Early morning Meds

Overcast all day with some very heavy showers. Light wind from SW.

Pete Crooks did a thorough check of Red Nab on the early morning high water:

14 Mediterranean Gull – 10 adults (including green darvic ANLT), 2 x 3rd CY and 2 x 2nd CY)

(ANLT has been an annual visitor since 2017 - originally ringed in Germany as a nestling 16/06/2012)

1 Black-tailed Godwit

1 Common Sandpiper

1 female Eider

Also:

Heysham Nature Park – 4 Ringlet butterfly 

Kevin checked the beach near the wooded jetty towards low water. There were only 4 Mediterranean gulls there. They were not feeding, but just waiting near the water line. Still he managed a nice shot.

Adult Mediterranean gull in summer plumage

The sand mason worms cannot be available just yet.

This is the full history of the Belgium Mediterranean gull seen yesterday:

White ring 3VEP. Metal ring number 36890

Ringed as pullus 09/06/2016 marais d'Harchies; Bernissart; Hainaut; Wallonia; BELGIUM

I went down, between showers, to check Red Nab at high water 20:30. There were 150 Black-headed gulls on Red Nab, but I couldn't find a Mediterranean gull. There were a further 125 BHG out from the saltmarsh, but quite a long way out and I couldn't see any Meds amongst them either, but there could easily have been some. Either way, it looks like morning tides are favourite for the time being. (MD)

Rock Pipit 1 male displaying on Red Nab

Grey Seal 2 out from Red Nab

Med numbers increasing

Steady rain for most of the morning, dry spells in the afternoon, but heavy showers. Wind from south.

Heysham Skear - low water 13:45

Great Crested Grebe 8

Little Egret 4

Curlew c30

Turnstone 33

Dunlin 1 

Nice to se the Dunlin back

Red Nab high water 17:25

Mediterranean gull 4. Three adult, including this Belgium ringed bird.

Ringed as a pullus 09/06/2016
At marais d'Harchies; Bernissart; Hainaut; Wallonia; BELGIUM 

This clip shows all three adults. It starts with one partially behind a rock, one preening in the middle and ends on a resting bird.

There was also a second calendar year bird

2cy Med top centre

Gull roosts swelling, including Meds.

Light wind from west, mainly overcast.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

We had a full ringing crew operating this morning. Report from Alan:

The conditions were ideal for ringing this morning and nets were set on both the West and East sides of the road. 50 birds were caught which was a respectable total although given the conditions it might well have been more. Surprisingly, Wrens topped the totals with six caught separately at different times.

Wren	6
Robin	4
Song Thrush	1
Cetti's Warbler	2
Sedge Warbler	3 +2 retraps
Reed Warbler	1 +1 retrap
Lesser Whitethroat	3 +1 retrap
Whitethroat	4
Blackcap	3 +1 retrap
Chiffchaff	1 +1 retrap
Willow Warbler	3 +2 retraps
Long-tailed Tit	3 +1 retrap
Blue Tit	4 +2 retraps
Bullfinch

A short stroll around heard 9 warbler species, only a Grasshopper missing preventing a 10 out of 10 (MD)

Cetti's, Garden, Lesser Whitethroat, Common Whitethroat, Blackcap, Sedge, Reed, Willow and Chiffchaff.

First generation Comma butterflies are emerging 

This striking butterfly is named after the diminutive white "comma" mark on the underwing

Other butterflies included Ringlet, Speckled Wood, Small Tortoiseshell and Meadow Brown.

There were three Little Grebe showing well on the main pond. One immature plus two adult, these are additional to the pair on Tim Butler pond.

The immature bird wasn't welcome and was chased off:

In contrast, the two adults were very friendly, or at least one was hoping to be.

South shore - high water 18:20

As mentioned yesterday, these neap tides do not cover the mud out from the saltmarsh. An hour before high water there were 52 Black-headed Gulls out from the saltmarsh plus 326 on Red Nab, just after high water, disturbance on Red Nab had flushed most of the gulls on to the mud, some out from saltmarsh others out from the foreshore.

Mediterranean gull - there were at least two adults with the 326 BHG on Red Nab, both on this clip, but one not really identifiable and the other just a glimpse. That said, sharper eyes than mine could easily spot more. (MD)

This shot is a still from the above clip, it is from the last few seconds. The Med near the bottom only reveals its red beak for a fraction of a second. The other Med is the black head on the left hand edge.

They are both more obvious on this clip, although I have to be honest and say that I hadn't noticed the bird in the bottom right corner, and was just lucky to get it in frame too, albeit only just. The other Med is centre stage.

I didn't attempt to count the Curlew, but there were lots.

Rock Pipits. 4 - Two feeding together on the sloping sea wall, the lighthouse male still displaying. One juvenile bird on the scrub near the lighthouse.

Kingfisher surprise

A similar weather pattern, almost no air movement early on then breeze from the west freshening during the day. Some cloud but mainly sunny.

Heysham skear - low water 12:00 (MD)

Great Crested Grebe 5

Sandwich Tern at leat one heard, probably fishing in the far channel

Little Egret 3

Little Egret 

Curlew c50

Turnstone 4 - 3 in summer plumage, the fourth only seen head on but possibly a first summer bird.

All four were in association, but this one was separate from the other three.

Turnstone 

In these conditions Turnstone trust their camouflage. I only spotted them as the one above was directly in line with where I was walking and it moved a couple of metres, before it, and the three in the clip below, just froze. I took this clip just to show that they were perfectly still. If you took your eye off them they were surprisingly difficult to relocate, even though I knew where they were, and I was only 3m away. They didn't move at all and I walked off without disturbing them.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Kingfisher 1 - just a glimpse of one on the "no swimming" pond, this is a species that doesn't normally show till autumn.

The singing warblers were much less vocal than of late but I eventually heard:

Centi's (1), Common Whitethroat, Lesser Whitethroat (2), Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler, Blackcap and Sedge Warbler (1). Reed warbler seen only.

The Moorhen pair on the main pond have at least two chicks in a second brood. A remaining juvenile from the first brood can be seen in the foreground.

This is just an update on the condition of the skear. The picture below was what I posted on 15/06/21 to show that the mussel cover was complete, albeit sat upon previous Honeycomb worm beds.

On 22/06/21 I advised people to keep away from the middle of the mid skear as it was like walking on very thick "Rhubarb crumble" as the supporting structure of the old Honeycomb worm reefs degraded.

The picture below is of the same area today.

The power of the ebbing spring tides we've just had has cut channels through the beds, sweeping away much of the soft mud below the mussels. You can see my Rhubarb crumble analogy in section now. But this is good for the mussels, although ebbing spring tide currents are formidable, they were during calm conditions. So, fortunately, although a lot of mussels will have been swept away with the mud many ended up on the skear bottom between the remaining beds. This shot demonstrates that.

These mussels will now anchor to the skear and themselves, and although they will raise higher, through a process called layering, that is normal and should withstand all but the severest of storms.

This is the western section of the mid skear where the effects of the ebbing tides are most powerful. The eastern side, the mussels still sit on the old honeycomb beds and are still difficult to walk over.

We are now moving to a week of neap tides, so the above area will not be exposed again for a while. Another thing to note for the following week is that the height of high water will be insufficient to cover the mud in front of Ocean Edge saltmarsh. So if anyone is planning to check the high water gull roosts, there could be one there as wall as one on Red Nab.

The bigger boys (and girls) move in

Steady west light wind all day. Occasional cloud but mainly sunny.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Wildfowl - as yesterday, except two additional adult mute were on the main pond

Warblers - no Cetti's heard today, but there were singing: Garden (just 1), Willow, Chiffchaff, Blackcap, Reed, Common Whitethroat and Lesser Whitethroat (just 1).

Butterflies - Ringlet, Small Tortoiseshell, Small Heath, Small White, Large and Small Skipper, Meadow Brown, Common Blue.

Meadow Brown

Small Skipper drinking nectar

Dragonflies - Emperor, Brown Hawker, Four-Spotted Chaser, Broad-Bodied Chaser, Black-Tailed Skimmer (now the dominant species on the main pond), Common Darter.

Male Broad-Bodied Chaser - this is one of Kevin's pictures from the other day,
I've added it today for comparison to Black-Tailed Skimmer below

Male Black-Tailed Skimmer, at least 7 on the main pond today, plus two females ovipositoring 
but there are also Broad-Bodied Chasers vying for territory with them.

South sea wall

Mute Swan 2 adult on the sea out from Red Nab, possibly the two birds that were on Middleton earlier.

Mute on the sea out from Red Nab

Lighthouse Rock Pipits - only two seen, the male displaying and the female carrying food. She didn't go to the nesting hole while I was there, but appeared to be calling for a young one (not another spider Mum!). She reminded me of a barrow boy selling vedge on a street market.

The Mullet were feeding again, but today they were generally larger and most feeding just below the surface. Even so they are not very big, the biggest here is about 35cm so likely to be similar  numbers of male and female. Female fish tend to grow to be the largest specimens, as there is a big evolutionary advantage of producing huge numbers of eggs, but even a small mature male can produce more than enough milt to fertilise them all.

Mullet there for the taking

Almost still again first thing but again the breeze freshened from the west, by evening it was quite brisk. Some cloud, but plenty of sunshine.

Heysham skear - low water 10:15

Great Crested Grebe 7

Curlew c40

Little Egret 11

Grey Heron 2

Quite a striking shot of a Grey Heron

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Ringing report from Alan:

John's ringing session yesterday morning produced 21 birds of various species featuring the first real catch of a few juvenile warblers.

This morning was on another level with 63 captures from my three nets. Juvenile Blue Tits, Common Whitethroats and Long tailed Tits made up the bulk of the catch. The conditions were fairly similar on both mornings, perhaps with less clear sun today.

Dunnock 2

Song Thrush 1

Cetti's Warbler 1

Grasshopper Warbler 3

Sedge Warbler 1+1 Retrap

Reed Warbler 1 Retrap

Lesser Whitethroat 3

Common Whitethroat 14

Blackcap 1

Chiffchaff 4

Willow Warbler 2

Long-tailed Tit 7 + 5 Retrap

Blue Tit 15

Great Tit 1

Chaffinch 1

I tried to do a full check of wildfowl (MD)

Mute Swan two pairs with 9 and 2 cygnets 

Coot 6 adult 1 immature - this is the immature bird just starting to develop adult features.

Moorhen 5 adult 1 immature 

Mallard just two adult seen but I expect the 10 young birds plus the female with 10 small chicks are still around.

Gadwall 1 female 4 chicks

Gadwall with chicks

Little grebe, two immature birds on the "no swimming" pond, plus two adult with at least two small chicks (second brood) on Tim Butler pond.

This is one of the immature Little Grebe 

This clip shows the pair on Tim Butler pond taking food to at least two chicks hiding in the margins. 

Grey Heron 1

Cetti's warbler 2 - again the "no swimming" pond and central marsh males singing, but not as frequently as recently.

Dragonflies included:

Emperor 

Four-Spotted Chaser

Broad-Bodied Chaser

Black Tailed Skimmer

Brown Hawker

Hawker sp - likely Southern

Butterflies:

Peacock 

Small Heath

Common Blue

Small White

Speckled Wood

Large Skipper

Moths:

Mother Shipton

Cinnabar 

While we are on moths, Kevin had this nice one in his light trap yesterday 

Blackneck moth. 

These are very local and not very common in Lancashire.

South wall -early evening 

Rock Pipits

1 feeding near the waterfall, not seen one here for a while.

3 near the lighthouse (male, female and juvenile). The female is still taking food to the nest hole.

Can't say I'd fancy this snack!

Grey Seal 1 between the outflows

These are Grey Mullet, this is just below the sea wall between Red Nab and No.2 outflow. They are only young fish c25cm long. There must have been over a 1000 in several shoals. They are not gasping for air, they are feeding on algae dislodged from the sea wall. They normally do this when the tide heights are increasing, each tide dislodging algae from further up the wall. The tide heights at the moment are decreasing, but it was a lot choppier than of late today, so presumably more algae was being stripped from the wall. A few were jumping out of the water, probably under threat from a large bass, but they had not been spotted by the cormorants (MD).

Rock pipit survives first flight!

Early on the breeze was very light and from NE, but it freshened slightly and shifted to west by lunchtime. Mainly sunny.

Heysham skear - low water 09:25

Great Crested Grebe 11

Little Egret 7

Curlew c40

South shore.

Pete struggled checking at range due to the strong heat haze, but managed:

Mediterranean gull 1 2nd calendar year on the mud out from Ocean Edge.

Later in the afternoon.

Raven chased off by the Power Station gulls

Raven

Rock Pipits

1 on Red Nab

The male near lighthouse still on guard duty

The female near the lighthouse is still taking food to the nest, but also to one young bird on the harbour wall, that succeeded in its first flight from the nest.

Newly fledged Rock Pipit

The nest hole is circled, not only is it on a vertical wall, the entrance is quite 
restricted, not allowing any room for the young birds to test their wings.

The youngster was spending some time sorting its feathers out. Hopefully, it will be joined by siblings.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Just a quick check of the main pond

Cetti's warbler singing from "no swimming" pond

Dragonflies:

Emperor 6

Black-Tailed Skimmer 4 including one ovipositoring female

Broad-bodid Chaser 3

Common Darter 1

This is a clip from this morning. It was quite calm, in these conditions on a spring tide, which comes in very quickly, you can both see and hear the tide coming in (this effect is lost when the dominant factor is the waves lapping in). What most people don't realise, is that the tide comes up below the sand/mud, not just over it. That's one of the reasons vehicles become stuck, they are driven out on firm mud, but when the tide comes in below, it liquifies the mud and the wheels sink in.

Anyway, on this clip you can see the water moving in over the mud, and hear the water coming up below the mud, as it is forcing the air out of the tubes dug by the invertebrates between the tides, in this case mainly blow lugworm, creating bubbles. (MD)

When the tide comes in less quickly, the water rising below the mud has time to vent the air from the worm tubes, before the water covers them, so no bubbles.

Ringlets emerging

NNE to NE fresh breeze, sunny first thing then overcast for most of the day, but still warm.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Janet had up to 5 Ringlet. This species has only recently established itself in the area and are still very localised.

Ringlet butterfly 

Other butterflies included:

Meadow Brown (also first record this year)

Small Heath

Small Tortoiseshell 

Plus severl each:

5-Spot Burnet and Burnet Companion moths

Dragonflies:

Emperor

Black-tailed Skimmer

Broad-bodied Chaser

Warblers - eight species singing

Cetti's warbler 2

Lesser Whitethroat 1

Common Whitethroat several

Chiffchaff  4+

Willow warbler 3

Reed warbler 2

Sedge warbler 1

Blackcap 2

Saltmarsh 

Large Skipper 4

Small Tortoiseshell 3

Emperor 1

Red Nab

Rock Pipit 2

This one caught a sea slater, I was waiting to see where it took it, but it ate it itself! (MD)

Curlew c230 flushed by paddlers.

Lighthouse area

Rock Pipits - there were four in the area. The nesting male and female, plus two together and possibly another individual. The female was trying to entice the young from the nest hole. Unfortunately, although a very safe place to nest it is a very precarious first flight. One didn't make it, hopefully at least one already had and possibly more to come.

On a lighter note - this moth,  Kevin advises likely "unbanded form of Riband Wave", was prostrate in one of the steep sided pools on Red Nab. 

There was no movement and it appeared to be daed

I placed my finger under it and lifted it out - still no sign of life

But as soon as I managed to transfer it to a patch of grass it started moving, it was fine! This clip is less than a minute after the picture above. 

First adult Med returns

Very light north breeze to start with, it freshened slightly later and moved more NNE. Overcast till mid afternoon then increasing periods of sunshine.

Heysham skear - low water 07:45

Great Crested Grebe 15 - there are eight in this clip

Curlew c20

Grey Heron 1

Little Egret 8 - this is unusual behaviour, I'm not totally certain what's going on (MD). The Egret and Large gulls appear to be shrimping, and if the tide had been ebbing, I wouldn't have given it another thought, but the tide is coming in and has just reached this pool. The shrimps would not have come in with the tide, all I can think of is that there is a lot of fresh ground water running off today, perhaps the pool became too brackish on the ebb tide and the shrimps buried into the mud, the returning sea water prompting them to emerge from the mud and be eaten - it's a tough life being a shrimp!

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Cetti's warbler 2 - "no swimming" pond and central marsh birds singing

Not a lot of dragonflies but the following seen:

Emperor 

Black-Tailed Skimmer

Broad-Bodied Chaser

Common Darter

Mediterranean gull 1 summer plumage adult flew east over the reserve.

Mediterranean gull

Janet took this shot of 5 spot Burnet near Heysham Moss, but on the observatory side of the railway line.

There are 5 x 5-spot Burnet on this shot

Swollen Thighed Beetle 1 reported from Heysham Nature Reserve - via Pete

Lighthouse area

An evening check

Great White Egret 1 at 18:40 flying south towards the estuary 

Linnet - pair feeding at least two fledged young.

Rock Pipits 4 + young in nest

Two birds feeding together on sloping wall were chased off by the ringed male

The lighthouse nest female was taking food to the nest hole while the ringed male stood guard (I don't know if he helps when no one is around (MD))

The female found this grub, it looks like a Cinnabar caterpillar, I wonder if she tastes one
before feeding them to her young. She then flew over to the harbour wall above the nest.

The male tried to distract me from watching the female, he came 
up close and gave me a good shouting at!

They don't normally fly to the nest hole when they are being watched, but the female's instinct to feed overcame her caution. Even so she aborted the first flight, but went into the hole on the second flight. She didn't go too far in, so I suspect the young were out of the nest and waiting near the entrance.

The only butterflies were a Painted Lady and a Small Tortoiseshell. No dragonflies 

Kevin had this splendid moth in his light trap

Eyed Hawk-moth

Watching plants grow!

The wind had moved north. Heavy overnight rain eased by mid morning, but never really stopped all day.

Red-Nab and Ocean Edge

Even fewer birds than yesterday and no insects in the rain.

Little Egret 1

Lapwing 1

Linnet 4

Pied Wagtail 6

This is what today's title refers to. A sunflower has germinated in the flotsam of the saltmarsh. It's currently about 20cm tall, but this weekend's spring tides will reach this area. But this is also where the water table seeps onto the saltmarsh, so its roots should be in fresh water. If it gets through this weekend, the tide won't reach this far again till the end of July. It would be nice to have a sunflower on the marsh!

Pretty sure this is a sunflower, hopefully time will tell.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Just the briefest of checks (I forgot to put my leggings on!), but the warblers were quite vocal, 7 species heard around the two main ponds:

Chiffchaff 

Willow Warbler 

Reed Warbler 

Sedge Warbler 

Common Whitethroat 

Lesser Whitethroat 

Cetti's Warbler 

There are very few House Sparrows on the reserves, if any, but there are plenty in the surrounding areas. Janet took these shots of a pair with young in the nest, just across the road north from Heysham Nature Reserve.

Male House Sparrow, with a bill full of food

Not sure what's going on here (MD)
The female appears to have both a fecal sac, but also a bill full of food.
Perhaps she was trying to entice the young out of the nest.

I took this clip a couple of days ago, it is my favourite grass (......I know, you could spend hours discussing your favourite grasses). It's Quaking grass, not sure which sub species, it is a native UK grass and there have been pockets of it on Middleton Nature Reserve since I started walking here in the mid '90s. That said, it could easily have been introduced with garden waste. It is an unobtrusive grass, but its flower heads "dance" in the breeze like so many marionettes. 

The weather is looking more favourable tomorrow, so hopefully I'll not have to resort to my favourite paint drying clip! (MD)