More good wind blown stuff

The fresh west - SW wind was not as strong as yesterday and eased further throughout the day. A few heavy showers.

Seawatch from the north harbour wall - Pete and Shaun 0635-1000

Grey Phalarope heading out at 08:20.

Leach's Petrel: 3 possibly 4 individuals (two close in c50m). 

Manx Shearwater 2 out.

Fulmar 1 out.

Gannet 4 ads out and 5 ads in. 

Arctic Tern ad and juv together

Common Tern 2 juvs out together

Sandwich Tern 3 ads out (2 plus 1). 

Ad light morph skua either Arctic or Long-tailed (very distant but looked 'lightweight' as it rapidly wheeled out) c0645.

Pink-footed Goose 14 out.

Common Scoter flock of three distantly, plus a male closer inshore heading out.

Guillemot 3 individuals on sea drifting out.

Shag 3 immature together drifting in. Also, two separate individuals were probably different. One was quite a way out flying well into the bay.

Dunlin 25, Ringed Plover 3 and Turnstone 7 heading out. 

South side -  Shaun

Outfall 1 11:30:

Little Gull 1cy on the beach 

Mediterranean gull 9 - 1cy, 2cy and 7 adults

I checked the south side 08:45 - 10:45 (Malcolm)

The following shots are likely to be of birds aready mentioned in the above report:

Adult Gannet heading out

One of at least two juvenile Shag in the harbour 

Guillemot 

The juvenile Little gull was feeding on No.1 outfall at 10:30

I say feeding, but I didn't actually see it find anything to pick up, just after this, the heavens opened.

Eider 4 males out

Shelduck 19 out in 4 groups and a single

Wheatear 1 near the lighthouse 

Rock Pipit 1 near the waterfall

Kevin checked in the afternoon 

The or a Wheatear was still near the lighthouse 

Adult Common Tern on No.2 outfall

I checked a little later (Malcolm)

I wanted to see if any of the Mediterranean gulls roosting on Red Nab were ringed. I saw a white ringed adult, but couldn't get close enough to read, numbers and mix same as Shaun this morning.

The Common Tern was still on No.2 outfall

Common Tern

Common Tern and Black-Headed gull

The sun was out in the Nature Park 

Large White 6

Small White 3

Red Admiral 1

Small Tortoiseshell 1

Common Blue 1

Speckled Wood 3

Common Darter 3

This male Common Darter was actually on Middleton Nature Reserve today.
Snapped by Janet with her phone camera.

Clay Garland: North Harbour Wall 17:45-19:20

1 distant Manx shearwater out

1 Gannet in close then out

c35 Pink-Footed geese out

Grey Phalarope tops a decent, but difficult day

A strong SW to west wind with very heavy showers. The showers eased by mid afternoon 

South side.

I managed two walks along the south sea wall, a good soaking this morning, but a surprisingly dry walk this afternoon (Malcolm)

11:15 - 12:00

Common Tern 1 briefly on No.2 outfall

Mediterranean gulls at least 6 on the feeding beach.

Shag 2 juveniles - one was in the harbour mouth before flying to the wooden jetty, the other flew straight to the jetty from the inner harbour.

Juvenile Shag

15:45 - 17:00

A juvenile Shag was sprucing itself up, as best it could, out from the harbour. It is very difficult keeping a camera on them when both the sea and yourself are being blown by the wind!

Gannet 1 sub adult flew out

Gannet flying past the lighthouse 

Another ringed juvenile Herring gull.
Part of NW England gull project, details awaited

Seawatch from the back of the harbour - around lunchtime - Pete

Juvenile Arctic skua out, 

Juvenile gannet out

Adult Gannet in

Juvenile Arctic tern out (and juvenile Commic tern I just glimpsed)

From Stone jetty 17:50 - 19:30  - this is an extract from Nick Godden's full report on the LDBWS webpage, see sidebar for the link.

Grey Phalarope 1 out 18:20

Manx shearwater 2 – 1 out at close range then another in distantly

Fulmar 1 out

Common scoter 1m

North harbour wall -Shaun 17:30-19:30:

Adult Kittiwake, male Common Scoter and a Merlin heading out. 

Razorbill on the sea close to wall swimming out

The SW winds and recent high spring tides have brought a number of dead seabirds high up the shore. Alison saw a sub adult Gannet at Half moon bay and there are several Guillemot on the strand line in a few areas. Dog walkers should keep their pets away from any corpses, and it goes without saying not to handle them.

Just out of the recording area - Chris

Two Leach's Storm Petrel seen from Knott end late afternoon heading our way.

Heysham plays host, but not as gracious as it can be.

An early shower then dry till evening showers began. A SE wind.

North side - Pete

Heliport:

One wheatear

6 meadow pipit in off 

From Knowlys Rd: 

c12 great crested grebe on sea north of Heysham head and about 6 red-breasted mergansers but all quite distant.  

No shag seen but no biggish rocks exposed (c0730)

South shore 

07:30 - 11:00 - Jean with a LDBWS group

Dog-walk track: 6 Chiffchaff, 2 Goldcrest, Kingfisher at the pond and 6 Moorhen there (2ad, 4 juvs). 

Ocean Edge: 1 Wheatear

Red Nab: 1 Little Egret

Outfalls: 8 Mediterranean Gulls between wooden jetty and H1 outfall(5ad, one with white ring), 3 x1CY. 

Guillemot 1 on sea off H1. Grey Seal near H1.

Harbour: 7 Linnet, Grey Wagtail, Rock Pipit

Vis: Pink-footed Geese flocks of 8 and 39 south, Meadow Pipit 7, Grey wagtail 1, Swallow 

09:30 - 10:45 (Malcolm)

I started at the saltmarsh before the LDBWS group checked there.

Linnet 70+ - c35 on the saltmarsh and c40 flushed from the flotsam, left by the recent spring tides at Red Nab, by a dog

A few Linnet remained on the flotsam.....

.......as did Rock Pipit

....... and Meadow Pipit

Wheatear 5 along foreshore and Red Nab

Wheatear

Meadow Pipit 3 grounded and group of 4 south

Rock Pipit 8 - 1 on Ocean Edge grass (slightly unusual), 2 on the flotsam at Red Nab. Plus 5 on the sloping wall by the lighthouse, this is after the LDBWS group had left and only saw 1. At least 3 of them came in from the north side.

Rock pipit on Ocean Edge grass

Linnet on Ocean Edge grass

Middleton Nature Reserve (Malcolm)

I keep popping here at the moment as Janet is out of action for the foreseeable future (arm strapped up after remedial surgery).

More Tufted Duck today 31 - 19 on the main pond plus 12 on the "no swimming"

Gadwall 6

Other wildfowl as recent

Swallow 3

House Martin 2

Tufted Duck drake

Gadwall

For the second day running a bird flew directly towards me, I'm starting to get a complex! These Tufted were on the "no swimming" pond. I couldn't adjust the focus quickly enough to keep up with it!

Great Spotted Woodpecker 1 female

Great Spotted Woodpecker 

It was feeding on dead branches, presumably Ash, as there is a lot of ash dieback affected trees here. You can see the wood chips fly.

Imperial Rd (Malcolm)

I've not reported anything from here in ages. Not for lack of observations, I stop by regularly, but for the lack of anything to report! I checked again today and apart from a couple of swallows, saw nothing. No sign of any Buzzards for weeks.

First Pinkfoot returns, plus first day for gloves!

A mainly dry day with just the odd shower. A fresh SE wind moved to SW by the afternoon.

Quick check from Ocean Edge mid morning: 2x 1cy, 1x 2cy Mediterranean gulls seaward end hey one, 4x adult, 1x 1cy and 3x 2cy meds red nab possibly others hidden.  Nothing else of note - Pete

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

It wasn't what you would call cold, but today I was more comfortable with my gloves on than off.

Pink-footed Goose 11 south - first returning birds this autumn 

Pink-footed geese

Eider 29

Male Eider, almost out of eclipse plumage 

Red-breasted Merganser 3 - 1 + 2 all female/immature 

Great Crested grebe 4

Guillemot 1 - initially it was some distance out, but for some reason it decided to head in my direction.

It was only 3m away at this point

I moved to one side and looked back to see it continuing its overland journey. Don't know what it was thinking, it could have swam to to water it was heading to.

Guillemot. 

Shag - at least one juvenile fishing

Little Egret 8

Gulls c100 mainly Herring

Oystercatcher 500

Bar-Tailed Godwit 19 possibly 26. At least 3 groups rested a while before continuing south, 2, 10 and 7. A second group of 7 were probably additional, but can't rule out them doubling back.

Bar-Tailed Godwits

Curlew 50

Redshank 350

Turnstone 120

Turnstone

Saltmarsh (Malcolm) 16:30

I went down specifically to see if the Common Sandpiper was still around. I've been very fortunate this week and have had this stretch of shore to myself. But a sunny Saturday afternoon had brought out several families to enjoy the shore there, so I left them to it and just checked the saltmarsh 

Little Egret 3

Linnet 25

Linnet

Wheatear 1

Kestrel 1

Common Sandpiper seems to be hanging around

Very heavy morning showers till just after lunch, it then remained dry with sunny periods. A fresh west wind.

These shots by Kevin Singleton yesterday at the Heliport

Lapwing 

Little Egret and Oystercatcher 

South shore

08:45 - 10:00 (Malcolm)

A walk from the saltmarsh to the wooden jetty, mostly in heavy rain!

Linnet 12 on saltmarsh 

Wheatear 2 along foreshore 

Pied Wagtail 14 on Ocean Edge grass

Rock Pipits 6 - 4  at Red Nab plus 2 singles along the sea wall

Little Egret 3

Shelduck 2

There were lots of gulls feeding on the beach by the wooden jetty, but mainly Black-Headed. Just four adult Mediterranean gulls.

Mediterranean gull, you can see the Sandmason worm tubes where
the soft mud has been stripped away

Pete checked at lunchtime:

1/2 hr Seawatch including ferry arrival: two Juvenile Shag heading for wooden jetty, sandwich tern out.  

Zero of interest on outfalls

At least 12 Mediterranean gull on Red nab 1235.  

13:15 - 14:15 (Malcolm)

A check of the shore out from the saltmarsh towards high water

Common Sandpiper 1 - as I was walking out I saw it fly from the creek in the south of the rocky outcrop back towards the outcrop. When I was walking back and the tide had covered the creek it was resting on the rocks.

Common Sandpiper and an Oystercatcher 
This is the third time I have seen the Sandpiper here in just three visits.
Presumably the same bird has taken a liking to this improving habitat 

The only other waders were a group on the mud at the southern edge of the recording area.

Grey Plover 52

Knot 39

Dunlin 18

Grey Plover, Knot and Dunlin
It had rained so hard this morning that this section of shore was covered in water.

Middleton Nature Reserve (Malcolm)

Just a passing check, but I did manage to look at the "no swimming" pond as well as the main pond. The "no swimming" pond is 1.5m above its normal level, making it difficult to get a clear view.

The wildfowl was almost as yesterday.

10 Gadwall today, 2 on the "no swimming" pond.

Tufted 22 again, 6 on the "no swimming" pond

Mallard

Little grebe

All the Tufted Ducks seemed to be preening 

This female was particularly vigorous 

Cetti's warbler 1 singing

Long-Tailed Tits 6

Black Tern, briefly

A fresh west-SW wind. Heavy showers throughout the day, but sunny spells in between.

South Shore

Pete had a scan from Ocean Edge c11:20:

Juvenile Black tern Heysham two outfall, first seen near outer end then worked its way up the outfall then swept high into the air on the inner end and disappeared!

(Two also seen at Leighton Moss at 10:30, moulting adult and juvenile, relocated in Cumbria on the Bela est and three at Conder pool - looks like they just whizzed through)

A qucik check of the gulls on Red Nab located 4 Mediterranean gulls - 2 adults, a 2nd and a 1st calendar year 

I checked twice (Malcolm)

10:45 - 12:15 

Linnet 30+ on the saltmarsh 

Wheatear 1 along the foreshore 

Wheatear keeping its head down out of the wind

Rock Pipit 6 - 5 at Red Nab and 1 near the waterfall 

As I reached the beach near the wooden jetty the tide was covering it quickly. But I had time to see that much of the soft mud had been scoured off and the Sandmason worms tubes were showing well again.

Plenty of gulls were feeding on the worms, but most were Black-Headed. There were three Mediterranean gulls, an adult and one each 1st and 2nd calendar year. They flew towards Red Nab when the tide flushed them, probably included in Pete's count.

Adult and 1cy Mediterranean gulls (centre)
You can see some of the Sandmason worm tubes, not exactly a forrest,
but much better than it had been.

In this clip the gulls are waiting for the worms to show, before trying to grab them. You can see islands of the soft mud covering some areas, I don't know how much mud has been removed further up the beach, but I'll have a look tomorrow.

By the time I got to the Nature Park, the sun was shining and it was quite busy.

Swallow 1 feeding

Migrant Hawker 1

Common Darter 3

Red Admiral 2

Comma 1

Large White 3

Green-Veined White 1

Comma

I returned late afternoon on the ebbing tide.

Guillemot 1

Guillemot battling the waves along the sea wall

Adult and 1st calendar year Mediterranean gull heading towards the 
feeding beach, an hour before it will be exposed.

So far this afternoon it had been fine, but I checked my weather "app"

Looking into the wind it was chucking it down! 
A 98% probability of getting wet before reaching my car......wet I got!

Middleton Nature Reserve (Malcolm)

Just a quick passing check of the main pond. The wildfowl is flourishing with the reduced disturbance (new fencing and no aggressive male Mute Swan). Some of the Gadwall and Tufted seemed to be commuting to and back from the "no swimming" pond. I didn't have time to check it today.

Mute Swan 1 adult plus 7 well grown cygnets 

Mallard 37

Tufted Duck 22 at least

Gadwall 8 at least

Coot 12

Moorhen 2

Little Grebe 1

Little Grebe

This clip starts on feeding Gadwall and pans through some of the resting Tufted Duck

Relaxed Tufted Duck. The above shots taken from the bottom car park

Swallow 3 feeding