A flash of colour on an otherwise grey day

A freshening SE wind. Overcast all day but it managed to remain dry till evening.

South shore (Malcolm) 09:00 - 10:30

Linnet 112 seen, there were probably more

Shelduck 119 feeding all along the shore out from Ocean Edge

Just a few of the Shelduck

Kingfisher 1 flew up the sloping sea wall from Red Nab then along the perimeter fence towards the Nature Park.

Not the greatest of shots but nice to see

Plenty of gulls on No.2 outfall, but almost all Black-Headed gulls

Cormorant drying its feathers

I went along the wall when the tide was out to check the feeding beach by the wooden jetty. It was pretty much deserted, just 4 adult Mediterranean gulls at the seaward end.

Mediterranean gull with a white ring, far too distant to read

Rock Pipit 3

Rock Pipit on Red Nab

Middleton Nature Reserve (Malcolm)

Just a passing check. The water level on the "no swimming" pond is still high, but that doesn't explain why it was duckless today. The diving birds can still find food. Clearly they prefer the main pond when disturbance is minimal. I made these counts and took the pictures while sat on the bench by the bottom car park.

Cormorants 2

Mute Swan female with 7 cygnets

Tufted Duck 34

Mallard 12

Gadwall 7

Coot 12

Moorhen 2

Little grebe 1

Female Tufted Duck

This clip provides just a flavour of the abundant wildfowl on the main pond. It's a Cormorant that flies across the frame.

And that was it for the day, I don't have much time at the weekend. But I can normally enjoy watching the birds on my garden feeders. Not today, this Sparrowhawk left the garden deserted all afternoon!

Plenty going on, but nothing new

Another dry day with a sunny morning, more cloud cover in the afternoon. A light east breeze.

Heysham skear (Malcolm) 08:45 - 10:30

Pink-Footed goose 40 - well, probably 40. 2 skeins south an hour apart both had exactly 20 geese each.

Pink-Footed geese

Eider 10

Red-Breasted Merganser 9

Great Crested Grebe 9

Grey Heron 3

Little Egret 10

Shag at least one juvenile 

Gulls 120

Swallow 1 south

It was hard estimating the wader numbers as an immature Peregrine Falcon was harassing everything.

Immature Peregrine Falcon 

It even had a go at the Carrion Crows

It finally caught something and landed on the mud to the north of the skear.
That's a Red Admiral coming in off the sea above the Peregrine.

 

Oystercatcher 600

Curlew 30

Redshank 120

Knot 45 in small scattered groups

Turnstone 40

Ringed Plover 6

Knot and a Redshank

Middleton Nature Reserve - Janet (still with only one functional arm)

Plenty of Common Darter and a Migrant Hawker

South shore (Malcolm) 12:15 - 14:00

A check of the shore out from the saltmarsh saw only one small feeding group of waders.

Ringed Plover 20 

Dunlin 6

There were quite a lot of waders along the waterline.

Curlew 100, plus others flying south

Oystercatcher 150

Bar-Tailed Godwit 88

Grey Plover 7

Knot 300

Dunlin 250

Knot and Dunlin

Bar-Tailed Godwit 

Bar-Tailed Godwit

All the waders except the Oystercatchers quickly left to the soutth.
The Godwits were the last to leave, a Knot with them here

Not all the waders were feeding, these resting Dunlin were half way
up the shore

Shelduck 15

Shelduck

Lapwing 4 at the saltmarsh 

Linnet 100+

Wheatear 1

Wigeon 2 resting birds drifted in with the tide, presumably the same 2 were feeding at Red Nab later.

Wigeon

Mediterranean gull 5 on Red Nab, despite it being almost covered by the time I got there. 4 adults and a 2nd calendar year 

Adult Mediterranean gull (top right)

2cy Mediterranean gull (left)

Adult Mediterranean gulls

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