Ticking over nicely

A warm sunny day with a west breeze

North shore - Davis Kaye

Osprey 1 early on

Flocks of 19 turnstone plus 7 redshank north shore 

Red Nab - Malcolm 13:30 - 14:15

I went to watch the tide reaching Red Nab, but left before it got there as the gulls were already drifting off to the south.

Mediterranean gull 32 at least.

Mediterranean with Black-Headed gulls

I only saw one ringed bird. We had this one visiting as a juvenile last year.
Ringed near the Wash last year it was seen in Spain in February 

Curlew c200

Just a few of the Curlew coming in to land

Oystercatchers are omnipresent and rarely get a mention, these are some arriving.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Janet had an evening stroll around 

A Little Egret had joined the Swans

It had plenty to say as it left!

The Small Redeyes do like a feather

There weren't many Small Red-eyed Damselflies, most this evening were Common Bluetails

Common Bluetail Damselflies 

Black-Tailed Skimmer

On the south side

Ruddy Darter 

Broad-bodied Chaser

Peacock 

Red Admiral 

Green Lacewing

A few Ducks returning

A sunny day but cooler than of late. A fresh variable breeze.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Alan managed a ringing session yesterday.

This was about the first morning for a long time that there was no risk of being roasted alive and the wind was very light so I set off to Middleton at 05.15.
The three nets set produced a modest catch of 24 birds by 11-00, comprising:
 
Singles of Blackbird, Reed Warbler, Whitethroat, Blackcap, Cetti's Warbler (retrap) and Robin.
Chiffchaff  2
Wren  4
Willow Warbler  3
Sedge Warbler  4
Dunnock  2
long-tailed Tit   1 +  2 retraps

I checked some of the ponds this afternoon to see how widespread the Red-eyed Damselflies are (Malcolm)

Main pond - not checked

"No swimming" pond

Mute Swan pair

Mallard 25+

Gadwall 3 

Tufted Duck 1 female

Moorhen 3

Coot 2

Mute Swans and some of the Mallard

 male Gadwall in eclipse 

Gadwall

This clip shows more of the Mallard then ends up on the three Gadwall

Male Mallard in eclipse

Female Tufted Duck

Tufted Duck idly watching a damselfly pass by

There is a lot of surface weed on this pond, and there were dozens of Damselflies, but most were just our regular blue eyed varieties. I did manage to see three Small Red-eyed Damselflies, including an ovipositoring pair.

Small Red-eyed Damselflies 

Ovipositoring Emperor 

Also Brown Hawker

Fence pond had plenty of surface weed but only the usual Damselflies seen

Moorhen with just a single tiny chick

Grey Heron 1

Similarly with the other open water in the central marshes. Just the regular Damselflies and a couple of Common Darter

The only warbler seen or heard was a singing Blackcap 

Butterflies:

Mainly Gatekeeper 

But also Meadow Brown, Peacock, Green-veined White and Common Blue

Green-veined White and a Carder Bumblebee 

Imperial Rd - Malcolm

Just a brief check

Buzzard 2 - 1 calling from the copse and one flew over to it

Common Whitethroat seen

Sedge warbler seen

Sedge warbler 

Not many butterflies: Small White, Meadow Brown, GateKeeper and Small Skipper

No Dragonflies 

A risk of invasion?

Occasional cloud cover kept the temperature lower again today. A light mainly NW breeze

South shore

I just had time for a quick check of Red Nab at 12:00 (3 hours before high water) - Malcolm

Whimbrel 1 heard

Mediterranean gulls only 12 

Mediterranean and Black-Headed gulls on Red Nab

Shaun checked closer to high water, with more success 

Heysham Red Nab  13:00-14:30:
Mediterranean Gulls 112 including 5 juveniles . A group of 12 were departing south when I arrived. Perhaps, others had already left.
Rock Pipit 2.
Shag roosting on Wooden Pier.

Heysham Nature Reserve - Shaun

Dipping Pond:
Common & Blue-tailed Damselflies.
Common Darter.
Broad-bodied Chaser.
Brown Hawker 2.
Emperor Dragonfly. 

Also, a fast dark UFO visiting the pond, dipping on to the water and then shooting off. Then it landed. Probably about 2.5cm. Mean looking thing......turned out to be a Dark Giant Horsefly

Dark Giant Horsefly (the heaviest fly in Europe)

Holly Blue in the NE corner. 

2 Ringlets behind the dipping pond were the only ones seen on a circuit of the reserve. 

Gatekeeper were the most common butterfly. 

These are from Heysham skear yesterday - Malcolm

I posted a while ago that I had seen my first Pacific Oyster here. Since then I have located about 20. These are a non native species that were intentionally introduced to some UK waters early last century. I suspect their spread to here is a natural development of their range.

These are large Oysters! And they not only "cement" themselves to anything solid, they "cement" other rocks and shells together to form a solid anchorage.

This is a live one, with its shell tightly clamped shut

I returned it to where I found it. 

I took this dead one home. It will end up at the Nature Reserve office,
where I am sure it will impress the many children visitors 

You can see how it cements everything together

I haven't seen these before this year, so clearly they are a very fast growing
species. They can form colonies in the form of solid reefs, with rocks and 
shells stuck tightly together. 

The skear is currently a battleground between the Mussels and Honeycomb worms. The outcome as to which species is dominant in any one year depending largely on when, and how severe, storms are. Plus of course the amount of seed mussels arriving. The Honeycomb worms can also create reefs, but theirs are made of grains of sand cemented together. The predominantly SW storms tend to demolish those on the south side most years. If the Pacific Oysters do proliferate here I'm pretty sure any of their reefs will withstand the severe storms and possibly become "permanent" features. If so the whole demographic of the skear will change. Probably not a good thing! But it will be interesting to watch. Bear in mind that when I first started visiting the skear (scarily, 60 years ago) there were no Honeycomb worms, just mussels. But I suppose that realistically, if the Oysters do become prolific, people will begin to "harvest" them. I can't think of any other predators that would take them.

Still plenty of Meds

The sunshine today was hazy at times coupled with a fresh variable breeze keeping the temperature under 25°C

Middleton Nature Reserve - Janet

Main pond

Small Red-eyed Damselfly 

Common Darter

Another Common Darter, quite a friendly one!

Southern section 

Ruddy Darter by the pond

Common Darter

Red Admiral

Peacock

I was hoping for a Copper Tip Longhorn but just found this beetle sp

There was a comment yesterday asking where to find the dragonflies and is there a map. 

There isn't a map of the Reserve, but there is a map of the recording area at the foot of the posts. Someone from the Observatory team regularly checks the reserve and reports here saying what is to be seen and including a location shot if relevant. The three ponds referred to most commonly are:

The main pond. This is where the bottom car park is.

"No swimming" pond this is just next to the main pond on the west side.

The southern section begins on the other side of the road from the car park. If you follow the track and cross the small bridge then turn left it takes you to the pond there.

South shore

I went to check the feeding beach by the wooden jetty at low water (Malcolm). It was empty?

No Mediterranean gulls on the feeding beach

Juvenile Black-Headed gulls on No.1 outfall

Rock Pipits 2 together flew along the sea wall

Mediterranean gulls 110 on Red Nab. That's a lot at any time, but they are normally feeding at low water. But these long days allow them plenty of time to feed then rest and preen. An increase in juveniles, there were 9.

 

It's becoming increasingly difficult to be confident of the age of some of the 
immature birds

Two Juvenile Meds

This juvenile is stretching its wings

Kevin spotted this Hummingbird Hawkmoth on the sea wall this afternoon 

Heysham skear - Malcolm 17:15 - 19:00

A very pleasant evening walk with a cooling inshore breeze.

Eider 1 female

Great Crested Grebe 2

Eider and a Great Crested Grebe

Little Egret 3

Sandwich Tern at least one fishing 

Mediterranean gulls 3 - they are not commonly seen here

Black-Headed gull (left) and Mediterranean gull

There were about 130 large gulls on the skear to begin with, plus more on the sea. There were about 250 feeding when I left. The mussel beds are well established now, but seed mussels continue to arrive. Not as easy to find as a month or so ago but still a plentiful food source.

The Herring gull centre is one of two previously seen ringed birds located.
The gull lower right is just swallowing a seed mussel

Oystercatcher c300

Curlew c60

This Curlew with a plain orange ring and a black ring code A5
Ringed at Llanrhystud near Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, 10/02/2016
Its only other sighting was here last September