Unexpected Black Guillemot

A dry day with a light wind, mainly from the NE

Seawatch Report Pete 1045-1245:

Black Guillemot - summer plumage bird flying in then landed, floated out of sight then flew out 1156 - no sign floating back in by 1245 but sea a bit lumpy at the range.  

Didn’t expect Black Guillemot this morning.  After a few years of virtually annual regularity on a par with eg Puffin they have become really scarce in recent years whilst Puffins are virtually annual fare.  Even more surprising given Walney or Furness in general have no recent records

Arctic Skua 1 dark morph in close at 1100 

(prob dark morph small skua out v distantly at 1215)

Guillemot - 31 floating in

Common scoter - 295 in and a few out plus some distant shapes probably this species.

Sandwich Tern - minimum of 33 prob more

Common Tern - one out

2cy Shag and 2cy Little Gull both still around

Janet had a good walk around today:

Rock Pipits at the harbour 

Grey Seal with a small Bass

It was like the doldrums at the outfalls, absolutely nothing!!! 

Goldfinches in dispute in the Nature Park

Rudd in Heysham Nature Reserve dipping pond,
 taking advantage of the abundant flies

Just outside the recording area, Heysham Moss Nature Reserve

Grasshopper warbler, Chiffchaff and Willow singing

Song Thrush

Four-Spotted Chaser

First Broad-bodied Chaser this year

Bank Holiday break?

A dry day with sunny spells. Very light variable breezes

Pete Crooks checked again:

Sea-watch from south side of harbour mouth – 8.10 – 9.30 am – Flat calm sea, with distant ‘blocking’ cloud offshore.
1 2nd CY Little Gull – regular individual again off the end of the outfalls
1 2nd CY Shag – again stood on the beach by the end of HS2 outfall
21 Kittiwake – groups of 15 and 6 sat on sea, slowly drifting in
2 Guillemot
1 male Common Scoter
8 Sandwich Tern
5 Swallow – flying into the Bay low over the sea
2 Grey Seal

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Report by Alan:

I went to Middleton early this morning not expecting to catch much and that is what happened. The total catch was only ten birds although the first capture was a Sedge Warbler ringed elsewhere
With little ringing to do I took the opportunity to carry out some ride maintenance between net rounds.
The catch was:
Sedge Warbler  2 + 1 recovery
Reed Warbler  2
Chiffchaff  1
Willow Warbler  1
Single retraps of Great Tit. Dunnock and Wren. 

Yesterday's report of a Hobby has been removed as it was only a probable sighting, at distance at Heysham Nature Reserve on Wednesday.

Heysham skear - Malcolm 09:15 - 10:30

A very pleasant walk around the skear, but apart from Oystercatchers, very little to see.

Eider pair

Red-breasted Merganser, 2 males and 3 females, initially all feeding as individuals, but the 3 females came together as the tide flow increased.

Red-breasted Mergansers

Sandwich Tern 2

Whimbrel 7 moving north when the tide lifted them off the skear

Turnstone 1

This is the green marker post. Yesterday it was just off vertical, there has been
nothing in the weather or tide that would be likely to cause this lean. Presumably 
something in the support structure has broken.

A Barnacle Goose highlight

It just about managed to stay dry, but overcast and cooler in a freshening 

Pete Crooks - 8.35 – 10.50 am sea-watch from the south side of Heysham Harbour mouth:

1 2nd CY Little Gull – regular individual off the end of the outfalls, but later disappeared
1 2nd CY Shag – initially stood on the beach by the end of HS2 outfall, later roosting on the Wooden Pier
1 distant dark morph Arctic Skua flew into the Bay at 9.20 am. (It subsequently transpired that I missed another Arctic Skua while posting these on WhatsApp)
18 Barnacle Geese (of unknown origin) flew into the Bay close past the Wooden Pier at 9.52 am 
3 Pink-footed Geese flew into the Bay at 10.25 am
Also offshore:
6 Sandwich Tern
2 Gannet
4 Guillemot – floating in close past the Wooden Pier
c.200 Common Scoter – various flocks swirling around in the extreme distance offshore, in front of the wind turbines south of Walney Island
32 Swallow and 2 Swift flying into the Bay low over the sea past the Wooden Pier

The above report is from the LDBWS webpage. 

https://lancasterbirdwatching.org.uk/sightings/

Pete and Jean were also watching from the back of the harbour and saw similar to Pete Crooks, including the 2nd Arctic Skua. Also an additional 20 or so very distant feeding Sandwich Tern and at least 15 out close inshore but quite high flying .  These close outbound terns are going high above scope/over head of lighthouse area observers and are easily missed.

Middleton Nature Reserve main pond - Angela Gillon

There were several Swifts on the main pool, joined by Swallows taking the insects from the surface.

I took a video, but they are really hard to capture! 

Swifts over the main pond

Blackcap and Cetti's heard.

Heysham skear - Malcolm 15:45 - 17:00

Eider 5 (pair + 3 males)

Red-breasted Merganser 2 males

Red-breasted Merganser

Great Crested Grebe 2

Little Egret 3

Sandwich Tern 5

Sandwich Terns

The only waders were the ubiquitous Oystercatcher, 3 Turnstones flew south and 13 Whimbrel. The Whimbrel were mostly along the northern side of the skear and were easily finding small mussels to eat.

A Peregrine Falcon did a circuit of a small wader free skear, then continued south

Terns and Kitts still moving through

Overcast in the morning but sunny spells this afternoon. A light, mainly westerly,  breeze 

Seawatching from the south harbour wall this morning, 8:25-11am

Clay, Andrew, James and Phil. Report and clip by Clay:

Breezy at first but flat sea by the time we left

Common Scoter - 23 in

Red-breasted Merganser - 2 in then out

Whimbrel - one flew past then later seen on Red Nab

Arctic Tern - c50 in two flocks

Little Gull - 1 on Outfall 1

Kittiwake - flock of 78 very close - appeared out of nowhere(?) over the outfalls close in, then flew towards Red Nab, circled back, gained height and flew in

Skua (probably Arctic) - 1 in

Guillemot - 2 on sea

Red-throated Diver - 3 in then 2 out 

Gannet - 3 in

Shag - 1 1cy on end of jetty

Swallow - 5 south close in

This clip shows the Kittiwakes 

Pete checked from the back of the harbour. 0945-1030

1 Common Tern out

27 Sandwich Tern purposefully out

1,1 summer plumage red throated diver in

1 Guillemot floating in 

1 Grey Seal

Just after lunch a Black Tern was on the outfalls 

North shore

David Kaye saw 1500 Knot resting on a sandbar at 0600. They were spooked by something and flew south.

I checked the waterline out from the play area on the incoming tide 09:00 - 10:00 - Malcolm

Eider 3

Little Egret 3

Sandwich Tern 8

Sandwich Terns

Just 14 Knot and 12 Bar-Tailed Godwit with the Oystercatchers along the waterline 

Curlew 1

Whimbrel 1

Turnstone 2

I was just too slow getting this clip of a Whimbrel eating a crab, it is just swallowing it at the beginning of the clip. It then has several sips of freshwater runoff, before swallowing a couple of remaining limbs.

I returned to check the skear as it was exposing this afternoon 15:15 - 16:30

Eider 8

Great Crested Grebe 6

Great Crested Grebe showing its great crest!

Shag 1 feeding near the green marker post - too distant to judge age

Sandwich Tern 8

Sandwich Tern

Apart from Oystercatchers there were just two other wader species 

Whimbrel 9 - this clip reminds me of the comedy scenes where someone accidentally walks onto a film set, then tries to hide!

Dunlin 1

Dunlin

Middleton Nature Reserve - Janet

Grasshopper Warbler, being very vocal near the golf club

Large Red Damselfly

Great Crested Newt, this one at a different part of the reserve near the pumping station.

The sea still providing the main interest

A sunny morning becoming overcast with the odd shower in the afternoon. Light variable breeze.

Seawatch report - Pete 0730 on:

Arctic Tern: 18,55,48,16,2,65 (204) in, all before 0800 and before the sandbanks covered

Black Tern: 2 with first Arctic Tern flock

Arctic Skua: 1 dark morph in 1000

6 Gannet

c66 in four lots Kittiwake

c271 Common Scoter

2 Red-Throated Diver

c45 Sandwich tern

Guillemot 2

Razorbill one floating in

Little gull 2cy feeding on inbound outfalls gunge

Painted Lady and a Large White along back of Harbour road

Middleton Nature Reserve

Ringing report by Alan:

I set nets this morning at Middleton, the conditions were good but I found it quite cool to start with and had plenty of clothing layers, many of which were peeled off as the morning progressed.
A decent selection of species were caught and, unusually,  I was accompanied by Louise, a visiting ringer today. We caught a respectable 26 birds including two retrapped Common Whitethroats and one retrapped Lesser Whitethroat that were returning individuals ringed here in 2025.
 
The catch comprised in total:
Sedge Warbler  4 + 1 retrap
Whitethroat  2 retraps
Lesser Whitethroat  2 + 1 retrap
Cetti's Warbler  1 retrap
Great Tit  1 retrap
Lesser Redpoll  4
Robin  1
Reed Bunting  1
Willow Warbler  3
Chiffchaff  1
Song Thrush  1
Wren  1
Blackbird  2 retraps (breeding pair)

Rosemary and Peter Silvester checked out the main pond yesterday:

Large Red Damselfly 

I think the Mayfly just came to visit me for a salt lick!

Also seen but too flighty to photograph:

Brimstone - 1

Red Admiral - 1

Speckled Wood - 4

Green Veined White - 2

Male Orange Tip - 6

Heysham skear - Malcolm

I checked twice 08:15 - 10:00. I started again 14:45 which coincided with the only significant shower of the day so an early bath at 15:15.

All records this morning unless stated

Eider 10

Red-breasted Merganser 9

Great Crested grebe 5

Little Egret 4

Sandwich Tern 18 (13 feeding plus 3 and 2 in) just 2 seen this afternoon 

Sandwich Tern just resurfacing with a small Whitebait. Plus Mergansers

Great Crested Grebe

Little Gull 1 2nd calendar year in. This is additional to the outfall bird

2cy Little Gull, much clearer first winter markings than the outfall bird.
It possibly ended up at Leighton Moss, as one with similar plumage 
arrived there this afternoon 

Whimbrel 5 this morning 10 this afternoon 

Knot c2000 this morning was a bit of a surprise, one new flagged bird for this period was seen. Only 130 this afternoon.

Knot on the skear

Later moved to the mud by the incoming tide

Turnstone 43 (33 and 10)

33 Turnstones in this shot

Ringed Plover 11 this afternoon 

Just out of the recording area, Heysham Moss Nature Reserve - Janet in this morning's sunshine 

Grasshopper Warbler 1 reeling

Sedge Warbler

Four-Spotted Chaser

Large Red Damselfly

Green Veined White - Silver Y moth also seen