Sun brings out the butterflies

Another warm sunny day with a fresher NE to E breeze.

South shore (Malcolm)

A walk from saltmarsh to harbour at mid morning low water.

This Wren was singing its heart out on the saltmarsh 

Wheatear 1 male on the foreshore 

Wheatear

Rock Pipit at least 3. 1 displaying on Red Nab, 1 near No.1 outfall, 1 above the nest site at the lighthouse, joined by another later, but it could have been the one from No.1 outfall.

Rock Pipit above the lighthouse nest site

Meadow Pipit 1 grounded on saltmarsh plus 59 over to the north between 09:45 and 11:00.

Meadow Pipit

Lesser Redpoll 2 north

Several other small passage birds not heard/identified (not wagtails)

White Wagtail at least 2 grounded.

White Wagtail on Red Nab

It seemed to be finding plenty of flies on the quickly recovering gutweed.

When I reached the lighthouse there was one feeding there too. Not impossible it being the same bird, but on the way back along the wall there was another feeding, so at least 2 present.

White Wagtail near the lighthouse 

Male Greenfinch in the copse behind Red Nab

Swallow 2 

Swallows zipping past the rounhead

Carrion Crow 3 individuals flying north, looked like movement.

Carrion Crow, a bit more sedately past the roundhead.
It continued north till lost from view.

Shelduck 2

Eider 1 male out from the harbour mouth

Bar-Tailed Godwit 3 on waterline near the wooden jetty

Turnstone 135 in one flock

Turnstone 

Middleton Nature Reserve (Janet)

Gadwall coming in to land on the "no swimming" pond

You can never tell at this time of year if the Coot are angry or amorous!

Curlew on the main pond, a slightly unusual visitor 

Female Speckled Wood - first of the year

Male Orange Tip - first of the year

Peacock

Small Tortoiseshell 

Janet called this a May Flower, and it is what I have always known them as,
but apparently it is quite a colloquial name and is more widely known as Lady's 
Smock or Cuckoo Flower. Either way, quite early.

Diminishing waders

A warm sunny day with a brisk east wind.

Heysham skear - low water 09:20 (Malcolm)

No geese seen this morning.

Eider 55

Red-breasted Merganser 14

Male Red-breasted Merganser, quickly getting out of the way of another.
Redshank in foreground.

No grebes seen

Little Egret 4

Oystercatcher c1,000 flew from the outer skear as it was being covered by the tide.

Curlew 10

Redshank 100

Knot - just 3!

Three Knot and a Redshank

Grey Plover 3

Grey Plover

Turnstone - just 2 seen and they flew over to the east

Ringed Plover 2 - first seen here for a while

Ringed Plover

Meadow Pipit 7 in/off then east

Heliport (Howard)

Just 50 Knot roosting at high water. A far cry from the large numbers just a few days ago.

These are just some of the Knot along the heliport wall on Saturday 

14:40 : c10 swallow reported in off the sea Heysham - ref Cornelius Jones 

Middleton Nature Reserve (Malcolm)

A brief check of the two main ponds and the central marsh

Mute Swan pair

Mallard 3 on the main pond and another 3 in the central marsh watercourses.

Gadwall 5 on the "no swimming" pond

Teal 4 on the fence pond (central marsh)

Coot 3 each on the two main ponds 1 on the fence pond

Moorhen 3 one on each pond

Common Snipe 1 in central marsh

The only warblers heard were several Chiffchaff and a couple of Cetti's

One of many rooks flying around the rookery on Middleton Rd

Just out of the recording area, horse paddock behind Middleton Parish Hall.

The Green Sandpiper is still feeding on the rapidly dwindling pool. These shots are when it was startled by an arriving Grey Heron.

Green Sandpiper 

Willow warblers arrive

A dry sunny day with a freshening SSE wind

Middleton Nature Reserve

Report by Alan:

The forecast for this morning was for very light SE wind so I set three nets at dawn.  However, the wind quickly became quite strong and gusty causing the nets to tangle in the bushes repeatedly.  I did manage a few captures, including the first Willow warbler for the season.

Eight birds only in total comprising:

Single retrap Cetti's Warbler and Chiffchaff

Lesser Redpoll  4

Chiffchaff  1

Willow Warbler  1

Heysham skear - low water 08:40 (Malcolm)

Pink-Footed goose 175 north in 3 skeins. A small skein of 9 south

Eider 32

Red-breasted Merganser 18

Three male mergansers on the north side beyond a Honeycomb worm reef

Teal 1 female 

Teal resting on the sea

She was spooked by this low flying flock of Oystercatchers and flew
off to the west. She is still on the sea in the centre of this shot.

Great Crested Grebe 1

Great Crested Grebe by an embryonic Honeycomb worm reef on the south
side. The reefs rarely fully develop on the south side as this is the side that
takes the brunt of the winter storms.

Little Egret 3

Oystercatcher 1,000

Curlew 10

Redshank 120

Knot - 1,500 were feeding on the outer skear. When the tide moved them off they flew south, again in an atypical formation of a long thin line low over the sea.

A short section of a long line of Knot flying very low and straight to the south

Turnstone 80

Carrion Crow 6 were feeding around the skear plus 3 that flew from the south, over the skear and continued NW.

Meadow Pipit 1 in/off then east

It was particularly clear early on. The dark ridge on this horizon is the 
recently formed shingle bank out from Fleetwood, and the duller hills
behind are the hills of North Wales!

Alan Physick found this unfortunate creature on the south sea wall. Newt sp.
 A gull will have picked it up inland, perhaps the Nature Park, it will have dropped
it as newt skin produce unpleasant tasting secretions. The newt's  defence
failed to save this individual, but the gull will be unlikely to take another one.

Some stuff on the move

A dry day, cloud cover to begin with, then sunny spells. A very light variable breeze.

Heysham Nature Reserve 

Ringing report by Jean:

In the background throughout was the beautiful sound of a singing Mistle Thrush. I caught 18 birds, 7 of which were retraps . 

The main aim was to catch Redpolls which are on the move at the moment heading to their breeding areas further north. A few came down but only two were caught, including the brightly coloured adult male in the photograph. It was a “control” - a bird ringed somewhere else, not at Heysham. We are awaiting details. 

List of birds caught:

Goldfinch - 5 new

Greenfinch - 1 new

Chaffinch - 1 new

Lesser Redpoll - 1 new, 1 control

Chiffchaff - 1 new

Robin - 1 new, 1 retrap

Wren - 1 retrap

Blackbird - 1 new

Blue Tit - 2 retraps

Great Tit - 1 new

Dunnock - 1 retrap

This morning's previously ringed Lesser Redpoll 
Ringing location details awaited

A Reed Bunting was singing in the vicinity of the Fire Pond.

Other stuff from Pete

one swallow and two sand martin north (first Swallow of the year)

three red throated diver on the sea

At least three redwing grounded Heysham NR but little else grounded/vis  

Highish layer of uniform cloud regularly fails to deliver

Heysham Skear (Malcolm)

No Brent geese seen today

Pink-Footed goose four large flocks heading North

Pink-Footed geese high to the north

Pink-Footed geese

Whooper Swans 34

The sky was white, the sea was flat and reflecting the sky.
Spotting swans wasn't easy!

Fortunately, they did pass a little closer by.

Eider 120 many quite distant, only observable due to the flat sea.

Eider close in, plus many of the specks on the "horizon" are also Eider.

Red-breasted Merganser 12

Great Crested grebe 8

Little Egret 5

Oystercatchers flew directly from the outer skear to the waterline when displaced by the tide at least 1,000.

Curlew 3

Redshank 350

Knot - there were none feeding on the skear this morning and at least one of yesterday's birds was seen on Ainsdale shore today.

This Icelandic ringed Knot was feeding here yesterday. Today it was seen
On Ainsdale shore some 30+ miles south

Three flocks of constantly calling Knot flew from the north and continued south this morning. A total of 700 birds, they were flying in very spread out formation, not the tight balls that you normally see.

Part of today's largest flock of Knot passing over to the south.

Turnstone 250

Ocean Edge (Janet)

Two Wheatear along foreshore 

Rock Pipit also on foreshore 

Small Tortoiseshell 

Looks to be a Green-Veined White

Also from Janet

Goldfinch taking nesting material from Janet's "feeder"

One of two pairs of Jackdaw nesting in roofs near Meldon Rd

Kevin Eaves had a walk along the south sea wall and spotted this beetle - not that it needed much spotting, it is a big one!

Hairy Rove Beetle
They are fairly widespread but not common.