A day of two halves

Very heavy showers all morning, then the clouds cleared for a sunny afternoon. A freshening wind SE in the morning and ending up a westerly. 

Middleton Nature Reserve (Janet) 

These shots from yesterday:

The two young Cormorants now regulars

Young Coot

Male Black-Tailed Skimmer

Male Common Darter

Female Common Darter

Small Tortoiseshell 

Male Common Blue

Fresh looking Meadow Brown

Worn Meadow Brown

South shore this afternoon 

These lovely shots and records from Martin Loftus 

Had a quick walk up the powerstation wall today with the dog.

The only Gulls of note were 3 Great Black backed gulls and approximately 10+ Mediterranean gulls, 3 adults, 5 second year birds and 3 juveniles. 

One of the Juvenile Mediterranean gulls

Plenty of gulls on the outfalls, but no sign of the Little gull - Janet

Painted Lady along the sea wall - Kevin

Heysham skear ((Malcolm) 14:00 - 15:30

Gulls c250 mainly Herring 

The sea was nice shades of blue and green this afternoon, a bit
unusual with onshore winds that normally stir up the mud.

Little Egret 4

Great Crested grebe 2

Oystercatcher 500

Curlew 60

Redshank 40

Turnstone 26

Ringed Plover 9

Dunlin 1

8 of the Ringed Plover, a Dunlin and a Turnstone coming in to land

Dunlin and a Ringed Plover

Juvenile Turnstone

Osprey 1 (not another one!)

It looks here to be high above the South Lakes hills

But it was fishing in the low water channel. In this clip it dives, unfortunately the channel is behind a sandbar. The Osprey does not lift again, which suggests that it caught a fish. The target species here will be large flatfish. They can be very hard to lift from the water, not so much the weight of the fish but its surface area, plus a flatfish's instinct to swim down to the bottom. I have known Osprey here to have to swim to the shore and drag its catch out. An interesting possibility here, but played out behind a sandbar.

It was eerily calm by late evening, but not for long, strong winds forecast for tomorrow!

Just out of the recording area.

Glossy Ibis seen at the river Conder then flew towards the river Lune. Then later seen at Leighton Moss before returning to Conder Green. At some point, it likely passed through the recording area. It only stayed at Conder for a few minutes then headed towards, Middleton/Overton. One to watch out for!

Perhaps no longer such a great sighting, but still a great sight!

A dry sunny day with a west wind.

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

Migrant Hawker 1 zipped past me on its way inland at the saltmarsh 

Rock Pipit just one seen today, on Red Nab

Linnet 6 - 3 each saltmarsh and Red Nab

There were no gulls feeding on the outfalls, no sign of the Little gull, and more surprising no Mediterranean gulls seen

Osprey 1 turned up to fish out from the outfalls at 10:00. Only a few years ago an Osprey sighting here was something special, now they are almost becoming predictable. Still great to watch them fish though. This attempt failed

It wasn't long before it caught a Bass. It then flew to the south

A Meadow Brown flew along the sea wall and this Common Blue was resting on the wall.

Female Common Blue

There were 10 species of butterflies along a 75m stretch from beyond the small anemometer to the white barrier

Large White 5

Small White 1

Common Blue 2

Meadow Brown 3

Red Admiral 5

Gatekeeper 1

Peacock 1

Speckled Wood 3

Small Tortoiseshell 1

Brimstone 1 male

Brimstone - easy to see on the Buddleia......

........but not so easy to see on the Evening Primrose

Small Tortoiseshell 

Peacock

Large White

Red Admiral and Large White

I popped back again this evening to check the gulls on Red Nab and the shore out from the saltmarsh.

400+ Black-Headed gulls plus Herring, Lesser Black-Backed and Common, but still no Mediterranean gull.

Wheatear 1 on the saltmarsh 

This is a sawfly caterpillar on the Nature Park fence.
Probably a Common Pine Sawfly

Med numbers very low

A morning shower, then sunny for a while, before dark clouds began to roll in. Very light variable breeze till lunchtime then a freshening NW wind.

Heysham skear (Malcolm) 09:00 - 10:30

It was very tranquil out there this morning (tranquil being as good a euphemism as any for "not much happening"!)

Some of the c250 large gulls, mainly Herring gulls, still finding seed mussels

This regular was the only ringed bird seen. It is eating a seed mussel

Little Egret 8

Red-breasted Merganser 1 female type

Great Crested grebe 3

Oystercatcher 500

Curlew 45

Redshank 60

Turnstone 40

Turnstone 

As I was leaving the NW wind was just starting, and darker clouds
were rolling in

Middleton Nature Reserve (Janet)

No Hawkers or Copper Tipped Longhorn moths seen

The two young cormorants have taken a liking to the main pond

Male Common Darter

Green-Veined White

Gatekeepers were everywhere 

Common Blue

Brown China-mark moth - Straw Dot moth also seen

Once again, Janet managed to capture a sequence of a confrontation. Today between a Sawfly sp and a Gatekeeper 

A knapweed worth fighting for

South shore 

Andrew Cornall: Little Gull preening on the sand between the old wooden jetty and Number 1 outfall, after a short fishing session.

Malcolm 13:30 - 14:30

By this time the clouds were darker and had rolled further

Linnet 11. 9 on the saltmarsh and 2 on the foreshore 

Two Linnet on the foreshore 

Wheatear 1 on the Red Nab end of the foreshore before flying to Red Nab

Wheatear 

Rock Pipit 8 - 1 on the foreshore 1 plus 4 together on Red Nab, 1 by No.1 outfall and 1 near the lighthouse.

Rock Pipit

All four of the group together had a bath in the freshwater runoff

There were no gulls feeding on the outfalls. No sign of the Little Gull

Mediterranean gulls just 2 adults seen. This time last year there were typically 40+ Meds around 

One of two Whimbrel 

Grey Heron

Starlings feeding on black ants in the scrub near the lighthouse 

They were like this for a few minutes before heading back to the brambles near the waterfall. But, they weren't really feeding on the ants, they were rubbing them, or a secretion from them, along their feathers.

Grey Seal 2 feeding together at the seaward end of No.1 outfall.

There were 11+ Red Admirals in the Nature Park, despite it being overcast. Some may have come in earlier while it was calm and sunny.