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.

Some nice migration

A sunny day with a fresh easterly wind.

Pete:

Sea late stages of dropping tide Heysham from back of harbour 0620-0720. 

Some nice migration in action: 

Arctic Skua - 1 dark morph floating out then lifted up, climbed and headed NE just south of Heysham Head (seen this many times over the years with skuas and Arctic Terns). 

Arctic Tern - flock of 11 rapidly in (so nearly missed as they ‘blended’ into the sea), 1 in. 

Gannet - 2 in/out, 1 in

Common Scoter - 5 in, 1 out

Red-throated Diver - 1 in

Pink-Footed geese - flock c35 in

Sandwich Tern - c20 blogging, 5 out; 

Little Gull - Adult blogging briefly with lots of gulls as sandbanks uncovered - think it then went in; 

Mediterranean Gull - 2cy harbour mouth with 2cy Common Gulls.

Little gull the 2cy still feeding outer end of outfalls (but no sign of any Kittiwakes)

Janet checked Red Nab towards high water

Two Pale-bellied Brent geese, plus Oystercatchers, Dunlin and three Whimbrel

Three Whimbrel, Oystercatchers and a Dunlin

There were at least five Wheatears

Green-Veined White in the Nature Park

North shore

Pale-bellied Brent goose 5 early morning - Davis Kaye

Heysham skear - Malcolm  10:15 - 11:30

There were now only two Brent geese, presumably the same two seen on Red Nab by Janet later.

A Redshank with them in this clip.

Redshank often swim across pools of open water, but just to get to the other side. This one continued swimming around for a while, despite being very close to the shore.

Pale-bellied Brent geese

Redshank - there were 200+ around the skear

Eider 16

Red-breasted Merganser 7

Great Crested Grebe 3

Knot c1500 were lifted by what looked like an attack as I was setting out, but they settled again. A second attack a little later was enough for them and they left high to the SW.

Later a Peregrine arrived from the SW with empty talons.

Whimbrel 8 (3 + 5) flying north

Kevin Eaves:

A wonderful variety of butterflies in a sheltered, sunny spot near the bridge on the lane that goes from Middleton Road towards Heysham Moss. Just inside the recording area.

They appeared to be enjoying the sunshine.

Orange-tip 

Green-veined White

Brimstone

Speckled Wood

Peacock

Red Admiral

Holly Blue

Red Admiral

Peacock 

Holly Blue

Plenty of Sedge warblers

A sunny morning after a cold night. It clouded over after lunch then light rain by mid afternoon.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Report by Alan:

This morning was my first foray to Middleton to set nets this Spring. There was a heavy ground frost, clear sky and a light southerly breeze, the two nets set early produced just 16 birds by 10.30.

The catch :

Cetti's Warbler  1 + 2 retraps

Sedge Warbler  5 + 1 retrap (a high number for this early in spring)

Blackcap  1

Reed Warbler  2 retraps

Dunnock  1

Willow Warbler  2

Blue Tit  1

The two Reed Warblers and single Sedge Warbler retrapped were returning birds after their long migration journeys that were trapped and ringed here in previous years.

Janet checked later:

The Heron was patrolling the pools and shallows. There is a Little Grebe
skulking in the Bogbean

Robin with food for mate or young

Two pairs of Bullfinch 

Great Spotted Woodpecker 1 drumming 

Heysham skear - Malcolm 08:45 - 10:30

Eider 80

Common Scoter - the female with the damaged left wing

Her right wing is fine

But the left wing's feathers are damaged. The wings work normally, and she
must be capable of diving for food as it is four weeks since she was first seen
here. She should hang around a while, as there is plenty of easy feeding here

Red-breasted Merganser 5

Great Crested grebe 3

Sandwich Tern 10

Sandwich Terns resting on the distant Honeycomb worm reefs

Little Egret 4

Whimbrel 3 at least

This Whimbrel didn't have a very distinct pale crown stripe.
Fortunately it was calling regularly 

Knot c1500 was a bit of a surprise (there were just a few hundred on the Heliport wall later).

Most of the Knot, they quickly left to the south as the tide moved them
from where they were feeding.

This afternoon there were 5 Pale-bellied Brent geese - David Kaye

South shore - Kevin Eaves early afternoon 

3 Wheatear on Red Nab at high tide

Little Gull 1 2cy

Common Tern 1 

both on no.1 outfall

2cy Little Gull

Common Tern

1 Swallow north.

2 male and a female Blackcap near the small anemometer in the Nature Park

Imperial Rd - Malcolm
I just stopped off for a quick check in passing, there were at least 2 singing Sedge Warblers, one on the south side of the blocked entrance near the roundabout. The other near the pylon. These are the brambles on the south side of entrance. The bird followed is a Common Whitethroat, but it has a tussle with a Sedge Warbler, meanwhile a male Sedge warbler is singing.

Last year Common Whitethroat nested in these brambles 

A nice pair of Kites, and an odd pair of Stocks

A bright sunny day with a light NW breeze

2 Red Kites south over Heysham village - David Kaye

Pete:

c35 plus c35 Kittiwake joined together on sea off ocean edge and floated in.  

Nothing else on webs apart from one sanderling sunny slopes groyne 

Pete Crooks and Clay Garland:

Sea-watch from south side of Heysham Harbour, near Lighthouse (7.50 – 11.35 am)

1 2nd CY Mediterranean Gull – feeding off seaward end Heysham Stage 1 Outfall from 7.50 am
1 2nd CY Little Gull – feeding off HS1 from 8.27 am
1 adult Arctic Tern – feeding off HS1 throughout morning
1 2nd CY Kittiwake – close in off seawall by HS1 Outfall, but only from 11.30 am

1 2nd CY Shag flew in from direction of Heysham Head to land on the Wooden Pier at 9.40 am

c.100 Pink-footed Geese – flew distantly north across Bay at 8.34 am (later 10 south at 9.32 am)
9 Whooper Swan – flew distantly north across Bay and landed on sea at 8.59 am, then continued to drift north
62 Kittiwake – sat on sea distantly offshore , drifting in on the tide (groups of 10, 17, 7, 3 and 25)
1 Red-throated Diver – flew into the Bay dsitantly at 9.16 am
2 Common Scoter – seemingly asleep on sea and drifting in with tide at 11.00 am

Also:
14 Sandwich Tern
5 Whimbrel
8 Sand Martin and 1 Swallow – in over the sea
1 Harbour Porpoise – in the low tide channel off HS1 outfall at 9.15 am
2 Grey Seal – including one wrestling with and eventually swallowing a large fish – Sea Bass?

1 female Wheatear – near Lighthouse
3 Rock Pipit – between Stage 2 outfalls and lighthouse
2 Stock Dove – on the Wooden Pier (the first I can recall seeing there)

2 male Orange-tip – Heysham Nature Park

Clay's digiscope shot of the Stock Doves. A very unusual, probably 
unique, record for this location 

Heysham skear - Malcolm 08:30 - 10:00

Little Egret 12 a significant increase to recent numbers

Eider 80+

Red-breasted Merganser 14

Great Crested grebe 5

Sandwich Tern a constant presence, most seen at one time were 5

Just 100 Knot seen flying south (100 also seen on the Heliport roost)

Whimbrel 3 together flying north

It was nice out there today and areas of the skear were exposed that I haven't seen since last autumn. Most of today's shots are as much about the skear as the birds:

Egrets amongst the Honeycomb worm beds in foreground. Red-breasted
Mergansers and Oystercatcher 

Great Crested grebes

Eider with Piel Castle in the background 

Oystercatchers moving from the outer skear to the shore

Sandwich Terns on Conger rock

Middleton Nature Reserve - Janet

Another swan circled the main pond then landed but got seen off by the
resident male, The new swan is ringed and I think it's the one that is
on the no swimming pond

Male Chaffinch unfortunately having lost a foot

The female also has a fungal infection on her foot

Male Bullfinch near the golf course 

Chiffchaff 

Green-veined White - first record this year