Black Terns passing through

Another warm sunny day with light breezes, from NE in the morning and NW in the afternoon.

Nick Godden from the Stone Jetty:

I only had a few minutes at the Stone Jetty prior to work but the period 6:00-6:25 was quite productive
Common scoter 2 out
Sandwich tern 34 in
Arctic tern 17 in
Black tern 6 in
Whimbrel 7 in

Pete:

Sea 0600-0800 Heysham back of habour. Arrived just too late for Nick's flock of 17 Arctic and 6 Black past SJ just after 0600  
Arctic Tern - flock c21 rapidly in
Black Tern - 9 with the above
Red throated diver - 4 out
Sandwich Tern - 67 out (35 in early on)
Common Scoter - c45 out
Little Gull - 2 adult in together
Arctic Skua - dark morph out then landed and floated out

Game of two halves; dead 0700-0800.

Power station outfalls and area: 0805-0825
2cy kittiwake inner end hey 2
2cy Little Gull on beach then feeding seaward end Hey one
two very distant Arctic/Common Tern on tide edge
C50 Sandwich Terns visible on buoys/fishing in shipping channel

Heysham skear - Malcolm 08:00 - 10:00

Eider 30 +

Common Scoter the female with the damaged left wing

She was constantly attending to her damaged wing.

Red-breasted Merganser 3

Great Crested grebe 3

Little Egret 4

Sandwich Tern 8 minimum 

Sandwich Tern

Knot c2000 several flagged birds seen but all seen earlier in this winter period.

Many of the Knot moulting to summer plumage. This one ringed at Merseyside
in 2024. All the characters are white but two are stained dark with dirt. Note that
one of these Knot is eating gutweed

Bar-Tailed Godwit 1

Bar-Tailed Godwit with Knot and Oystercatcher 

Whimbrel at least 3

Like Curlews, Whimbrel often use their long bills to probe under things,
rather than probing deep into the mud.

The long warm days and lack of grazing is allowing the gutweed to
flourish. These filaments are up to 30cm already

Heysham Head

I did a quick check under the high cliffs, Malcolm.

Rock Pipit at least four

Rock Pipit checking out the many flying insects

Jean and Pete checked the sea 1500-1615

Black Tern - 4,1,1,2 in (bringing today's total to 23)

Arctic Tern - 6,1,1 in

Arctic Skua 1 dark morph in

Red throated diver - 1,2 in

South shore - Malcolm 15:15 - 16:30

Rock Pipit 5 - 2 at Red Nab, 2 along the sea wall and 1 above the nest site near the lighthouse. 

Sandwich Tern at least 6 around the buoys out from the north wall 

Four Sandwich Terns

Stock Dove 1 on wooden jetty

Stock Dove

Kittiwake 1 2nd calendar year resting on the sloping sea wall at No.2 outfall

2cy Kittiwake

Middleton Nature Reserve - Janet

There was a another swan arrived on the main pond this morning and when I got there all hell had broken out, the male was seeing off the extra swan but at the same time the Cygnet was attacking the sitting female!! the fight was at first on the water but then they were fighting on the nest, once the other swan had been seen off the male came to her rescue and all 3 of them were fighting on the nest!!!

Who needs David Attenborough!!!  These are a shortened version of the shots I took.

Grey Heron with what looks to be an orange tongue lolling out

Common Whitethroat 

Brimstone 

Large Red Damselfly - first record this year

A long overdue, but very welcome, Spoonbill

A warm sunny day with a lighter offshore wind.

Pete:

Heysham sea 0630-0840: a real mixed bag with a lot of empty sea and a couple of surprises.  

No Arctic Tern - presumably blocked but can’t see any dramatic reason why from synoptic charts: 

Spoonbill - distantly in 0700 - first record for the recording area.

A light morph Pomarine Skua in nice and close 0723 just as a ferry was arriving

one Gannet fishing

one Guillemot out

5 Common scoter in,

Adult Little Gull in and usual 2cy Little Gull feeding Heysham one seaward end

25 pink footed geese north

3 Sanderling out,

Osprey fishing off outfalls 0800-0815

c10 Sandwich tern

2cy  Mediterranean gull on outfalls.  

A few night migrants eg 5 Willow warblers harbour bushes and two sedge warbler red nab.

Middleton Nature Reserve - Janet

One of the Mute Swans on the "no swimming" pond has wry neck

The Mallard with 13 chicks on the "no swimming" pond is doing well
keeping them all safe

Very cute!

Goldfinch 

Willow Warbler 

Linnet

Orange Tip

Green-veined White

Heysham skear - Malcolm 12:20 - 13:30

A check as the tide was covering the skear

Eider 16

Red-breasted Merganser 3

Little Egret 2

Whimbrel 1 

Bar-Tailed Godwit 21

Some of the Godwit arriving from the south

A stark contrast between the deep red summer plumage red of these males
and the paler birds

Knot 1500. Initially on the skear then moved to the waterline for a while, but they didn't feed there

Knot centre picture surrounded by Oystercatchers 

They returned to what little there was left of the skear and immediately began feeding again. 

A lot was going on this evening as viewed from south of the recording area.

Nine black terns flew into the bay as seen from Rossall 
Also two groups of Arctic Terns 23 and 13
Bonxie (Great Skua) in chasing group of c.10 Sandwich Terns, Rossall Point 17:58

There should be plenty of movement here over the next few days!

First Swifts and first fishing Osprey

A dry sunny day. A fresh wind, NE early on then east

Pete:

Dead Sea apart from odd Corvid in transit.  

4 common scoter

3 outbound Canada geese 

1 sandwich tern.  

Outfalls: 2cy little gull and brief visits from two Common Tern together and a single Arctic Tern 

Osprey fishing outfalls 0815

Swifts 2 over Heysham Village - first of the year - David Kaye

South shore - Malcolm 13:45 - 15:30

A walk from saltmarsh then along the sea wall and back through the Nature Park. High water was 15:40

Linnet 2 on saltmarsh and 2 near the waterfall 

Meadow Pipit 1 grounded at the saltmarsh and calling constantly 

Whimbrel 7 together landed out from the foreshore 

Whimbrel 

No Wheatears or Brent Geese seen

Little Egret 2 on Red Nab

Peregrine Falcon one came from the south and settled on the Power Station

Kittiwake, the 2nd calendar year was resting on the sea between the outfalls. On the return leg it was resting on the sea wall by No.2 Outfall

2cy Kittiwake

Mediterranean gull 1 2cy on No.1 outfall 

2cy Mediterranean gull

Little Gull the 2cy was still feeding on No.1 outfall

2cy Little Gull

Common Tern just one feeding on No.1 outfall 

Common Tern

Rock Pipit 3 - two near the lighthouse plus one near the waterfall 

Plenty of flies along the sea wall today

You can see the flies resting on the wall, but not for long!

Rock Pipit on one of the Platforms near the waterfall 

Something has built a nest under the superstructure of one of the platforms,
the black tail of a sitting bird suggests Carrion Crow

A safer location than the Carrion Crow nest built on the wooden jetty
a couple of years ago

There were two Goldfinch near the lighthouse, this one ringed

Swallow 2 one flew north at speed. But this male must have been exhausted as he was resting on the sloping sea wall and made no attempt to move, despite my presence and flies flitting around him!

Swallow

Grey Seal resting between the outfalls

Small Tortoiseshell 2 and Small White 1 east along the wall

Nature Park 

Willow warbler, Blackcap and Chiffchaff singing

Heliport - Malcolm

It was almost high water as I was heading home, so I stopped off.

Knot c500 on the sloping wall and occasionally spooked, but the few that rested on the top were not flagged.

Knot

Bar-Tailed Godwit and Knot both well on the way to full summer plumage 

I checked again later to see if they would move to the mud, but they had already moved on.