At wet Sunday.......as bad as it sounds!

Heavy rain all morning driven by a strong SW wind. It managed to stay dry for most of the afternoon.

No other reports received yet, and I didn't have much time today - Malcolm

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Main pond

Mute Swan pair, both on the water, plus an immature 

Mallard pair

Tufted Duck 2 pairs

No Shoveler seen

Little grebe 1 in summer plumage

Chiffchaff 1 singing 

"no swimming" pond

Mute Swan pair

Tufted Duck 8 (2 female)

Mallard 2 males

Teal pair

Male Mallard and Teal

Female Teal

Some of the nests in the Middleton Rd Rookery were looking precarious 

Just out of the recording area. This semi leucistic Blackbird was in the horse paddock behind Middleton Parish Hall.

His piebald plumage is actually a better camouflage. 

Good seawatch

 A strong and gusty WNW to NW wind with the odd squall. 

Considering the amount of north in the wind, Nick Godden did very well seawatching from the Stone jetty.

6.45-8.15am NW F5-6 at high tide

Common scoter 1m
Red-throated diver 6
Gannet 38 all adults
Kittiwake 258 in
Little gull 2ad, 1 1st w in just off the end of the Jetty
Common gull 6 1st w

The above is just part of Nick's report on the LDBWS sightings page, if you would like to see the full report follow this link. https://lancasterbirdwatching.org.uk/forums/topic/stone-jetty-21/

Heysham skear - Malcolm 10:00 - 11:30 and 15:00 - 16:00

Pale-bellied Brent goose 78 in one flock this morning (later Chris Vaghela saw 80 on Red Nab) at least 72 feeding on the skear this afternoon. These are the morning birds, the flock splits as they pass the skear.

Eider 25

Red-breasted Merganser 15 minimum, it was hard keeping track of them. There are 8 in this clip.

These are on one of the large pools on the skear and are easier to follow. As the spring wears on the males displaying becomes ever more frantic and less discriminating. I've seen them display to Eider and Grebes! 

But for now it is just the female Mergansers that are being perpetually "wooed".

Red-breasted Mergansers 

Common Gull at least 17 making their way out this morning 

Common gulls

Bar-Tailed Godwit 6 this morning 

Knot 2000 this morning, just 19 this afternoon. The morning birds were very flighty, but one new flagged bird was seen.

Knot and a Bar-Tailed Godwit 

Knot female Eider and Oystercatchers 

The other waders haven't been getting a mention of late, but numbers of Oystercatcher, Curlew, Redshank and Turnstone remain reasonably constant. 2 Ringed Plovers today

Oystercatchers

Middleton Nature Reserve - Janet

Shoveler pair

Cormorant 

Long-Tailed Tits

Greenfinch and Great Tit having a "discussion"!

Bullfinch......

........and Blue Tit both deciding that it is better to eat out

Lesser Black-Backed gull, someone else is hurling the generous portions of bread!

This Carrion Crow was in the Nature Park

Nothing new today

Heavy overnight rain stopped at 07:30, then dry and mainly sunny till evening showers. A west wind.

Middleton Nature Reserve - Janet

Immature Cormorant flying around the main pond

There were a few Cetti's warblers scattered around being very vocal

Heysham skear  - Malcolm 13:00 - 15:00

Pale-bellied Brent geese everywhere again, the most seen at one time was 45

Pale-bellied Brent geese, that's Knowsly Rd beyond the pasture 

There is plenty of gutweed pretty much everywhere for them now

Eider 9

Great Crested grebe 1

Little Egret 2

Knot, initially 800 at the very edge of the skear at low water. Joined by several small flocks to a total 1000 

Bar-Tailed Godwit 13 (9 + 4)

Some of the Knot at the western edge of the skear

Knot and Bar-Tailed Godwit

There was lots of freshwater draining into the sea after last night's heavy rain. The waders took advantage to have a bath after feeding.

Plenty going on

A dry day, sunny spells till mid afternoon then overcast. A light west to SW breeze.

Shaun Coyle made an early start:

Heysham area 06:30-09:45.

Canada Goose 3 into the bay.

Little Egret 4 Red Nab. 

Eider 7 off the outfalls.

Sparrowhawk 2 over Ocean Edge heading inland.

Peregrine annoying the gulls at Red Nab.

Great Spotted Woodpecker 1.

Wheatear male Red Nab.

Cetti's Warbler singing HNR marsh and just 2 MNR.

Chiffchaff 11 in total (including Dog Walk Track). Plus 2 MNR.

Single Rock Pipit seawall. 

Later when Janet checked Red Nab, there were two male Wheatears, probably both additional to Shaun's.

Song Thrush, still feeding young in the Nature Park

Janet also checked Middleton Nature Reserve 

I left some sunflower seeds in a feeder at MNR the other day, today there were Male and female Bullfinches on it and Goldfinches 

The female was more wary of going to the feeder

Still Shoveler on the main pond

Heysham skear - Malcolm 08:45 - 10:15 and 13:00 - 14:15

Pale-bellied Brent goose 30 seen this morning 54 this afternoon. They were feeding all around both sides of the skear

Eider 25 this morning, not as many in the afternoon 

Red-breasted Merganser, just this male seen

He was doing a spot of snorkelling, no luck this time

Common Scoter a female drifted in on the tide this afternoon 

She has damaged or malformed feathers on her left wing

The right wing seems fine

Operational, but not practical for flying! Hopefully ok for diving 

This clip shows just how close to the shore she was

Little Egret 3

Bar-Tailed Godwit, several groups this morning, the largest 32, at least 65 in total. This afternoon a flock of 96 flew south

Bar-Tailed Godwit 

Knot c2200 this morning. There was a resting group of 1200, that were joined by a flock of c1000 that came from very high in the NW. the arriving birds were strung out in a long line, these are some of them coming in.

There were still c1500 around this afternoon, but they quickly moved to the south. Just a few previously seen flagged birds were located 

This is 14:00. You can clearly see the weather front moving in

Imperial Rd - Malcolm

I just called in to see how the nest in the copse was doing. 

It was no larger than it was a week ago.....

.......but it was occupied. Sorry about the shaky clip but this is full zoom. It isn't possible to be sure of the bird in the nest, but it is clearly quite large.

I moved to get a closer look, but as I did, three Buzzards appeared overhead.

Eventually one of the Buzzards was "seen off" and just two remained in the air. I looked to check the nest again, but it looked empty. I don't think it was a coincidence.

One to keep an eye on. It is easily visible from the road, at least until 
the foliage develops 

Teal 2