron 1

Linnet c110 - there were at least 27 feeding along the finger of marsh between the saltmarsh and the faux castle. 60+ on the saltmarsh and 20 on the foreshore 

Linnet along the thin strip of marsh grass and Samphire 

These are some of the Linnet along the foreshore having a rest and preen.

Wheatear 3

Wheatear on the foreshore 

Pied/White Wagtails 8 along the foreshore looked to be off passage (the resident birds tend to favour the grass).

Kevin had a walk along the sea wall later

One of those rare days when Snowdonia is visible! Few birds though.

Snowdonia visible from the end of the sea wall today

Heysham skear (Malcolm) 16:00 - 17:30

The tide was just exposing the skear. 

Shag 3 juveniles 

Two resting on a rock

The third was fishing around the rock

Eider 5 males and a female

Red-breasted Merganser 5. All female/immature

Red-Breasted Merganser

Great Crested Grebe 3

Little Egret 9

Gulls c100

Oystercatcher 700

Curlew 30

Redshank 140

Knot 220

Turnstone 40

Ringed Plover 8

It was nice seeing the Knot in numbers, many of them were juvenile, I didn't see a single flagged bird.

Knot

Crossbill tops bill, and a good day was had by all

A dry sunny day. Almost no air movement early on, what there was came from the east. A light west breeze from lunchtime.

Heysham Nature Reserve

Jean and Pete had a ringing and visible migration morning. Report by Jean:

Good variety and number of birds ringed this morning. 57 caught, 17 species:

Robin 4

Great Tit 2

Blue Tit 7

MARSH TIT 1 

Goldfinch 6

Chiffchaff 4

GOLDCREST 8

GREY WAGTAIL 9 colour ringed (out of 15 flying over)

Great Spotted Woodpecker 2

Greenfinch 2

Long-tailed Tit 1

TREECREEPER 1

Coal Tit 2

Dunnock 4

Chaffinch 1

Blackcap 1

Whitethroat 1

Vis:

CROSSBILL 1

Pink-footed Goose 6 skeins

Redpoll 1

Marsh Tit

Migrant Hawkers

Wall brown flew north along the coastline past half moon bay cafe (this butterfly is not seen every year here) 

South shore (Malcolm) 09:45 - 11:45

The plan was to do the same walk as yesterday, but I didn't manage to check the foreshore today.

Pink-Footed goose 265 in 4 skeins, the last at 10:15

Shelduck 5

Mediterranean gull 1 adult south

Mediterranean gull 

Swallow 1 south

Oystercatchers 450

Curlew 180

Lapwing 4

Grey Plover 6

Redshank 55

Knot 6

Ringed Plover 80

Dunlin 53

Sanderling 2

Ringed Plover and Dunlin

They were feeding high up the shore where it was covered in freshwater yesterday.

The Grey Plovers, Knot and Sanderling were the only waders feeding along the waterline. The Sanderling didn't stay long before continuing south.

Some of the Redshank near the saltmarsh 

Kingfisher 1 flushed from the saltmarsh creek by the rising tide and flew towards Middleton Nature Reserve 

Linnet 40+. Today the were on the west side of the saltmarsh 

Kestrel 1 male on the east side of the saltmarsh 

Not a great shot, but I quite like it.
The dark Kestrel shape bottom left is just the shadow. The Kestrel is mid
frame, you can just make out its distinctive tail.

Clouded Yellow 2 on the saltmarsh. A bright yellow male flew north along the Western edge before continuing north. I just about managed some record shots.

Male Clouded Yellow

In contrast a female in the NE corner was reluctant to fly, providing easy at rest shots, but they always rest with their wings closed, and this one was the pale variant with its upper wings almost white.

Resting Clouded Yellow, but not obviously a female, or pale

So I adopted a strategy of casting my shadow on it to stimulate a reaction.
That's my scary shadow, I wasn't wearing a top hat, just a sun hat.

It worked!

Pale version female Clouded Yellow

She clearly just wanted to rest, presumably after flying some distance, so I left her in peace.

Kevin Eaves checked the foreshore just after lunch.

Clouded Yellow - one bright yellow one looked to be a male flew past quickly, almost certainly different to the earlier one that had continued north, so 3 for the day.

Wheatear 1

Middleton Nature Reserve (Malcolm)

Mute Swan 1 adult and 7 cygnets 

Tufted Duck 30 (8 on "no swimming" pond)

Gadwall 5

Mallard 5

Coot 11

Moorhen 2

Cetti's warbler 1 singing in western marsh

Chiffchaff 1 calling

Mediterranean gull 2 adult high to the west

Red Admiral 4 all drifting high to the east

Large White 1

Speckled Wood 3

Common Darter 2

Migrant Hawker 8

Migrant Hawker 

Birds were pretty much the same, but the weather was nicer!

Sunshine all day but cool early on in the light NE wind

South shore (Malcolm) 08:30 - 11:30

A very pleasant walk out on the shore to the south of the saltmarsh, then along the foreshore to the, then almost covered, Red Nab.

Pink-Footed goose c120 - two skeins south some distance out another of 57 south over my head.

Canada goose 4 with the 57 Pinkfoot.

Canada geese

Canada geese with Pink-Footed geese

Shelduck 3

Little Egret 6

At first glance, this Little Egret looked interesting in the low strong light.

Mediterranean gull just 1 first calendar year flew south

Swallow 1

The only other movement seen were 11 passerines very high to the south. Too high to hear any calls and only spotted high above a gull I was checking with my binoculars. Very likely many more passed over unnoticed.

Waders

Oystercatcher 2,000 along the waterline plus many more on Red Nab.

Oystercatchers along the waterline with a nice view of the South Lakes in the
background. Also a good view of some of the locations regularly mentioned in
this blog. To the far right is the lighthouse, below it the sloping sea wall. Running 
out from the sea wall is what's left of the old wooden jetty. The two outfalls are 
between the waterline and the wooden jetty. There is a map at the foot of the posts.

Curlew 130

Curlew

The only other waders along the waterline were:

Bar-Tailed Godwit 4

Bar-Tailed Godwit

This wader on the water with nothing to help gauge size was not immediately obvious.

Dunlin

A flock of 12 Knot were displaced by the tide to the south.

A group of 25 Ringed Plover and 15 Dunlin were feeding further up the shore.

Ringed Plover

Dunlin

6 Grey Plover were high up the shore near the saltmarsh 

Grey Plovers, note all the Lugworm casts here.

Further south, out from the faux castle a small group of waders were resting 

Grey Plover 63 (69 total for the day)

Knot 6 (18 total for the day)

Dunlin 8 (24 total for the day)

Grey Plover and Knot

Grey Plover and Dunlin. No Lugworm casts here, this section of shore is awash
with all the freshwater that has run off the land, it drains from here to eventually
form the creek that runs through the saltmarsh 

Redshank 18 around the saltmarsh 

Lapwing 7 on the saltmarsh 

Linnet 40 feeding on Samphire seeds on the east side of the saltmarsh.

Linnet

This Kestrel was resting on the west side of the saltmarsh.
The Magpies weren't happy!

The Kestrel left when it was ready, but the Magpies pretended that
they had chased it off

Wheatear 11 - 2 on the saltmarsh plus 9 along the foreshore 

In contrast to the very pale bird on Friday, this Wheatear has a rich shade of rufous 

Rock Pipit 3

White Wagtail 1

 

White Wagtail on the shingles between the foreshore and Red Nab

This Carrion Crow on the saltmarsh has gone for the vegetarian option.
It didn't find the apple there, it flew to the middle of the saltmarsh carrying it.

By the time I reached the Nature Park the day had warmed up, there was a bit of insect activity.

Migrant Hawker 1

Red Admiral 3

Small White 2

Speckled Wood 2