More terns and bits and bobs

Bill Martin and myself covered the north wall this morning and similar fare to yesterday minus the oddities

North wall 0650-0920
Arctic Tern - 134 in (largest flock 21), a majority 0820-0910
Sandwich Tern - c120 in, latterly a few bloggers - many fishing en route as they flew in but none seen to come out!
Arctic Skua - dark morph chasing tern in the mouth of the bay
Gannet - 3/4cy in then out
Kittiwake - flock of 15 in (all but one 2CY)
Guillemot - 1
small waders - three flocks totalling 30
Common Scoter - just one distant flock of c20
Swallow - 11 in
Shag - 2CY on wooden jetty

Elsewhere
Greylag - 7 circled Middleton NR

Insects
At least three Black-tailed Skimmer Middleton

** I know there is a backlog for pics.  I wont be able to do anything about it tomorrow, I'm afraid, so if you can add your own pics or send them with relevant date they need posting to Jeanrbrts6@aol.com

Great earlyish morning by the seaside

Wow this is such a late spring as north-easterlies produced what could be expected at the end of April/early May!   I gave up checking through the significant number of 2CY seagulls a week or so ago; Jean didn't this morning and out popped an Iceland Gull!   A singleton Black Tern joined the year list as it  motored into the Bay along the Kent channel line and a real bonus for the year list was a late passage Little Ringed Plover which flew in from the south, ran around for a bit on the 'mound' before heading off high to the north 

Sea 0740-0930 x 2 observers
Arctic Tern - 205 'in' (largest flock 29)
Sandwich Tern - at least 49 in
Arctic Skua - perhaps the same light morph seen twice chasing terns at long range
Black Tern - singleton in on its own at 0817hrs
Red-throated Diver - summer plumaged individual out
Iceland Gull - 2CY blogging for 20 minutes or so before flying north into the bay
Common Scoter - 4 in, c25 out
Little Ringed Plover - see above
Swallow - 6 in
Lots of Black-headed Gulls also moving in and several white dots miles out which could have been BHGs or terns

The dreaded 'meagre fare' should read 'didnt get up early enough'

Very quick post - pics will be added tomorrow Janet & Malcolm for last two days

More serious heat haze trouble with a large brownish object seemingly diving into the outer Leven estuary but to be honest it could even have been a bouncy castle.  Ospreys are known to be in the area!

Common or Arctic Tern - 4 feeding in riffle, then in; almost certainly Arctic but a long way off
Sandwich T|ern - 2 ditto
Cetti's Warbler - two singing males central marsh
Little Grebe - welcome breeding pair on no swimming pond

Nowtfalls and avocet surprise

Hopefully the power station outages will reach a stage soon when they are back in full flow.  There was not a single bird on them for at least 15 mins today!

Avocet - three together flew south quite close inshore and purposeful at about 0844hrs.   No reports of them from the Fylde I’m aware of.  Very odd
Arctic tern - a very late gang of 15 appeared from nowhere to briefly feed in a riffle with bhgs before heading in and climbing about 0855
Sandwich tern - 3
Whimbrel - 1

Grey seal - 1

No incoming tide coverage today

Malcolm and I covered the same area this morning with similar results - unfortunately due to having to deal with a problem, didn't then go and get a handle on the wetland warblers, notably the western marsh which has not seen a ringing session or an early doors listening session for some time now.  Hopefully its still calm tomorrow morning

The forecast coming up at the back end of this week really lends itself to some coverage of sheltered coastal trees and bushes and fingers crossed for something like a rosefinch or rb shrike reaching this side......... or perhaps something on the sea like a belated Black tern at last!

Coverage over the two or three days though will be limited due to commitments elsewhere for the most regular prowlers!

Sea - short low tide check only
Eider - 82
Great-crested Grebe - 4
Sandwich Tern - two fishing in distant channel
Swallow - 4 north

Insects on Middleton - thanks Janet

Alternative viewing to royal wedding

In contrast to the madness that was Royal Wedding fever on the TV, Heysham was relatively quiet and peaceful, a bit too peaceful really on the sea.

From the Roundhead/lighthouse on the south wall 0900-0930 and 1050-1350. Clear, sunny, hazy in distance, F1 WNW
Eider - at least 68 at low tide
Great-crested Grebe - 8
Sandwich Tern - 28 in the low tide channel, 2 in, then 19 on the sea further out
Mute Swan - 7 flew across the Bay then landed on the sea at 1105h
Common Scoter - 5 in at 1130 then 200 much further away floating in at 1205
Guillemot - 2 floating in at 1315h
Kittiwake - 1 floating in at 125h
Swallow - a grand total of 5
Shag - 2CY on the wooden jetty 1055-1350
Rock Pipit - suddenly appeared from inside the power station fence on the south wall and flew to the roundhead
Grey Seal by Heysham 1 outfall.
Alfie balloon floated in  - this is the second one seen.
JR

Ocean Edge salt marsh beach
12 Dunlin and 11 Ringed Plover at high tide.
MD

Itsy bitsy end of season feel

The forecasted easterlies have deteriorated into 'middle of high pressure variables' with any decent easterly airflow shunted to the back of next week when observer availability is going to be a factor.  Fair weather birder stuff!

Sea for probably far too long to 1330 (thanks Dan for the last bit)
Arctic Tern - 3 in early on
Arctic Skua - light morph motoring up the Kent channel as the tide started to flow mid-am
Common Scoter 355 in, (incl 340 in together landing in one distant raft, which soon fragmented).
Guillemot 13 floating in, 2 seen to fly out. Mostly non-breeding plumaged birds in contrast to most recent sightings.
Sandwich Tern 2 adults blogging
Whimbrel 3+1 out
Bar-tailed Godwit 1 out
Little Egret 2 cross-bay in-off.
Pink-footed Goose 2 floating in
Swallow 11 N, 1 in-off
Great-crested Grebe - at least 11 off Heysham Head with two displaying birds carrying 'weed' - a Heysham novelty!

Mammals
Harbour Porpoise - 2
Grey Seal - 1
Otter - spraint using bits of crayfish on the rocks of model boat pond

Heysham Head
Spotted Flycatcher - one in garden just north of church

Middleton NR
see above
Cetti's Warbler - certainly two and almost certainly three singing males
Grasshopper Warbler - one singing along golf course edge
Little Grebe - pair on no swimming pond

Dragonflies Middleton
Broad bodied Chaser - 7
4-spotted Chaser - 5

Spotted Flys and bits on the sea

Sea on and off 0815 to 1135
Arctic Skua - At 1125, two dark morphs this am appeared to come high from the south-east before landing on the sea and floating in with the tide. I've seen plenty of skuas circling up and heading north east overland but not seemingly arriving from overland, although this is quite often seen with arctic (and when you get them) black tern flocks
Arctic Tern - flock of 4 in as soon as the tide started coming in
Sandwich Tern - one fishing distantly at low tide, then just two seen - flying purposefully into the bay together so presumably late migrants.  So presumably the hordes are now finally on 'nearer to the nest duty' in SW Cumbria?
Common Scoter - just c40+5 in
Guillemot - 8 floating in quite close
Kittiwake - single adult in
Razorbill - one as above
Whimbrel - 1 in
Swallow - 16 in
House Martin - 1 in
Red-breasted Merganser - two close inshore and pair further out
Great-crested Grebe - 17 counted at low tide - Malcolm (who knows the skeers and tides better than anyone in this area) went to investigate:

 Little Egret - 1

Miscellaneous
Spotted Flycatcher - one on pond fence by HNR office during a loo break prompting a quick Heysham Head check and there was at least one mobile bird in the line of trees between the church and the chapel

Bits and bobs of local quality in fresh north-easterly

One of those seawatches where a commitment made you leave a good hour before you really wanted to and unsurprisingly a Pomarine Skua was probably available, if it didn't climb in the fresh north-easterly, about 1130 (per Rossall data)

Sea from Knowlys road 0845-0930, outfalls from Ocean Edge 0950-1000, north wall 1005-1040
Little tern - one fishing and showing well for five mins before drifting out of sight 0903-0908hrs
Little Gull - two ad summer (or 3cy) together heading into bay 0906hrs. Thought they were black tern for a split second as the light was such all I noticed was the jet black underwings!
Arctic Skua - dark morph on then in 0914hrs
Sandwich tern - 16 in +/- fishing en route
Common scoter - min of 420, a fair proportion continuing into the bay
Guillemot - 10 floating in at yellow buoy range, mostly just before I left
Raz/guill - c10 distant as above
Gannet - 5 - all 1035-1040
Manx Shearwater - 1 - 1035
Arctic Tern - two on outfall railings

Better than mine! (thanks Malcolm)
1275 big seagulls on skeers, mostly 2CY or 3CY Herring
Shag - long staying 2CY shag close inshore off the Head, then flew towards wooden jetty
Eider - 85
Great crested Grebe - still 7 (3 pairs)

Grey Seal - 1

Burnet Companion IOY on Heysham Nature reserve (per Steve)

The float-in and the fly-by

The early morning mist was a bit on the thick side so visibility was compromised but not so badly that seawatching couldn't be carried out. The sea was like a mill pond so anything floating in at yellow buoy range was easy to see.

North Harbour Wall 0730-1030  Weather: SE F1. 8-13C
Sandwich Terns - c30 were milling about along the low tide channel and sitting on the buoys throughout the watch.
Arctic Tern - 14 in one flock headed into the Bay
Eider - 75 in the low tide channel
Great-crested Grebe - 5 (2 displaying pairs and a singleton)
Guillemot - 15 floated in at 09:30 in small groups
Black Guillemot - 1 in summer plumage with one of the Guillemot groups and was seen on and off (i.e. on top of then under the water) from 10:00 to 10:15. At 10:15 the sea mist cleared and the Guillemots cleared off north westwards.
Shag - 2CY on the wooden jetty as usual
Swallow - 4 north
A mixed flock of Dunlin and Ringed Plover flew overhead.

Meanwhile back at Heysham Nature Reserve:
Farmyard goose  - 1 white individual morphed from a lowly hybrid goose into a migrant goose and flew NE at 08:50
Hobby - 1 flew SE-NW at 09:02

Middleton Nature Reserve

 

The two mute on the main pond have abandoned their nest, which is now empty. There was no sign of human trampling close by so this was probably the nest predated by the fox.
The good news is that the Broad bodied Chasers are emerging. One near the largest new scrape was still pumping up its forewings (see first pic). Three others were flying in the sheltered strip to east of golf club.

Other stuff:
4-spotted Chaser 11
Lots of Bluetails and Azure (see pics)
Surprisingly, just one Large red today
"No swimming" and Central marsh Cetti's singing.
One Buzzard high over gun club