A drop of rain was the highlight of the day!

It threatened rain all day, but the only shower was just after lunch. A fresh west wind.

Only my stuff so far (Malcolm), and I only managed one outing today.

South shore 09:00 - 10:15

I started at the saltmarsh at high water, hoping that there would be a large group of gulls on the mud. But there were just a handful of Black-Headed and Common gulls.

Black-Headed and Common gulls at the edge of the saltmarsh 

Red Nab wasn't much better!

Plenty of gulls on Red Nab, but I could only find two Mediterranean gulls

Mediterranean gulls (centre both shots)

One of four Little Egrets

Oystercatcher 1000+

Curlew 150+ were arriving all the time from the north side

Curlew

Just as I was leaving Red Nab one of the Power Station steam relief valves 
blew. All the birds lifted, probably after their own relief valves blew!

Rock Pipits 2 on Red Nab

The Sea Lavender on Red Nab is looking nice

Mediterranean gull flying back to Red Nab

Three Pied Wagtails sheltering from the wind on the foreshore 

Ruddy Darters still behaving

Perhaps the last dry day for a while. Some sunshine and a west breeze 

Middleton Nature Reserve 

These are the last shots before Janets camera was reduced to pieces yesterday. 

Common Darter

One of three Ruddy Darter on the south side yesterday 

Kevin checked the south side today

Ruddy Darter by the pond on the south side

Southern Hawker posing nicely 

South shore - Malcolm 10:45 - 12:00

I went along the sea wall to watch the feeding beach by the wooden jetty become exposed. These very low neap tides provide less feeding opportunities for them. 

Mediterranean gulls 20 minimum - there were at lest 10 on Red Nab walking out and 10 on the feeding beach when I left it. Additional Meds were flying to the beach as I walked back and there were still several on Red Nab.

Adult Mediterranean gull flying to the feeding beach from Red Nab

This one flew in from the north side

There were seven waiting on the sea for the mud to expose

The Mediterranean and a few Black-Headed gulls began feeding as soon as the mud exposed. They were managing to catch the odd sandmason worm, but not when I was pointing a camera at them! You can see the top of their tubes, particularly in the second section of this combined clip.

Redshank by No.1 outfall

2nd calendar year Shag (right) and a Cormorant on the wooden jetty

The Starling numbers are growing rapidly 

Rock Pipit 1 flew along the sea wall from the wooden jetty, another taking food to the nest below the lighthouse 

Female/immature Linnet on Red Nab

Male Linnet on Red Nab

More waders returning

Sunshine and some clouds the west breeze fesher

A couple of observations from home - Malcolm

Greylag geese 3 south 08:30

Swift 2 south 11:30

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Peter and Rosemary Silvester took these shots today

Small Red-eyed Damselfly on the main pond

Ruddy Darter by the pond on the south side

Teneral Common Blue Damselfly 

Common Blue butterfly 

Meanwhile, Janet managed to take another fall......

.......smashed her camera

And smashed her elbow! Another operation required, so out of action for some while. Before her fall she had seen 3 male Ruddy Darters on the south side.

Heysham skear - Malcolm 13:15 - 15:00

Eider 1 male in eclipse

Male Eider

It was eating the small mussels in the shallows

Red-breasted Mergansers 3 female/immature 

Little Egret just 1

Gulls:

c400 large gulls mainly Herring gulls

30 Black-Headed gulls

3 Mediterranean gulls

Two of the Mediterranean gulls 

Oystercatchers are very hard to estimate as they are spread all over the skear, but definitely more than of late, at least 1500

Curlew 10

Redshank 10

Turnstone 2

Dunlin 15 all in summer plumage

They were very close, and torn between feeding and freezing

Dunlin

South shore 

Kevin spotted this Field Grasshopper along the sea wall

Red Nab - Malcolm 17:00 - 18:30

Mediterranean gulls at least 24

Mediterranean and Black-Headed gulls, no new ringed birds seen

Mediterranean gull and a Curlew

There were c150 Curlew, but they and the gulls kept being spooked by over
enthusiastic recently fledged Lesser Black-Backed gulls diving down

Just a solitary Whimbrel 

Most of the gulls ended up out from the saltmarsh again

Some if the 8 Redshank

Sometimes you just have to irk the birds

Another hazy sunny day with a west(ish) breeze

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Ringing report by Alan

Another fairly quiet session this morning with only 23 birds caught, but there were seven species of warblers. The three adult Willow Warblers were all in an advanced state of moult of flight feathers.  A juvenile Song Thrush was a welcome catch as we only catch an average of 6 per year of this declining species.
The total catch comprised:
Lesser Whitethroat  1
Willow Warbler  3
Chiffchaff   3
Reed Warbler  2  + 1 retrap
Blackcap  4
Common Whitethroat  2 + 1 retrap
Sedge Warbler  2 + 1 retrap
Song Thrush  1
Wren  1
Great Tit  1 retrap  ( This was a juvenile fledged from a nestbox on Middleton this year).

This from Steve Edmondson:

Thought you might be interested in a Ruddy Darter that I've seen twice in the same area close to Middleton main pond on the west side.

Ruddy Darter

Janet saw at least two and probably three Ruddy Darter near the southern section pond

Ruddy Darters

Still no sign of the Copper-tip longhorn moths

North shore

Mark Jones had a walk over Heysham Head barrows

Cormorant resting on an empty beach

Gatekeeper resting on barren bracken 

South shore - Malcolm

Didn't have much time today but I managed an evening stroll out from the saltmarsh 

There were 200+ gulls resting on the mud. Mainly Black-Headed but also Lesser Black-backed, Common gulls and 15 Mediterranean gulls. 

Gulls resting out from the saltmarsh 

Unfortunately most were sat down so any ringed birds were impossible to see. The trick in these conditions is to encroach on their space just enough to annoy them, so they stand up. But not so close as to spook them. I eventually managed a white ringed Mediterranean gull seen earlier this summer and a blue ringed Black-Headed gull

2R76 ringed at Grange-over-Sands in 2019 it has been seen several times
since but only in the local area

Three Mediterranean gulls with Black-Headed and a Common gull

Carrion Crow tiptoeing past