Great White passes over

A dry day with sunny spells. A SE wind

South shore

Early am at ocean edge - Pete: 

One great white egret flew north quite high over Heysham ocean edge obvious migrant.  

Also flock of 9 meadow pipit in off 

Two Painted Lady, two Small Tortoiseshell, and a Red admiral flying in along the wall on my walk out to the lighthouse - Kevin

Janet:

Wigeon on the salt marsh

Solitary Knot on Red Nab

Rock Pipit and Knot

Painted Lady and a Red Admiral in the Nature Park

Janet also saw Common Darters on both sides of Middleton Nature Reserve

Heysham skear - Malcolm

Yesterday's Knot were interesting. The four flagged birds were this year's and last year's youngsters. The bulk of the other 3000 birds seen would have been the same. Three of the flagged birds had only been ringed in the last two weeks, providing useful information for the schemes. So I tried to find some more today. But some days things just don't work out.

I had a look on the rising tide this morning. As the tide moved the Oystercatchers off the skear they settled along the waterline. But when the Knot left the skear, they flew directly to the south.

Oystercatchers lined up along the waterline with one of two flocks of Knot
seen heading south. At least 2500 birds in total

I tried again this evening starting 16:00 in bright sunshine. The Knot began arriving from the south immediately, but in smaller groups (5 - 50) than yesterday. About 1000 had gathered when a Peregrine attacked and scattered them.

 

When the Knot began returning they were in larger groups, as yesterday. Perhaps a Peregrine had attacked before I started yesterday. But if there had been an attack yesterday it must have been successful, today's wasn't and as soon as a group returned it attacked again.

That's the Midland Hotel in the background 

Knot and a Peregrine 

By this time it was almost 17:00 and the light was already fading

It must have eventually managed to catch one as the Knot slowly returned and settled. But by this time the tide was a long way out and the returning groups settled in different areas. At least 1000 Knot and again mainly young birds, but I failed to find any flagged ones today.

Knot

Pink-Footed geese south:

1 skein of 78 10:15

3 skeins in quick succession this evening 13, 18 and 6

Some of this evening's Pinkfoot

Eider 9

Red-breasted Merganser 3

Great Crested Grebe 1

Little Egret 18

Grey Heron 1

Heron and Egrets

Oystercatcher c1500 on the skear this evening more along the waterline this morning 

Curlew 45

Redshank 100+

Turnstone 30

Ringed Plover 5

Knot numbers still increasing

A sunny day, but a cool start. A light variable breeze.

South shore - Malcolm 10:30 - 11:30

Linnet 200+ on the saltmarsh 

Robin 4 along foreshore

Skylark 1 flew SE

Meadow Pipit 7 flew SE

Rock Pipit 2 on Red Nab

Shelduck 117

Some of the Shelduck out from the foreshore 

Little Egret 6

Mediterranean gulls 3 on Red Nab 1 adult plus 2 2nd calendar year

Adult Mediterranean gull

2cy Mediterranean gull (top centre)

In the Nature Park

Red Admiral 6

Comma 1

Speckled Wood 2

Red Admiral sipping the syrup from a Rose hip

Comma and Red Admiral 

Kevin Singleton visited Middleton Sands a Clouded Yellow flew south past him. It must have come out of the recording area

North shore

David Kaye

Heysham head 10.45 

250 knot south carried on past harbour 

No knot on heliport but 11 lapwing and 7 snipe and a sanderling past

Heysham skear - Malcolm 15:45 - 18:15

Eider 30+

Eider - the males are following the females again

Red-breasted Merganser 3

Merganser - there were two in this frame, but one dived

Great Crested Grebe 1

Little Egret 16

Knot c3000

They all arrived from the south in groups from 50 to 500. Many of them juveniles, they seem to have had a good breeding season. Once again they were easily finding seed mussels and fed in one area until spooked by a passing Crow. It gave me a chance to carefully scrutinise them for any colour coded birds. I eventually found four, one from a Scottish scheme and three from a Welsh scheme. There were none from the more usual English, Icelandic or Dutch schemes.

Some of the Knot nicely spaced out on terrain as good as you get out here
for seeing marked birds. You just have to tread carefully!

This is the Scottish scheme Knot swallowing a seed Mussel

One of the Welsh birds having a preen

This Welsh Knot is also swallowing a seed Mussel

Dunlin 2

Oystercatcher, Curlew, Redshank and Turnstone not really checked, I was literally focused on the Knot. But numbers seemed similar to of late.

Just a quick high tide check today

Overcast, light morning showers with heavier ones in the afternoon with the odd sunny spell. A freshening south wind.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Rosemary and Peter managed another visit yesterday.

It was certainly much quieter in terms of dragonflies and damselflies with only brief glimpses of sun and a cool breeze at times.  Sightings were as follows:

Southern End:

Speckled Wood 7

Noon Fly 1

Common Darter 1 pr ovipositing

Male Common Darter 6

Female Common Darter 2 (one eating food)

Hawker sp 2

Chiffchaff calling

Coal Tit calling

Main Pond:

Speckled Wood 3

Common Darter 1 pr mating

Male Common Darter 3

Common Blue Damselfly 1

Mute Swan 2

Mallard 4

Coot 2

Long Tailed Tit 1 small flock

This female Common Darter looks to be eating a blackberry, but it would
have to be a tiny blackberry. Plus dragonflies are insectivorous. This must be 
all that remains of some sort of insect 

This one acting as bridgekeeper on the wooden bridge on the south side

Common Darters on the Southern pond

Common Darters on the main pond

Common Blue Damselfly on the main pond

Noon Fly

Speckled Wood 

South shore - Malcolm 10:15 - 11:00

Linnet c200 on saltmarsh 

Wheatear 1 on foreshore 

Robin 2 on foreshore 

Rock Pipit 1 between foreshore and Red Nab

Rock Pipit 

Knot flock of c100 flew south
Mediterranean gull 12 on Red Nab - 5 adults, 6 2nd calendar year and 1 1st calendar year 

An adult between two 2cy Mediterranean gulls.
The bird on the right has a red ring, not easy to see on dark legs

Ringed as a chick in Hungary last year. It was seen in Spain in February 
and turned up here in June, although it hasn't been seen since July. Pete
advises that there were c50 Meds in the Lune estuary out from Sunderland 
Point today. Perhaps that is where it has been roosting.

Two more 2cy Mediterranean Gulls

This 2cy Mediterranean Gull has some gutweed. Not sure what it was
planning to do with it

1cy Mediterranean Gull centre

Heliport wall - Malcolm

Just a brief stop off on the way home to see if any of the Knot were using this high water root. They weren't. 

Plenty of Oystercatchers roosting 

This one had grabbed the tail of another and physically swung it round.
It was lucky not to lose a feather

Some of the roosting Lapwings

Two of at least four Meadow Pipits

Knot arriving in numbers

A dry day with the odd short sunny spell. A SW breeze

South shore - Malcolm 09:45 - 11:00

It was quite gloomy again so I set off from Potts Corner to allow what light there was to be behind me. There was a large group of waders resting on the mud quite high up the beach within the recording area.

Knot c1500

Dunlin c500

Grey Plover 14

And a Teal!

Knot and Grey Plovers

Teal (by size mainly, they are Dunlin with it)

I wasn't on them for long when they set off purposefully south. It was clear that they weren't coming back. I don't think anything spooked them, they just know that such gently sloping beaches are covered very quickly by these spring tides. The whole beach was covered 15 minutes later.

I walked the tide in a while but the only other waders seen were Oystercatchers flying from Red Nab, a steady procession of Curlew south in small groups and a Bar-Tailed Godwit also heading south.

Bar-Tailed Godwit 

Shelduck at least 80

There was another smaller group of waders on the beach as I walked back beyond the recording area. This included 200 Knot, 35 Grey Plover, 100 Dunlin and a Sanderling.

Sanderling with a Dunlin

None of the Knot checked this morning were colour marked

Heysham skear - Malcolm 15:15 - 17:00

There were at least 2000 Knot here too. Initially three flighty flocks

One of three flocks of Knot

They all ended up settling in one area. They must have been finding food easily as they remained in the same area for 30 minutes, before heading out further west on the skear. 

Many of the Knot were juveniles. This one is just swallowing a seed mussel

This is the sight and sound of Knot happily cleaning up the seed mussels

The terrain here is difficult for spotting any colour coded rings and flags. It alway is! But I had plenty of time and checked the feeding birds from all sides and couldn't see any coded birds.

There will be some somewhere. One of the schemes at the Wadden Sea, Holland fits tiny transmitters to a few birds as well as colour coded rings. Its website has noted that some of the Knot have been leaving to the west. It is an interesting website if you would like to know more visit

https://maps.nioz.nl/watlas/

More of the Knot with transmitters have left since I posted this link. There may be none if you look.

Oystercatcher, Curlew, Redshank and Turnstone similar to recent visits

There were only c100 Herring gulls feeding on the skear, but Black-Headed Gulls plus a few large gulls were feeding in the drains. These spring tides drain so quickly that shrimps and small fish find themselves exposed.

Little Egret 7

Grey Heron 1

Eider 1 male

Red-breasted Merganser 3

Mergansers

Merganser and Redshank