Last sighting of the long staying 2cy Kittiwake

 Mainly dry and sunny, but one heavy evening shower. Light variable breezes.

Pete:

2cy little gull heysham one outfall 
2cy kittiwake sat on seawall slope by Heysham 2. Circa 0730.  It looked moribund and two crows were nearby but very misty.  When I next checked in even denser mist the crows were pecking at white feathers at the bottom of the slope and no sign of bird above that (later it was found dead, with no obvious injuries other than post mortem by the crows, washed up on Red Nab)
2cy Mediterranean gull on tideline. 
c45 knot high to the south early morning, and just one on the Ocean Edge tideline with 8 Bar-Tailed Godwit
Area then fogbound and only things over the sea 0625 until it closed in were 
2 Sandwich tern 
5 Common Scoter 
2 Canada geese  
Migrants alongside road to back of harbour: 2 whitethroat, 5 willow warbler.

Heysham skear - Malcolm 11:45 - 12:15

I didn't stay long, there were no Knot around and little else. It was clear and sunny here, but still misty out at sea.

Eider 16

Eider

Sandwich Tern 2
Whimbrel 6

Whimbrel are well camouflaged in this terrain 

The number of large gulls is beginning to increase. Soon there will be 
hundreds when the seed mussels arrive

South shore

Kevin Eaves had a walk along the sea wall early afternoon. The Little gull was feeding at the sea wall end of No.2 outfall, but only briefly before disappearing.

Ruby Tiger moth catching the sun. There are likely to be more sightings 
as several caterpillars were seen in autumn.

I was going out as Kevin was returning (Malcolm)

Linnet 2 along the foreshore 

Rock Pipit 2 (Red Nab and sea wall)

No sign of the Little Gull, but the 2cy Mediterranean gull was feeding on No.1 outfall.

Carrion Crow still sitting on the nest on one of the harbour platforms 

This is the location of the nest. That's the "waterfall" on the right

Just out of the recording area. Janet took these shots at Middleton Sands

Meadow Pipit

Common Whitethroat 

This Common Tern was closer to Sunderland Point

The sea didn't really provide today

A bit more overcast today, with a light mid morning shower. Sunny spells and a light east breeze.

Pete

Sea dreadful other than:

71 Common Scoter, just 3 Sandwich tern and inbound flock 56 Arctic tern seen by Pete Crooks and Shaun Coyle and flock 13 seen by Jean, plus a Guillemot. Thick cloud at the mouth of the Bay the problem? 

Outfalls: 2cy Kittiwake and Little gull still in situ.  
24 bar-tailed godwit and 5 whimbrel OE shore

Janet had a walk along the south sea wall

2nd calendar year Black-Headed gull with a small fish

Whimbrel 

Three Little Egret on Red Nab

Rock Pipit

Turnstone

Heysham skear - Malcolm 10:45 - 11:45

Eider 18

Female Eider

Red-breasted Merganser 5 

Four males still in pursuit of a solitary femal

Sandwich Tern 5 most seen at one time

Knot c1000, but quickly moved on by a hunting Peregrine Falcon

Knot

Whimbrel at least 6

Whimbrel and Knot

The Peregrine ended up patrolling a small wader free skear

Swallow 1

Middleton Nature Reserve 

These shots by Janet

Proud Mallard Mum

Coot waiting to be a Mum

Large Red Damselfly 

This female Orange Tip was tiny!

This warbler count from Kevin and Alison:

We counted 9 warbler sp. Sadly, the missing one that was needed to make a perfect 10 was the usually reliable Lesser Whitethroat. 
Common Whitethroat, Seemingly everywhere on the reserve. 
Blackcap, several. 
Willow Warbler, numerous and widespread. 
Cetti's Warbler. 
Chiffchaff. 
Sedge Warbler, mainly by the central marsh
Grasshopper Warbler, one near where the old brick building was on the path that borders the central marsh. 
Reed Warbler, in the reeds on the edge of the main pond. 
Garden Warbler, one continuously singing on the path above the main pond.
Quite a haul!

Decent movement + good coverage = interesting variety

Another warm sunny day with light variable breezes

Seawatch:

Heysham combined totals this am 0540-0945 - (SC, PC, JR, AMcC, CG, PJM, NG, DK):  
Goldeneye - flock of 3 female in
Common Scoter - c35 out
Gannet - 3 in
Kittiwake - 1,2,6 in
Red-throated Diver - 5 flying out, 3 floating out
Arctic Tern - c41 in - far fewer then expected in conditions
Black Tern - single species flocks of 11,6 in, 
Little Tern - one fed in harbour mouth with Sandwich Terns for a few seconds then went south quite high towards wooden jetty

Sandwich Tern - circa 155 in, 55 out plus bloggers - hard to be accurate

Whimbrel - c15 in

Guillemot - one on, Razorbill/Guillemot - 2 in

Arctic Skua- 1,3,1,2 in (one light and one intermediate, rest dark)

2 Canada geese in

porpoise off harbour mouth.  

On the outfalls the 2cy Mediterranean gull, 2cy Little Gull and 2cy Kittiwake remained

Eider 5

Stock Dove pair on the wooden Pier.

Rock Pipit pair on Red Nab and a pair at the harbour.

Garden Warbler one singing in the Nature Park

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Ringing report by Alan:

I set just two nets at Middleton this morning. The first capture was a French ringed Sedge Warbler at 06.15 (details awaited)
Nets were taken down by 10.30.
The full catch of 18 birds comprised:
Sedge Warbler 3 plus the French bird
Reed Warbler 2
Lesser Redpoll  5
Willow Warbler  5
Song Thrush  1
Cetti's Warbler  1 retrap

7 species of warbler heard on an early afternoon visit - Kevin Eaves:

Blackcap

Cetti's Warbler

Chiffchaff

Lesser Whitethroat

Reed Warbler

Sedge Warbler

Whitethroat

Willow Warbler 

Some shots by Janet:

Male Shoveler, hopefully his mate isn't too far away

Another brood of Mallards, this time on the main pond

Gadwall pair

Large-Red Damselfly

These both look to be one of the blue damselflies 

Heysham Nature Reserve 

Report by Jean:

In contrast to Middleton there was hardly anything at Heysham. I caught 3 Willow Warblers, a Wren and retrapped a Robin, a Dunnock and a Great Tit!
Just 3 Redpolls flew over.
The Cetti’s was calling from the fire pond bushes and a Moorhen skittered back to the pond after venturing down the path to the office. 

Garden Warbler singing below old observation tower site

Heysham skear - Malcolm 09:30 - 10:30 and 15:45 - 16:45

Eider 10

Red-breasted Merganser 5 - they do love a good display!

Little Egret 4

Sandwich Tern 4 constantly present both this morning and afternoon. 

Whimbrel 10 this morning, 6 this afternoon 

Knot 2000 this morning, but very flighty, I managed to see two flags also seen yesterday so they are the same flock. 

Whimbrel and Knot. The Knot just behind the Whimbrel is swallowing a 
small mussel. 

Knot and a Turnstone in summer plumage 

When a Peregrine falcon took a Knot the remaining birds all left. This afternoon there were only 250.

Peregrine Falcon with a Knot

Bar-Tailed Godwit none this morning but 10 flew east this afternoon 

Dunlin none this morning but 46 north in three flocks this afternoon 

One small group of Dunlin stopped off briefly to feed

 

Black Terns passing through

Another warm sunny day with light breezes, from NE in the morning and NW in the afternoon.

Nick Godden from the Stone Jetty:

I only had a few minutes at the Stone Jetty prior to work but the period 6:00-6:25 was quite productive
Common scoter 2 out
Sandwich tern 34 in
Arctic tern 17 in
Black tern 6 in
Whimbrel 7 in

Pete:

Sea 0600-0800 Heysham back of habour. Arrived just too late for Nick's flock of 17 Arctic and 6 Black past SJ just after 0600  
Arctic Tern - flock c21 rapidly in
Black Tern - 9 with the above
Red throated diver - 4 out
Sandwich Tern - 67 out (35 in early on)
Common Scoter - c45 out
Little Gull - 2 adult in together
Arctic Skua - dark morph out then landed and floated out

Game of two halves; dead 0700-0800.

Power station outfalls and area: 0805-0825
2cy kittiwake inner end hey 2
2cy Little Gull on beach then feeding seaward end Hey one
two very distant Arctic/Common Tern on tide edge
C50 Sandwich Terns visible on buoys/fishing in shipping channel

Heysham skear - Malcolm 08:00 - 10:00

Eider 30 +

Common Scoter the female with the damaged left wing

She was constantly attending to her damaged wing.

Red-breasted Merganser 3

Great Crested grebe 3

Little Egret 4

Sandwich Tern 8 minimum 

Sandwich Tern

Knot c2000 several flagged birds seen but all seen earlier in this winter period.

Many of the Knot moulting to summer plumage. This one ringed at Merseyside
in 2024. All the characters are white but two are stained dark with dirt. Note that
one of these Knot is eating gutweed

Bar-Tailed Godwit 1

Bar-Tailed Godwit with Knot and Oystercatcher 

Whimbrel at least 3

Like Curlews, Whimbrel often use their long bills to probe under things,
rather than probing deep into the mud.

The long warm days and lack of grazing is allowing the gutweed to
flourish. These filaments are up to 30cm already

Heysham Head

I did a quick check under the high cliffs, Malcolm.

Rock Pipit at least four

Rock Pipit checking out the many flying insects

Jean and Pete checked the sea 1500-1615

Black Tern - 4,1,1,2 in (bringing today's total to 23)

Arctic Tern - 6,1,1 in

Arctic Skua 1 dark morph in

Red throated diver - 1,2 in

South shore - Malcolm 15:15 - 16:30

Rock Pipit 5 - 2 at Red Nab, 2 along the sea wall and 1 above the nest site near the lighthouse. 

Sandwich Tern at least 6 around the buoys out from the north wall 

Four Sandwich Terns

Stock Dove 1 on wooden jetty

Stock Dove

Kittiwake 1 2nd calendar year resting on the sloping sea wall at No.2 outfall

2cy Kittiwake

Middleton Nature Reserve - Janet

There was a another swan arrived on the main pond this morning and when I got there all hell had broken out, the male was seeing off the extra swan but at the same time the Cygnet was attacking the sitting female!! the fight was at first on the water but then they were fighting on the nest, once the other swan had been seen off the male came to her rescue and all 3 of them were fighting on the nest!!!

Who needs David Attenborough!!!  These are a shortened version of the shots I took.

Grey Heron with what looks to be an orange tongue lolling out

Common Whitethroat 

Brimstone 

Large Red Damselfly - first record this year