A good seawatch, but a narrow window

A dry day after early morning showers. A light NE wind

Seawatch report Pete:

One to check the met situation today - after expecting absolutely nothing in the rain, the best concentrated seawatching of the spring so far 0640-0730 then the tap seemingly turned off 
Sea Heysham from 0625 (nothing of note until 0640):
Arctic tern: 122 inc flocks of 23,75
Arctic skua: 1 dark morph, 2 dark morph, 1 light morph, 1 light morph - the last very close 
Kittiwake: 37 in 5 high flying inbound small flocks - may have missed some 
Gannet: 5
Black Tern - flock of 4 with two Arctic
Common Tern 1,1 in
Sandwich Tern: at least 61 in 
Common Scoter: 60-70 distantly backwards and forwards 
Red throated diver: 1
Guillemot: 3 floating out

Heysham to 0835: died off with the only additions: 

2 inbound Common Tern,

13 inbound Sandwich Tern

1 guillemot floating out 

a brief appearance by the 2Cy Shag.  

Swallow about 150/hr till 0815

A more detailed description of today's seawatch can be seen on Pete's Facebook page 

https://www.facebook.com/100043676024219/posts/1675255147273670/?mibextid=wwXIfr&rdid=cnky7uPU73yw10HP

Heysham skear - Malcolm 08:45 - 10:00

Eider - just one male seen

Arctic Tern 2 in at 09:10

Arctic Tern

Sandwich Tern, at least 4 fishing/resting

Sandwich Tern

Little Egret 3
Curlew 1

Whimbrel 2

Bar-Tailed Godwit 12

Some of the Godwit coming in to land on the waterline
That's the "wooden jetty" behind

Bar-Tailed Godwit 

Turnstone 21 together

Turnstone in varying degrees of moult to summer plumage 

They flew off to the north

Dunlin 3 north

Ringed Plover 5 high up the shore 

Ringed Plover, a little easier to spot than yesterday's birds

Swallows were still coming in, but not as frequent as earlier, c 15/hr

Middleton Nature Reserve 

This from Janet:

Jo Bailey went to check the nest as the female hadn't been near for days (Jo's picture below). I wonder if the eggs were broke after the Cygnet had that fight with the female a few weeks back, where they fought on the nest.

South shore

Kevin Eaves had a walk along the sea wall

Painted Lady, Red Admiral also seen

A couple of impressive spiders on the wall today.

A Zebra Spider with prey much larger than itself.
Despite being arachnophobic these spiders don't bother me at all
and I could easily pick them up. 

The same can't be said of the Noble False Widow which really spooked me. It took all my courage
to place my finger so close. They have a painful bite though it's not generally harmful to humans.
I wasn't going to test it though! 

A developing oil crisis?

A dry day with light variable breezes. Some sunny spells 

Heysham skear - Malcolm 09:45 - 11:00

Eider pair plus 1 female

Red-breasted Merganser 3 - 1 female plus 2 males

Little Egret 4

Sandwich Tern c30 - 8 resting around the skear, the rest on a sandbar till moved on by the incoming tide

Sandwich Tern on a sandbar

Whimbrel 1

Curlew 1

Dunlin 14 - a group of 10 plus 2 each with 2 lots of Ringed Plover

Ringed Plover 18 - a flock of 12 flew south plus another 6 amongst the inshore rocks

3 Ringed Plover plus a Dunlin (honest!)

South shore

Saltmarsh to Red Nab - Malcolm 14:30 - 15:00

Linnet 2 on the saltmarsh 

Wheatear 3 on Ocean Edge grass and foreshore 

There were plenty of flies around to catch

Rock Pipit 1 flew to Red Nab

Curlew 6 just beyond Red Nab

Peregrine Falcon 1 came in/off then into the Power Station grounds.

Kevin Eaves checked along the sea wall, no sign of the Shag or Osprey today

First Cinnabar moth on the sea wall

Warblers heard in the Nature Park 

Lesser Whitethroat 

Blackcap

Willow Warbler

Chiffchaff 

Middleton Nature Reserve - Janet

There was a badly oil stained duck on the spit on the main pond. 

This severely oiled duck turned out to be a Mallard,  apparently there were other 
oiled ducks earlier in the week. There is no obvious source for such a quantity of oil.
The Reserve Manager has been informed.

Silver Y

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