Gull numbers increasing rapidly

Very heavy, although mercifully short, showers all day. Some sunshine in between. A strong west(ish) wind.

Pete managed a 30 minute seawatch from the back of the harbour just after low water.

Gannet 3

Manx Shearwater 2

Guillemot 4

Heysham skear - Malcolm 10:30 12:00

It was raining when I set off, and a heavy shower that had to be waited out, other than that it was mainly sunny.

Ducks sp 5 out just as the early rain was easing. Too distant to make out detail, but not Eider.

No Eider seen

Red-breasted Merganser 2

Great Crested grebe 1

Little Egret 4

Oystercatcher only c500 seen but probably many more as they were well scattered 

Curlew 1

Gulls at least 800, most of them Herring gulls. There are less than half of them in this clip.

The seed mussels are growing quickly and are now at a better size for the gulls.

This Herring gull is just about to swallow a seed mussel

Some of the gulls are adult birds, presumably either breeding close by or not breeding. One of the ringed birds seen was ringed at the Ribble Estuary in 2019.

This is the ringed adult, centre frame. I had seen glimpses of its ring
but it insisted on standing in the water

I eventually got it mid stride.

Only three ringed birds were seen, there were probably more.

This was the only new bird for this summer. Ringed in Bowland as a chick
in 2024. It's only other sighting was at Sarah’s Beck outfall, Lancashire im
May last year. 

A Cormorant caught a medium sized Bass and a few gulls flew out to it. But unlike seals, Cormorants are not messy eaters, it all goes down in one. Although in this case it took some swallowing.

A Great Black-backed gull standing next to a Cormorant, showing just how
large a gull they are

More than one way to clear a skear

A dry day with quite a bit of sunshine in the afternoon. A WNW wind.

Heysham skear - Malcolm 09:45 - 11:30

Eider 1 female

Wigeon 1 female

So common over winter, but a bit unusual at this time of year

Red-breasted Merganser 2 

Red-breasted Merganser

Great Crested Grebe 1

At 10:10 every bird on the skear lifted, the sort of reaction that a passing Osprey generates. But this one started with the inshore birds first, so possibly a large raptor passing close inshore, which would help explain why I couldn't see anything.

Anyway it helped me estimate numbers

Gulls c600

Oystercatcher c2000

Fortunately everything soon settled again, but now further away.

I managed to get close to the gulls again and saw two green ringed birds, but both already seen this summer.

The green ringed bird on the left is the one I have already posted showing that
it looks to be a Herring Gull x Lesser Black-backed gull hybrid. The gull behind
is a Herring gull with its mantle in full sunshine. The paler bird on the right is a 
Herring gull with its mantle in the shade. The other two are Lesser Black-backed

I was just moving to check more gulls when they all started lifting again. But this time not because they were afraid of something, but because they were attracted to something! A Grey Seal had caught a Smoothhound. Smoothhonds are just one of several members of the shark family found in the Bay, but offer no threat to people (they eat crabs). Seals are messy eaters and the gulls were gathering as it ripped chunks off it. It went on for a while, these are just a few extracts strung together as the Seal was underwater for much of the time.

You can make out the classic "shark's" dorsal fin in this shot

Once again I found myself on a virtually empty skear. Even after the feeding frenzy finished, most of the gulls opted to stay on the water so I headed back.

No waders other than the Oystercatcher were seen.

Imperial Rd - Malcolm

Just a passing evening check

A Buzzard was constantly calling and it seemed to be from the copse. But when one appeared, it flew to the tall trees at the edge of the bypass clutching a rabbit, so unlikely to have been the one calling.

Buzzard and Rabbit

A Chiffchaff called briefly and there was one burst of song from a Cetti's warbler.

Two Sedge warblers were seen only and both carrying food.

Little Egret 1 flew west

Swallow 1 feeding

Another Irish visitor

It just about remained dry with just a few light showers, although it looked like rain all day. A fresh SW wind

Canada geese c70

c25 north over Heysham village 08:38

c20 north over Higher Heysham 08:45

22 north over skear 10:55

These are some of the 10:55 birds, they arrived from the east, circled the 
Grosvenor apartments before heading north in two groups, 6 and 16

They were very vocal, unfortunately this clip didn't pick up their calls

Heysham skear - Malcolm 09:00 - 11:00

Eider 1 male

Red-breasted Merganser 1

Female Red-breasted Merganser

Little Egret 10 - the fresh onshore wind made for good fishing/shrimping conditions, they were spread out along the southern edge of the skear

Gannet 1 adult flying around out from the skear, before heading out at 09:35.

Gannet

Gulls, a significant increase. At least 600 on the skear plus many more on the sea on both sides. Three green ringed and one orange ringed Herring gull were seen.

One of a Northern Ireland ringing scheme - details awaited 

A significant decrease in wader number, mainly the Oystercatchers. I could only see c250.

Curlew 1

Knot 33

A few with just a hint of breeding plumage 

Canadas take time out

Light showers in the morning with a SE wind. Dry with some sunshine in the afternoon, the wind weakened and shifted round to NW

Heysham skear - Malcolm 09:00 - 10:30

Canada geese 31 - as I was setting off there were 15 resting on the mud to the north of the skear

This shot is from the promenade 

As I headed out another 16 arrived from the south and landed in the SE skear corner.

Canada geese arriving in the skear corner

They were fine as I passed them by, they freshened up a while before continuing north

Eider 6 males. They were feeding in the shallows and looked to be eating small clumps of seed mussels.

Red-breasted Merganser 1

Great Crested grebe 1

Little Egret 3

Grey Heron 1 - the gulls weren't happy and were mobbing it. The clip is a bit wobbly as I was stood on wobbly ground!

I moved to firmer ground, but the gulls had just given up, and the Heron decided to leave.

Gulls, mainly Herring gulls 350 - 400

Just a few of the gulls and a dredger heading in to the harbour 

Oystercatcher not counted, Curlew 1. The only other waders were...

Knot 39 in one flock (1st summer birds that do not fly to the breeding grounds)

Some first summer birds do have a partial moult to breeding plumage 

They seemed to be harvesting the seed mussels easily enough 

The north side Canadas were still on the mud as I returned to the promenade
But I counted 16 this time, probably missed one earlier unless a stray had joined them

Belated YLG

A mainly dry day with just the odd very light shower. A west(ish) wind

Thanks to Pete Crooks who spotted that one of the gulls on Wednesday's post looked to be a 3rd calendar year Yellow-Legged Gull. Discussions and further checks proved him to be correct

This is the shot from Wednesday's post. YLG on the right

Common Gull and Yellow-Legged Gull

Heysham skear - Malcolm 09:30 - 11:00

Gulls c500 mainly Herring gulls

Two green ringed birds were seen, but both seen here previously this summer.
This is one of the Herring Gulls ringed as a chick on the Power Station last year.

One of the clues to the Yellow-Legged gull was its pale mantle (compared to a Lesser Black-backed). But judging the colour of gulls is notoriously difficult. The colouration isn't just pigment but how the feathers reflect/scatter sunlight, a dark plumaged gull can look pale in bright sunshine. Legs too can be deceptive, not all are obviously pink and yellow. This is partly down to natural variation and also there is some hybridisation.

This is a classic adult Lesser Black-backed gull.
A dark slate back and bright yellow legs

This gull was ringed as a Herring gull and its mother almost certainly was.
But its mantle is quite dark and its legs somewhere between pink and yellow

This one looks like a Herring gull, but its legs suggest yellow not pink

A couple of steps further, and a slightly different angle and its mantle looks darker

Enough to make your head spin when you have 500 to check, and soon there will likely be many more.

The seed mussels are spreading and growing, these are 100m before conger rock. They will be larger and denser further out.

This shows the size of the seed mussels, based on the British Standard 
mussel measure, a £1 coin

They are now carpeting the whole surface here

Eider just 1 male

Little Egret 6

Little Egret

Oystercatcher c800

Curlew 1

Knot 3

Sanderling 1 

Knot

Sanderling

The local facebook reported a dead Gannet along the strandline at Half Moon Bay. Not surprising really as the resent onshore strong winds have littered the shore with anything that was floating.

Fortunately, it was all natural "litter"

The gulls and Oystercatchers were turning over the broken weed to see
what lurked underneath 

First Fulmer and Manxies piling out

Rain all morning, then it cleared early afternoon. A fresh SW to west wind

Pete timed his seawatch from the back of the harbour well:

1310-1410

Manx Shearwater 110 out

Gannet 5 out 1 in

Fulmar 1 out - first record this year

Arctic Skua dark morph out (1330)

Razorbill/Guillemot 1 in

Canada Goose flock c15 out

Mediterranean gull 2cy harbour mouth briefly 

Shag 2cy harbour mouth

1410-1510
Monoculture - spent time wide range scanning for storm petrel rather than my usual ‘fixed point’ seawatch 
Manx Shearwater 104 out (214 total!)
Kittiwake adult out

In contrast, I couldn't have timed my walk any worse! Malcolm

Set off along the sea wall in the rain at 12:45. I watched from the lighthouse for 20 minutes and saw none of the above! Set off back at 13:30 in the sunshine, just before everything started piling out.

Kittiwake c14 were heading in as I was heading back. They quickly disappeared, presumably settled on the sea to drift in with the tide.

Kittiwakes 

Peregrine Falcon 2 hanging on the wind driven upwards by the sloping sea wall

Several gulls were also riding the wind with them

:Peregrine Falcon

Not also did I not see anything over the sea while I was at the lighthouse, I also failed to see any Rock pipits. I was a bit worried that the high waves may have swamped their nest. Fortunately when Kevin checked later on the lighthouse bird was back on station.