Quite and interesting day

A warm sunny day with a light west breeze

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Moth report by Alan:

I set a small moth trap last night and checked through the moths this morning.  The catch was modest, with only 59 moths of 15 species recorded.  This was far fewer than the catch overnight of the 28/29th when the catch was 115 of 37 species although the weather conditions were similar, but perhaps a little cooler.  All moth records are entered onto iRecord.

I checked this afternoon - Malcolm

Main pond only briefly checked 

2 Mute Swans

4 Coot

c15 Mallard, mainly immature 

5 House Martins

"No swimming" pond

1 Mute Swan

13 Mallard

3 Gadwall

1 Shoveler 

1 Tufted Duck

1 Teal

11 Coot (3 obviously immature)

Moorhen 2

Male Mallard, moulting out of eclipse and surrounded by feathers!

Male Tufted Duck

Mallard, Shoveler, Coot

Three Gadwall coming in to land......

.......and landing 

There were no dragonflies seen on or around this pond and just one distant Damselfly over the water, looked to be a Small Red-eye

Red Nab - Malcolm 11:00 - 12:00

I went as the tide was approaching Red Nab. There weren't a lot of gulls roosting, mainly as it was a nice Saturday and many holidaymakers were exploring the rocks (exactly as I do when I go somewhere new).

Mediterranean gulls 3 

Two of the Mediterranean gulls with Black-Headed gulls

There were c2000 Oystercatcher spread across the mud so I went to
check them out and managed to find two colour ringed birds

This one was on the skear in early June. Ringed in Dublin Ireland in 2013,
it has been seen several times in Ireland and Norway and once in Scotland,
but these are its first sightings in England

This one was only ringed this February at the Exe estuary Devon.
Identified as a 3rd calendar year bird when ringed, this is its first sighting 

381km, as the Oystercatcher flies. But it is unlikely that it took this route 

Curlew 150+ in several flocks south

Redshank 1

Little Egret 3

In the Nature Park 

Large White 2

Small White 4

Red Admiral 2

Painted Lady 1

Peacock 2

Common Blue 1

Speckled Wood 2

Meadow Brown several 

Migrant Hawker 1 - first record this year (it won't be the last!)

Peacock

Quite a worn Large White

Faded Common Blue

Migrant Hawker

Better variety today

Once again we were blessed with heavy overnight showers followed by a dry sunny day. A fresh west breeze

This from Rosemary and Peter Silvester - Middleton Nature Reserve yesterday 

Main pond:

Small Red-eyed Damselfly

Common Bluetail Damselfly 

Common Blue Damselfly 

Common Darter

Emperor 

also saw about half a dozen of Common Blue Butterflies, lots of Meadow Browns (everywhere!) and several toadlets.

The Ruddy Darters were by the pond on the south side

Ruddy Darters

South shore - Malcolm 09:45 - 11:15

I went along the sea wall to watch the incoming tide cover the feeding beach by the wooden jetty. Again hoping to relocate the green ringed bird seen on Wednesday. Today one was there!

There were gulls being moved up the beach by the tide, including 
six Mediterranean gulls. Just one was ringed

ANLT. We are familiar with this bird. Ringed as a chick at Helgoland Germany
in 2012. It has been seen at Heysham most summers since. Last year it was also 
seen on its German breeding ground. Hopefully it will have been seen again this
year - details awaited

Probably not the one from Wednesday, but I had forgotten that,
on one code the "A" was very worn which can cause confusion.

At least 9 Mediterranean gulls in total, there were some resting on the other beaches with Black-Headed gulls

Mediterranean (centre) and Black-Headed gulls

Gulls between the two outfalls

Little Egret 4

Three Little Egrets along the edge of No.2 outfall

In the Nature Park

Red Admiral 2

Painted Lady 2

Meadow Brown several

Speckled Wood 2

Small White 3

Two Painted Lady

Heysham skear - Malcolm 16:15 - 17:30

Red-breasted Merganser 1

Red-breasted Merganser, about to lose a feather

Eider 2

Eider, also with ruffled feathers

Great Crested grebe 1

Large gulls, mainly Herring gulls c300 (think I underestimated total at 250 yesterday as there seemed to be fewer today but managed 300 when I did a rough count) three ringed birds were seen, but all seen previously this summer. The gull in the centre of this clip in the water has a ring. It slipped into the water before I could read it, but eventually revealed it again. You can see that they are taking much longer now to find the small seed mussels amongst the well formed ones.

N:S53 - ringed as a chick in Bowland 2022

Mediterranean gull 1 

Mediterranean gull with hardly any face mask. It was high up the shore
towards the promenade 

Oystercatcher c1200

Curlew c60

Redshank 16

Turnstone 9

A few of the Curlew arriving from the south. Flying over the area where
the Mediterranean gull was. That's Rydal Rd slipway behind them

A bit of ring news.

Dry after early showers. Sunny after lunch. A light NW wind

Heysham skear - Malcolm 15:45 - 17:15

Eider 4, it was hard seeing what age and sex, partly because they were a long way out in choppy water, but mainly as at this time of year they are in varying stages of moult.

Male Eider moulting into breeding plumage

These are two of the more distant Eider doing a lot of preening.

Great Crested grebe 2

Gulls c250 large gulls, mainly Herring gulls. Three ringed birds were seen, one new for this summer.

This Herring gull N:16P was ringed on the Power Station last year, it has
been seen on the skear before this summer, but not for over a month. N:15P,
possibly it sibling, has also been seen several times on the skear this summer,
but is now at Southport marine lake.

This is the new bird N:95M. Ringed at Walney 2024. It was seen in Walney again
this April. The third bird was one regularly seen here

Lesser Black-backed gull

Black-Headed gull with a Herring gull behind 

Oystercatcher c1500 (probably 2000 as seen by David yesterday, but you can never see them all when you are out there)

Curlew 80

Whimbrel 1

Redshank 10

Turnstone 23

Turnstone, Oystercatcher and a Herring gull

Swallows heading south!

 A warm dry day, but mainly overcast. A SW wind.

Heysham head 9-11 - David
at least 2000 oystercatchers south towards heliport 

flock of 40 redshank 

whimbrel 1 south 

rock pipit 

South shore - Malcolm

I walked out to the waterline on the rising tide this morning. A bit early for waders here yet, and there were only:

Oystercatcher 41

Curlew 42 on the shore, later another 80+ flew south.

Whimbrel 1 heard only

There was just one gull sat in the middle of the beach

There wasn't another bird of any description within 500m of this gull...

....not only was it a Mediterranean gull, but it had a green ring, and one not seen
here before. Unfortunately there must have been some mud on the ring and it 
remained unread!

Little Egret 3 around the saltmarsh 

Little Egrets 

I went along the sea wall on the ebb tide in the afternoon.

Swift 4 and Swallows 22 were between the Nature Park and Red Nab, feeding for a while then heading south. Another 5 Swallows south when I walked back

Swift

Swallows over Red Nab

Juvenile Swallow

Pied Wagtail 4 juvenile on Red Nab plus an adult near the waterfall 

Rock Pipit 1 each, Red Nab and Lighthouse 

I went down to check the feeding beach in the hope, but not expectation, that the green ringed Mediterranean gull would be there. It wasn't. Just 6 adults on the beach and a 7th seen flying towards it.

Mediterranean gulls

Shag 1 2nd calendar year on the wooden jetty with Cormorants 

Shag (centre)

Whimbrel 1

Whimbrel 

Butterflies in the Nature Park 

Large White 1

Red Admiral 2

Common Blue 2

Meadow Brown several 

Common Blue

Red Admiral