It was (is) a Whooper after all

A mainly overcast, but dry day. A west breeze

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Main pond

I checked in the morning (Malcolm). The Female Mute Swan still only had four cygnets with her. Janet said she saw her chasing the other three yesterday. Another immature swan had been forced high up the eastern bank by the female Mute, but this one was indeed a juvenile Whooper Swan as reported on Facebook.

Juvenile Whooper Swan

When Janet checked later it had managed to sneak nearer the water, but was keeping a wary look out

When Kevin Eaves checked just after lunch it was on the pond in the small area between the peninsula and the west bank. At least it will be able to feed itself there.

Immature Whooper Swan

Immature Mute Swan

Heysham skear (Malcolm) 10:00 - 11:30

I walked the tide in as it covered the skear

Pink-Footed goose 1 skein of 55 to SE

Eider 46

Red-Breasted Merganser 6

Great Crested Grebe 10

Great Crested grebe

Little Egret 11

No shag seen

Oystercatcher 200 but most had already left and several hundred were resting out from Heysham Head

Curlew 60

Redshank 120

There were no Knot feeding on the skear, but a flock of 74 flew south over it

Turnstone just 12 seen

Ringed Plover 3

Ringed Plover

Juvenile Ringed Plover

South shore

Janet took this phone clip of a Wheatear while exercising a dog along the foreshore 

I had a walk out from the saltmarsh 15:15, as the tide was rapidly exposing the mud (Malcolm)

The only waders high up the shore were:

Redshank 25

Grey Plover 2

Grey Plover

A feeding group of 27 Knot and 25 Dunlin

Knot and Dunlin. One of the problems of checking this flat area of shore
on the ebb tide, is that there isn't really a waterline. The mud just changes
from being covered to just being wet.

The only waders further out were Oystercatcher and Curlew, plus a solitary Bar-Tailed Godwit

Bar-Tailed Godwit 

Then the largest flock of small waders I have seen so far this autumn arrived from the south.

Turned out they were mainly Knot with Dunlin and a few Grey Plover

About half settled briefly, the others continued north

They quickly left and returned south lifting this Mediterranean gull in
the process. One of two seen

Shelduck 120 came in to feed on the shore in small groups 

Shelduck 

Back at the saltmarsh, just the east side checked.

Linnet 106 counted, probably missed some

Wheatear 2 possibly including Janet's 

Grey wag 1 - Grey wag is often used as an abbreviation for Grey Wagtail, but its use today is as a more apt description.

Grey Wag with no tail! It looked really strange in flight

More Meds than of late

A dry, mainly overcast day with a light west wind

South shore (Malcolm) 10:30 - 12:00

A walk along the sea wall then to the saltmarsh as the rising tide was reaching it.

Little Egret 3

Shelduck 44

Eider 1 near No.1 outfall

Wigeon, there were 39 waiting by No.2 outfall while the tide reached Red Nab. At least that many on Red Nab later then on to the saltmarsh.

Wigeon and Little Egret next to No.2 outfall

Rock Pipits 3 (later Janet saw 5)

Chiffchaff 1 in the scrub near the waterfall

Shag 1 juvenile on the wooden jetty

As I walked out there were no gulls at all on Red Nab, none on the beaches, just 8 Black-Headed gulls on No.2 outfall and none on No.1 outfall. So it was a bit of a surprise that Meds had turned up by the time I got back to Red Nab

Mediterranean gull 9 including 3 x 2nd calendar year.

Adult Mediterranean gull landing a 2cy bird on its right

All nine Mediterranean gulls in this shot

Four gull species, the Meds are on the finger top left. Also Wigeon,
Cormorant, Little Egret, Curlew and Oystercatcher 

Kingfisher 1 on the return leg when the tide had reached Red Nab

The Kingfisher is in this shot, but immediately apparent 

Kingfisher and Wigeon

Looking out along the waterline the only waders visible were Curlew and Oystercatcher 

Lapwing 4 at the saltmarsh 

Common Snipe 8 flushed by the rising tide

Reed Bunting 2

Linnet 100+ these spring tides leave a feast of seeds from the marsh amongst the flotsam on the strandline

Middleton Nature Reserve (Malcolm)

I checked the two main ponds

Just three birds on the "no swimming" pond

Tufted Duck, Moorhen and a Little grebe

It was a different story on the main pond

Mute Swan female was in the process of chasing away a young swan

Female Mute Swan chasing off an immature swan

Some shots on Facebook suggest a juvenile Whooper Swan was being chased off, perhaps so. But there were only four Mute Swan cygnets. Where were the other three? More investigation required.

Tufted Duck 39

Mallard 35

Gadwall 10

Coot 16

Moorhen 5

Little grebe at least 2 probably 3 possibly more

Grey Heron 1

Cormorant 1

Little Grebe and Tufted Duck

Tufted Duck

Mallard, Coot, Moorhen and a Tufted Duck

It was only 16:45 but very overcast and quite dark, so I went to the top of the hill on the southern section of the reserve to see if anything was heading to roost. I normally check the roosts here mid winter, when it gets dark quite quickly, but dark as it was this evening it wasn't getting any darker. Still in 30 minutes I did  see some evidence of roosting 

Jackdaws were gathering 57 in total

Wood Pigeons were flying to roost mainly individually 14 total

Stock Dove  1 flew south 16:50 and that was it till 6 flew north, possibly landing where they roost at 17:05

Meadow Pipit 1 over

A couple of shots by Kevin Singleton near the Heliport 

Juvenile Lapwing 

Curlew 

A lot of Eider moving, but probably not far

A dry mainly overcast day with a light west wind.

Ringing report by Alan:

44 birds caught at Middleton Nature Reserve despite the slightly gusty westerly wind.

Singles of Wren, Goldfinch, Grey Wagtail, Treecreeper, Blackcap (recovery of a bird ringed elsewhere), and Coal Tit  (this individual was retrapped just over an hour later at Heysham) plus:

Chiffchaff  6 + 1 retrap

Blue Tit  2 + 2 retrap

Goldcrest 5

Dunnock  1 + 1 retrap

Reed Bunting  3

Long tailed Tit  8 + 4 retrap

Robin  2

Great Tit  2 + 1 retrap

 

A small group of 16 Pink feet flew south at 09.15 and 7 Swallows also flew south at 10.15.

 

a rather disappointing catch at Heysham Nature Reserve comprising :

Goldfinch 2

Chiffchaff 1

Goldcrest  2

Chaffinch 4

Coal Tit 2 + 1 retrap (from Middleton)

Marsh Tit 1 retrap (the same one as previously)

Cetti's warbler 1 recovery form elsewhere

Great Tit  2 retraps

Dunnock 1 retrap

Greenfinch 1

South shore (Malcolm) 10:30 -11:30

A walk from Red Nab to the saltmarsh to watch the high spring tide cover the marsh

Little Egret 4

Shelduck 130 most already setting off to the south as the tide rose

Wigeon 49 arrived early at the saltmarsh to feed

Shift change - Shelduck about to leave Wigeon moving in

They feed on the seeds from the Marsh grass and Samphire

Common Snipe 6 flushed from the marsh by the rising tide

Swallow 2 individuals south

Plenty of passerines around the saltmarsh 

Robin 2

Dunnock 2

Wren 1

Reed Bunting 1

Linnet 107 at least

A precise number of Linnet today as this shot has 107 birds

Wheatear 5

Starlings 11

Grey Wagtail at least 1

This Grey Wagtail on the rocks on the eastern side refused to show its
legs. In contrast it or another on the shingles of the west side refused to
show itself, but its colour coded ringed legs were visible. See sidebar for
the scheme details. It was ringed at Middleton Nature Reserve in August 
last year, so obviously sticking to the same migration route

It wasn't exactly surprising when a Sparrowhawk turned up

Heysham skear (Malcolm) 15:30 - 17:30

I walked the tide out as the skear became exposed, you can walk quite quickly and far on these spring tides

Pink-Footed goose 19 to SE

Eider there were just 11 on the sea, but between 16:00 and 17:15 there were 163 seen flying into the bay. Mainly small groups between 4 and 10 with the largest group of 47 (possibly drifted out of the bay on the tide then readjusting). Some would have been missed as my back was to them as I walked back.

One of the larger flocks of Eider flying in

Red Breasted Merganser 4

Great Crested Grebe 6

Great Crested Grebe

Little Egret 13

Little Egret

Juvenile Shag 2 was the most seen at any one time, but almost certainly 3 or 4

Juvenile Shag and a Herring gull

Gulls 150 mainly Herring gulls

Oystercatcher 1400

Curlew 160 - more than recent with large numbers resting high up the shore

Some of the Gulls and Curlew high up the shore. The gulls moved out
to feed, but many of the Curlew flew north

Redshank 60

Knot 33

Turnstone 45

Ringed Plover 12

There were two Peregrine Falcon attacks

Just out of the recording area Heysham Moss Nature Reserve (Janet)

A victim of storm Amy. Fallen across the footpath in the wood

2 Black Darter

at least 4 Common Darter

several Speckled wood and a Red Admiral 

two Buzzard

Icelandic visitor returns for the winter

It remained dry till light showers started late afternoon. A light SW wind

South shore

I checked the shore out from the saltmarsh then back to Red Nab (Malcolm) 08:30 - 10:30

Pink-Footed goose one skein of 28 north

Shelduck 210

Little Egret 6

The heavy rains of storm Amy has changed things towards the waterline. New drains have formed, some running NE to SW as opposed to the normal SE to NW. This restricts the stretches of waterline that are safe on these fast flooding spring tides.

Not that it would have made any difference today the only waders along the waterline were

Curlew 150

Oystercatcher 140

Even scanning along the waterline far to the the south saw no other waders.

Dunlin 13 (6, 4, 2 and 1) were feeding, hidden in the newly formed drains

Dunlin

Some of the drains cutting across the mud. You need to keep on the shore
side of them when spring tides are racing in

Golden Plover 1 flew south

The only other waders were close to the saltmarsh 

Redshank 43

Lapwing 1

This was a bit odd. A gang of Carrion Crows were making a racket and all the other Crows on the shore flew to join them. There ended up being 60 of them chasing one small raptor.

At least I knew that I would be alerted if anything else moved through. But nothing did.

Wigeon 53 left Red Nab early to feed at the saltmarsh, none remained on Red Nab

Wigeon. This isn't the creek through the saltmarsh but the secondary 
creek along its southern edge 

Linnet 100+ around the saltmarsh

Rock Pipit 3

Wheatear 6 - all were quite rufous and they were moving through quickly. 

Wheatear

Kevin Eaves checked after lunch.

A Wheatear on Red Nab was almost certainly additional, and it too quickly moved on.

Kingfisher 1 around Red Nab

Heliport wall (Malcolm)

Just a quick look on my way home saw a significant increase in Oystercatchers since yesterday.

These were the Oystercatchers yesterday 

This is the same stage of the tide today

This Icelandic ringed bird was with them today. Resting at the very edge
of the group in the same spot it favoured last winter. It wasn't there yesterday.
Ringed at Selfoss,Svarfhólsvöllur (golf course) Iceland as a breeding adult 
in 2023 and it bred there again in 2024. It was seen several times at
Heysham last winter. We await news of if it bred there again this year.

A flock of Lapwing arrived.

Lapwing

42 Lapwing ended up joining the Oystercatchers

Nice to see some youngsters amongst them

Middleton Nature Reserve (Janet)

Cetti's warbler singing in the central marsh

Janet will be restricted to mobile phone photography for some while, but she still managed some lovely pictures.

One of the cygnets, a Mallard and two Tufted Duck on the main pond

Speckled Wood 

Little Egret out from the foreshore

And a garden safari 

Red Admiral

Carder Bumblebee and a Marmalade Hoverfly