Osprey attracts attention

A dry overcast day with a light SE wind.

This fine male Sparrowhawk visited Janet's garden this morning 

South shore - Malcolm 14:00 - 15:30

Whimbrel 1 on the saltmarsh 

Curlew 1 out from the foreshore and 4 on Red Nab

Wheatear at least one along the foreshore 

A pristine looking left profile 

But the right wing feathers are incomplete. Possibly the cause of the disarray 
of some of the underfeathers, or possibly all the result of some trauma.
Although the wind is also ruffling some of the feathers.

Shelduck 4

Mute Swan 6 immature birds around Red Nab

Last years young are often moved on when their parents are breeding again

Shag 1 2nd calendar year bird on the wooden jetty 

2cy Shag

Osprey 1 resting on the wooden jetty

It has a blue ring with white characters. Tantalisingly close to being legible,
unfortunately its right leg was always partially obscured 

This is a location shot. The red arrow to the Shag and the green arrow to the Osprey

I don't know how long the Osprey had been there, but there had been no clamour as I had walked along the sea wall, so it must have been at least 20 minutes. I left to check the inner harbour and it was still there when I returned. Then a Carrion crow flew over and settled on the post next to the Osprey. 

Presumably the Crow is the mate of the one sitting on the nest in the harbour 

Carrion Crow on a nest in the harbour 

The Crows presence alerted the gulls to the Osprey and they began to mob it. But being mobbed is a way of life for an Osprey, and it just waited until they got fed up and left it in peace again.

The gulls all settled close by on the jetty, and the Crow moved on. The Osprey was still on the same post when I was halfway back along the sea wall, after that it was lost from view.

Linnet 3 and Goldfinch 4 near the waterfall 

Rock Pipit 1 near the lighthouse 

Sandwich Tern 6 on one of the buoys out from the north wall

Sandwich Terns

Swallow 1 in/off

Grey Seal 1 out from the harbour 

Silver Y along the sea wall, the "Y" on its wings very distinct

Small Copper in the Nature Park - first this year, but already a bit worn

Arctic Terns still moving through

A dry day with plenty of sunshine. Light variable breezes.

Sea 1050-1250 on and off.  Pete:

Arctic tern - c38, 22 in in quick succession 1130 - second flock climbed high and headed towards heysham head.  

Sandwich Tern - 20-25 at various ranges.  

Common scoter - flock 3 in.  

Nothing in yesterday’s guillemot  incoming tide ‘line’ at the equivalent time. 

Nothing on the outfalls - channels flowing slowly 

5 whimbrel tidal areas off Ocean Edge

No sign Shag or Little Gull

Heysham skear - Malcolm 09:30 - 11:00

Eider 4 (3 males)

Red-breasted Merganser 3 (2 males)

Great Crested Grebe 2 together

Little Egret 5. This one was flitting around chasing its prey, I assumed that it was after something larger than their typical catch. And maybe it was, but what it ended up catching this time was just a typical sized Goby.

Sandwich Tern 7 at least. Unlike resent visits they were not a constant presence, but turned up on the flood, fed a while then moved on. This one clearly catches a fish, as it is then hotly pursued by a Black-Headed Gull.

Apart from a lot of Oystercatchers there weren't many waders, but a better variety today than of late:

Curlew 2

Whimbrel 5 - flew north when flushed by the tide

Knot 1

Turnstone 9

Curlew

Knot

Turnstone and a Sandwich Tern

The green marker post is no longer green and the only thing it is marking
is the mud. It has clearly broken from its mount

Imperial Rd - Malcolm

Just a quick look this evening 

Sedge Warbler 2 singing

Common Whitethroat 1

Common Whitethroat 

Linnet 1

Swallow at least 5 feeding

Buzzard 1

Unexpected Black Guillemot

A dry day with a light wind, mainly from the NE

Seawatch Report Pete 1045-1245:

Black Guillemot - summer plumage bird flying in then landed, floated out of sight then flew out 1156 - no sign floating back in by 1245 but sea a bit lumpy at the range.  

Didn’t expect Black Guillemot this morning.  After a few years of virtually annual regularity on a par with eg Puffin they have become really scarce in recent years whilst Puffins are virtually annual fare.  Even more surprising given Walney or Furness in general have no recent records

Arctic Skua 1 dark morph in close at 1100 

(prob dark morph small skua out v distantly at 1215)

Guillemot - 31 floating in

Common scoter - 295 in and a few out plus some distant shapes probably this species.

Sandwich Tern - minimum of 33 prob more

Common Tern - one out

2cy Shag and 2cy Little Gull both still around

Janet had a good walk around today:

Rock Pipits at the harbour 

Grey Seal with a small Bass

It was like the doldrums at the outfalls, absolutely nothing!!! 

Goldfinches in dispute in the Nature Park

Rudd in Heysham Nature Reserve dipping pond,
 taking advantage of the abundant flies

Just outside the recording area, Heysham Moss Nature Reserve

Grasshopper warbler, Chiffchaff and Willow singing

Song Thrush

Four-Spotted Chaser

First Broad-bodied Chaser this year

Bank Holiday break?

A dry day with sunny spells. Very light variable breezes

Pete Crooks checked again:

Sea-watch from south side of harbour mouth – 8.10 – 9.30 am – Flat calm sea, with distant ‘blocking’ cloud offshore.
1 2nd CY Little Gull – regular individual again off the end of the outfalls
1 2nd CY Shag – again stood on the beach by the end of HS2 outfall
21 Kittiwake – groups of 15 and 6 sat on sea, slowly drifting in
2 Guillemot
1 male Common Scoter
8 Sandwich Tern
5 Swallow – flying into the Bay low over the sea
2 Grey Seal

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Report by Alan:

I went to Middleton early this morning not expecting to catch much and that is what happened. The total catch was only ten birds although the first capture was a Sedge Warbler ringed elsewhere
With little ringing to do I took the opportunity to carry out some ride maintenance between net rounds.
The catch was:
Sedge Warbler  2 + 1 recovery
Reed Warbler  2
Chiffchaff  1
Willow Warbler  1
Single retraps of Great Tit. Dunnock and Wren. 

Yesterday's report of a Hobby has been removed as it was only a probable sighting, at distance at Heysham Nature Reserve on Wednesday.

Heysham skear - Malcolm 09:15 - 10:30

A very pleasant walk around the skear, but apart from Oystercatchers, very little to see.

Eider pair

Red-breasted Merganser, 2 males and 3 females, initially all feeding as individuals, but the 3 females came together as the tide flow increased.

Red-breasted Mergansers

Sandwich Tern 2

Whimbrel 7 moving north when the tide lifted them off the skear

Turnstone 1

This is the green marker post. Yesterday it was just off vertical, there has been
nothing in the weather or tide that would be likely to cause this lean. Presumably 
something in the support structure has broken.

A Barnacle Goose highlight

It just about managed to stay dry, but overcast and cooler in a freshening 

Pete Crooks - 8.35 – 10.50 am sea-watch from the south side of Heysham Harbour mouth:

1 2nd CY Little Gull – regular individual off the end of the outfalls, but later disappeared
1 2nd CY Shag – initially stood on the beach by the end of HS2 outfall, later roosting on the Wooden Pier
1 distant dark morph Arctic Skua flew into the Bay at 9.20 am. (It subsequently transpired that I missed another Arctic Skua while posting these on WhatsApp)
18 Barnacle Geese (of unknown origin) flew into the Bay close past the Wooden Pier at 9.52 am 
3 Pink-footed Geese flew into the Bay at 10.25 am
Also offshore:
6 Sandwich Tern
2 Gannet
4 Guillemot – floating in close past the Wooden Pier
c.200 Common Scoter – various flocks swirling around in the extreme distance offshore, in front of the wind turbines south of Walney Island
32 Swallow and 2 Swift flying into the Bay low over the sea past the Wooden Pier

The above report is from the LDBWS webpage. 

https://lancasterbirdwatching.org.uk/sightings/

Pete and Jean were also watching from the back of the harbour and saw similar to Pete Crooks, including the 2nd Arctic Skua. Also an additional 20 or so very distant feeding Sandwich Tern and at least 15 out close inshore but quite high flying .  These close outbound terns are going high above scope/over head of lighthouse area observers and are easily missed.

Middleton Nature Reserve main pond - Angela Gillon

There were several Swifts on the main pool, joined by Swallows taking the insects from the surface.

I took a video, but they are really hard to capture! 

Swifts over the main pond

Blackcap and Cetti's heard.

Heysham skear - Malcolm 15:45 - 17:00

Eider 5 (pair + 3 males)

Red-breasted Merganser 2 males

Red-breasted Merganser

Great Crested Grebe 2

Little Egret 3

Sandwich Tern 5

Sandwich Terns

The only waders were the ubiquitous Oystercatcher, 3 Turnstones flew south and 13 Whimbrel. The Whimbrel were mostly along the northern side of the skear and were easily finding small mussels to eat.

A Peregrine Falcon did a circuit of a small wader free skear, then continued south

Terns and Kitts still moving through

Overcast in the morning but sunny spells this afternoon. A light, mainly westerly,  breeze 

Seawatching from the south harbour wall this morning, 8:25-11am

Clay, Andrew, James and Phil. Report and clip by Clay:

Breezy at first but flat sea by the time we left

Common Scoter - 23 in

Red-breasted Merganser - 2 in then out

Whimbrel - one flew past then later seen on Red Nab

Arctic Tern - c50 in two flocks

Little Gull - 1 on Outfall 1

Kittiwake - flock of 78 very close - appeared out of nowhere(?) over the outfalls close in, then flew towards Red Nab, circled back, gained height and flew in

Skua (probably Arctic) - 1 in

Guillemot - 2 on sea

Red-throated Diver - 3 in then 2 out 

Gannet - 3 in

Shag - 1 1cy on end of jetty

Swallow - 5 south close in

This clip shows the Kittiwakes 

Pete checked from the back of the harbour. 0945-1030

1 Common Tern out

27 Sandwich Tern purposefully out

1,1 summer plumage red throated diver in

1 Guillemot floating in 

1 Grey Seal

Just after lunch a Black Tern was on the outfalls 

North shore

David Kaye saw 1500 Knot resting on a sandbar at 0600. They were spooked by something and flew south.

I checked the waterline out from the play area on the incoming tide 09:00 - 10:00 - Malcolm

Eider 3

Little Egret 3

Sandwich Tern 8

Sandwich Terns

Just 14 Knot and 12 Bar-Tailed Godwit with the Oystercatchers along the waterline 

Curlew 1

Whimbrel 1

Turnstone 2

I was just too slow getting this clip of a Whimbrel eating a crab, it is just swallowing it at the beginning of the clip. It then has several sips of freshwater runoff, before swallowing a couple of remaining limbs.

I returned to check the skear as it was exposing this afternoon 15:15 - 16:30

Eider 8

Great Crested Grebe 6

Great Crested Grebe showing its great crest!

Shag 1 feeding near the green marker post - too distant to judge age

Sandwich Tern 8

Sandwich Tern

Apart from Oystercatchers there were just two other wader species 

Whimbrel 9 - this clip reminds me of the comedy scenes where someone accidentally walks onto a film set, then tries to hide!

Dunlin 1

Dunlin

Middleton Nature Reserve - Janet

Grasshopper Warbler, being very vocal near the golf club

Large Red Damselfly

Great Crested Newt, this one at a different part of the reserve near the pumping station.