A few Ducks returning

A sunny day but cooler than of late. A fresh variable breeze.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Alan managed a ringing session yesterday.

This was about the first morning for a long time that there was no risk of being roasted alive and the wind was very light so I set off to Middleton at 05.15.
The three nets set produced a modest catch of 24 birds by 11-00, comprising:
 
Singles of Blackbird, Reed Warbler, Whitethroat, Blackcap, Cetti's Warbler (retrap) and Robin.
Chiffchaff  2
Wren  4
Willow Warbler  3
Sedge Warbler  4
Dunnock  2
long-tailed Tit   1 +  2 retraps

I checked some of the ponds this afternoon to see how widespread the Red-eyed Damselflies are (Malcolm)

Main pond - not checked

"No swimming" pond

Mute Swan pair

Mallard 25+

Gadwall 3 

Tufted Duck 1 female

Moorhen 3

Coot 2

Mute Swans and some of the Mallard

 male Gadwall in eclipse 

Gadwall

This clip shows more of the Mallard then ends up on the three Gadwall

Male Mallard in eclipse

Female Tufted Duck

Tufted Duck idly watching a damselfly pass by

There is a lot of surface weed on this pond, and there were dozens of Damselflies, but most were just our regular blue eyed varieties. I did manage to see three Small Red-eyed Damselflies, including an ovipositoring pair.

Small Red-eyed Damselflies 

Ovipositoring Emperor 

Also Brown Hawker

Fence pond had plenty of surface weed but only the usual Damselflies seen

Moorhen with just a single tiny chick

Grey Heron 1

Similarly with the other open water in the central marshes. Just the regular Damselflies and a couple of Common Darter

The only warbler seen or heard was a singing Blackcap 

Butterflies:

Mainly Gatekeeper 

But also Meadow Brown, Peacock, Green-veined White and Common Blue

Green-veined White and a Carder Bumblebee 

Imperial Rd - Malcolm

Just a brief check

Buzzard 2 - 1 calling from the copse and one flew over to it

Common Whitethroat seen

Sedge warbler seen

Sedge warbler 

Not many butterflies: Small White, Meadow Brown, GateKeeper and Small Skipper

No Dragonflies 

A risk of invasion?

Occasional cloud cover kept the temperature lower again today. A light mainly NW breeze

South shore

I just had time for a quick check of Red Nab at 12:00 (3 hours before high water) - Malcolm

Whimbrel 1 heard

Mediterranean gulls only 12 

Mediterranean and Black-Headed gulls on Red Nab

Shaun checked closer to high water, with more success 

Heysham Red Nab  13:00-14:30:
Mediterranean Gulls 112 including 5 juveniles . A group of 12 were departing south when I arrived. Perhaps, others had already left.
Rock Pipit 2.
Shag roosting on Wooden Pier.

Heysham Nature Reserve - Shaun

Dipping Pond:
Common & Blue-tailed Damselflies.
Common Darter.
Broad-bodied Chaser.
Brown Hawker 2.
Emperor Dragonfly. 

Also, a fast dark UFO visiting the pond, dipping on to the water and then shooting off. Then it landed. Probably about 2.5cm. Mean looking thing......turned out to be a Dark Giant Horsefly

Dark Giant Horsefly (the heaviest fly in Europe)

Holly Blue in the NE corner. 

2 Ringlets behind the dipping pond were the only ones seen on a circuit of the reserve. 

Gatekeeper were the most common butterfly. 

These are from Heysham skear yesterday - Malcolm

I posted a while ago that I had seen my first Pacific Oyster here. Since then I have located about 20. These are a non native species that were intentionally introduced to some UK waters early last century. I suspect their spread to here is a natural development of their range.

These are large Oysters! And they not only "cement" themselves to anything solid, they "cement" other rocks and shells together to form a solid anchorage.

This is a live one, with its shell tightly clamped shut

I returned it to where I found it. 

I took this dead one home. It will end up at the Nature Reserve office,
where I am sure it will impress the many children visitors 

You can see how it cements everything together

I haven't seen these before this year, so clearly they are a very fast growing
species. They can form colonies in the form of solid reefs, with rocks and 
shells stuck tightly together. 

The skear is currently a battleground between the Mussels and Honeycomb worms. The outcome as to which species is dominant in any one year depending largely on when, and how severe, storms are. Plus of course the amount of seed mussels arriving. The Honeycomb worms can also create reefs, but theirs are made of grains of sand cemented together. The predominantly SW storms tend to demolish those on the south side most years. If the Pacific Oysters do proliferate here I'm pretty sure any of their reefs will withstand the severe storms and possibly become "permanent" features. If so the whole demographic of the skear will change. Probably not a good thing! But it will be interesting to watch. Bear in mind that when I first started visiting the skear (scarily, 60 years ago) there were no Honeycomb worms, just mussels. But I suppose that realistically, if the Oysters do become prolific, people will begin to "harvest" them. I can't think of any other predators that would take them.

Still plenty of Meds

The sunshine today was hazy at times coupled with a fresh variable breeze keeping the temperature under 25°C

Middleton Nature Reserve - Janet

Main pond

Small Red-eyed Damselfly 

Common Darter

Another Common Darter, quite a friendly one!

Southern section 

Ruddy Darter by the pond

Common Darter

Red Admiral

Peacock

I was hoping for a Copper Tip Longhorn but just found this beetle sp

There was a comment yesterday asking where to find the dragonflies and is there a map. 

There isn't a map of the Reserve, but there is a map of the recording area at the foot of the posts. Someone from the Observatory team regularly checks the reserve and reports here saying what is to be seen and including a location shot if relevant. The three ponds referred to most commonly are:

The main pond. This is where the bottom car park is.

"No swimming" pond this is just next to the main pond on the west side.

The southern section begins on the other side of the road from the car park. If you follow the track and cross the small bridge then turn left it takes you to the pond there.

South shore

I went to check the feeding beach by the wooden jetty at low water (Malcolm). It was empty?

No Mediterranean gulls on the feeding beach

Juvenile Black-Headed gulls on No.1 outfall

Rock Pipits 2 together flew along the sea wall

Mediterranean gulls 110 on Red Nab. That's a lot at any time, but they are normally feeding at low water. But these long days allow them plenty of time to feed then rest and preen. An increase in juveniles, there were 9.

 

It's becoming increasingly difficult to be confident of the age of some of the 
immature birds

Two Juvenile Meds

This juvenile is stretching its wings

Kevin spotted this Hummingbird Hawkmoth on the sea wall this afternoon 

Heysham skear - Malcolm 17:15 - 19:00

A very pleasant evening walk with a cooling inshore breeze.

Eider 1 female

Great Crested Grebe 2

Eider and a Great Crested Grebe

Little Egret 3

Sandwich Tern at least one fishing 

Mediterranean gulls 3 - they are not commonly seen here

Black-Headed gull (left) and Mediterranean gull

There were about 130 large gulls on the skear to begin with, plus more on the sea. There were about 250 feeding when I left. The mussel beds are well established now, but seed mussels continue to arrive. Not as easy to find as a month or so ago but still a plentiful food source.

The Herring gull centre is one of two previously seen ringed birds located.
The gull lower right is just swallowing a seed mussel

Oystercatcher c300

Curlew c60

This Curlew with a plain orange ring and a black ring code A5
Ringed at Llanrhystud near Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, 10/02/2016
Its only other sighting was here last September 

Nearly 200 Meds!

Another hot sunny day with a light variable breeze

South shore

Shaun Coyle made a thorough check of the gulls and insects:

Heysham Red Nab. 1030-12:00:
Mediterranean Gull 190. 3 juvs, at least 30 2cy, the rest 3cy/adults. 

Nature Park:
Red Admiral 29.
Painted Lady 13.
Peacock 16.
Comma 3.
Large White 2.
Small White 8.
Meadow Brown 8.
Gatekeeper 36.
Speckled Wood 5.
Common Blue 3.
Small Skipper 1.
Also, 2 Hummingbird Hawkmoths.
Emperor Dragonfly 2.

I checked the gulls from the shore (Malcolm) once again there was no disturbance by Peregrines.

I could only find six ringed Mediterranean gulls. Just two new ones for this year, but one was the red ringed bird I caught a glimpse of yesterday 

We have seen this one before, it was here last August when we also had a 
high number of Meds. Ringed in Poland 2024. Hopefully it has been seen
since leaving us last year.

These are just some of the gulls on Red Nab

I walked back through the Nature Park with Shaun. This is his second Hummingbird Hawkmoth. In the same location as seen yesterday and the portion of the wing missing showing it to be the same insect.

Yesterday I incorrectly said it was feeding on tiny flowers. Maurice Pons has correctly pointed out that; "this is a female landing on a non flowering Lady,s Bedstraw for a split second to lay an egg. A sight rarely recorded." She was doing the same today. An area to watch for caterpillars later on.

c30m west of the small anemometer, along the back track from the anemometer, 
to where the track opens to a clearing with the large Buddleia stand beyond 

Swifts 8 south over Heysham as I headed home

Middleton Nature Reserve - Shaun

Lots of Small red-eyed damselflies on Main Pond and also on the No Swimming Pond (lots of Blue-tailed/Common Blues too)

Male Red-veined Darter on the No Swimming Pond with about 5 Common Darters. 

Commons also on Main Pond. 

Male Ruddy Darter on the pond in the Southern Section. 

Quite a few Emperor's, Black-tailed Skimmers, Brown Hawkers and a female Broad-bodied Chaser

Met a couple who had seen Southern Hawker too. 

Just out of the recording area:

Small Red-eyed Damselflies were seen for the first time at Walney today. They are certainly rapidly expanding their territory.

Janet was watching the Common Terns feeding in the River Lune from Bazil Point, before flying back to their nest at the Conder pool.

Common Tern

Another Hummingbird Hawkmoth

Another hot sunny day with a light variable breeze.

South shore - Malcolm

09:45 - 11:00

I went out to watch the tide reaching Red Nab. Starting at the saltmarsh.

I saw the Meadow Pipit on the same bush as yesterday, then it flew to Ocean Edge grass. Less than a minute later it returned with not one, but two bush-crickets 

Its nest must be close to the bush, but it wouldn't go down to it while I was watching

Juvenile Pied Wagtail 

Summer Plumage Redshank

Mediterranean gull 46 minimum, including 3 juvenile 

I managed to find three white ringed birds, one new for this year. Also the Red Ringed 2nd calendar year Hungarian bird.

Red HJ8A

But there was another red ring and I only managed a glimpse of the top of it.

This is a typical ring sighting! This is an older red ringed bird and it
appears to end in 0. One to watch out for

There was also a white ringed Black-Headed gull

It is definitely one from a Dutch ringing scheme. The code looks to be E4V6.
But it was difficult reading in the bright sunlight and you can see the effects 
of the heat haze in the background. We await feedback from the scheme manager.

Once again there was no sign of the Peregrines, but a raptor did lift them all once. An Osprey flew over with a fish. And everything lifted, but quickly settled again.

The fish looks to be a small Bass. The Osprey flew east and would have
passed directly over Middleton Nature Reserve. Blue ring on its left leg.

I returned this afternoon to check the feeding beach by the wooden jetty, but all the gulls, including Mediterranean were anting. 

Gulls including a Med (top right) over the Nature Park 

Swift 3 over the Nature Park

The number of Cormorants on the wooden jetty is increasing again

Some sort of "pigeon" between the Cormorants. 

The 2cy Shag relegated to the lower level

Rock Pipit with grubs above the lighthouse nest area

The breeze was from the west, and very refreshing it was too. But no good for insect movement here and nothing was coming in off.

There was quite a lot going on in the Nature Park

Red Admiral 35

Painted Lady 4

Peacock 1

Plus Small White, Gatekeeper, Meadow Brown, Speckled Wood and Common Blue

Red Admiral

Painted Lady

Peacock

The heady smell of the Buddleia was almost overpowering, but this Hummingbird Hawkmoth looked to be feeding on tiny flowers but Maurice Pons has correctly identified this behaviour as; "this is a female landing on a non flowering Lady,s Bedstraw for a split second to lay an egg. A sight rarely recorded."

To Maurice "it was obvious", and it is obvious, when you know what you are watching. Thanks Maurice.

Hummingbird Hawkmoth