Velvet Scoter joins the mix

A dry and relatively bright day with a north to NW wind

Seawatch report Pete 0605-0750: 

arrived before sandbanks covered and immediate action including Arctic skua and 3 gannets flying over the sand. 

Shag - 2cy flew past the harbour mouth heading in 0748

Gannet - 3,1,2,1 in

Kittiwake - 11 in 

Arctic skua - LM in rapidly 0607, DM more leisurely 0700 

Sandwich Tern - 35 in, c60 feeding in distant channel 

Common Tern - 3,2 in 

Common Scoter - c15

Velvet Scoter - Drake flew in initially quite high on its own then dropped to near sea level then lost it against Lou’s yellow brow trees at Rampside and it may have landed on sea

Swallow - most this spring with 116 in

House Martin - 2 in

Also 9 Arctic tern flew up lune estuary later in morning, seen from Cockersands

Middleton Nature Reserve - Janet

This Willow Warbler has darker than typical legs

Male Blackcap

Common Bluetail damselfly

Wheatear on the foreshore 

Little Egrets on Red Nab

Shelduck on one of the freshwater runoffs at Red Nab

Holly Blue in the Nature Park 

Heysham skear Malcolm 13:30 - 14:15

Just a quick look as the skear was being exposed.

Eider 2 males

Drake Eider

Sandwich Tern 2 feeding

Whimbrel 6. These two were after crabs

 

This one has a small crab.....

........but not for long!

So much for "light" showers!

It managed to stay dry and quite sunny this morning, but there were some wicked showers in the afternoon. Rain, hail and sleet accompanied by thunder and lightning. So much for the forecast of "light showers"! The wind was variable from NE to NW and all points between, quite strong during the squalls.

Seawatch report Pete 0623-0823.  

Started off ok (earlier start advised?) then degenerated into a marine mammal fest with the only interest in the last hour a grey seal and two porpoise!

Arctic skua - DM in 0643
Kittiwake - 6 in
Sandwich Tern - 62 out just a handful in
Little Tern - one out with small group of Sandwich tern feeding intermittently 
Common Tern - 2 out 
Arctic Tern - flock 11 surprisingly heading out
Pink footed goose - c205 north
Common scoter - c75
Gannet - 1,1,9 in

Middleton Nature Reserve - Janet

Male Shoveler and Heron

Possibly a different Heron

Little Grebe

Sedge Warbler 

They seem to be singing all over the reserve at the moment.

This nice Eyed Hawkmoth was in Kevin's trap this morning.
there are very few moths around at the moment because of the Arctic air mass

Also from Kevin - I went to the harbour today and didn't see much, but
I did return before a line of heavy rail, hail and thunder reached me.

Kevin took the above shot at 13:30. At that time I was heading out to the skear with the above storm directly ahead  of me (Malcolm). I hoped it would move south but it headed straight for me, the heavy hail made everything dark all around and there was no sign of a quick end, so I turned back. Shame really as something "unpopular" was forced to land on the skear, and despite the horrendous conditions all the Oystercatchers and Gulls took to the air. I scanned as best I could, but failed to see what it was. Some days it just doesn't happen.

I did manage one sighting today though. This fox visited my garden this evening. It is lapping up the few sunflower hearts I had thrown out when I replenished the feeders. It clearly knows that I am watching.

Desperately seeking Skuas

Very heavy showers on and off all day. A fresh NW wind

Seawatch report Pete - on and off 0620-0830 plus 15 mins Stone Jetty on abortive skua chase - tricky with a lot of rain and no scope shelter - best viewing point had a stanchion 1/2 way across the field of view! 

Failure with target species in this weather (Fulmar) but could have missed a lot of stuff 

Gannet - 27 in 12 out 

Kittiwake - 2 out, 15,6 in

Arctic Skua - 2 dark morph in landed as rain overtook them! 

Pomarine Skua - one Light morph in then lost behind stanchion - either deep troughed or landed on sea 

Guillemot - 2 floating in 

Sandwich Tern - 9 out early on then 6 in further out

South shore - Malcolm 

I somehow managed a walk along the sea wall and almost back in sunshine.

Linnet 2 around the saltmarsh plus 2 near the waterfall 

Wheatear 2 along the foreshore

Shelduck 4 on Red Nab

Whimbrel 2 and Curlew 3 flew south from Red Nab

Curlew and Whimbrel 

Little Egret 2 on Red Nab

Osprey 1 had been resting on the post at the end of No.2 outfall but headed south, chased/followed by gulls, before I could get close.

Osprey heading south

Rock Pipit 2 near the lighthouse, both collecting food.

Rock Pipit with what looks like a large Sea Slater. They normally start with
small portions when first feeding the chicks.

Both Carrion Crows on the nest in the harbour, the male left and the 
female settled down in the nest again

Linnet 2 and male Blackbird 1 on the perimeter wire above the scrub between the lighthouse and waterfall.

Another squall was on its way, so I only checked the sea for 15 minutes from the lighthouse 10:00 - 10:15:

Gannet 1 adult out

Gannet passing the wooden jetty

Sandwich Tern 2 in together 

Common Tern 1 in

The new "wind assisted" SenaLine ferry presumably extracted a significant 
amount of energy from today's wind

Middleton Nature Reserve main pond - Janet 

Male Shoveler, hopefully the female is somewhere close by

House Martin 

Heysham skear - Malcolm 16:15 - 17:15

Even less than yesterday, no Terns seen

Eider pair flew north

Little Egret 2

Bar-Tailed Godwit 33

Bar-Tailed Godwit circling the skear

Whimbrel 1

Whimbrel 

This Angle Shades rested on my garden gate all day

The sea still providing

Showers till mid morning then dry with some sunshine in the afternoon. A fresh WNW wind.

Seawatch report - Pete 0620-0820.  

Vibes of being too late this am with virtually everything outbound in the first 40 mins and the sort of morning lingering skuas, reluctant to overland in the weather, used to be found off JBP.  

All out unless stated: 

Gannet 21

Sandwich Tern 85

Common Tern flock 3

Kittiwake 5,15

Red throated diver 1 in

Razorbill 1

Guillemot 1

Common Scoter 20,5,6 in, 

Goose spp 5 glimpsed as disappeared flying away. 

2cy Shag flew across the harbour mouth towards wooden jetty at 0656.

David Kaye started at 0600 and extras were:

5 Gannet out (26 in total)

6 C Scoter (37 in total)

2 Red throated diver

Heysham skear - Malcolm 12:15 - 13:30

Not much to see in the strong onshore wind

Sandwich Tern 20+ a few valiant birds were attempting to fish, but most just sat on the mud facing the wind

Sandwich Tern on a deserted shore

A couple of optimistic Sandwich Terns trying to fish

I managed to locate another green ringed Herring Gull

This is a typical view, with the bulk of the ring hidden, but it eventually revealed 
itself to be N:01E. Ringed at the Ribble estuary in 2019. It was seen at Heysham
in  2003 plus last year

Oystercatchers not counted, but far fewer than of late

Bar-Tailed Godwit 17

Bar-Tailed Godwits

Whimbrel 1

Ringed Plover - a flock of 12 flew across the skear

Plenty of Gannets and Terns

Another early morning shower followed by a dry and largely sunny day. A cold NE wind in the morning switched to a warmer NW after lunch.

Seawatch report - Pete 0620-0820 hampered by heat haze.  

Sandwich Tern 76 in

Gannet 7 in

Kittiwake 4 in

Guillemot 5 on

Common scoter just one flock of 5,

Arctic Skua two dark morph in together highish then climbed seemingly heading NE

2cy Shag flew across harbour mouth towards wooden jetty 0704.

David Kaye had 9 more gannet 0820-0900 - so 16 in total
a marsh harrier north over the head and skeer just before 1030

Heysham skear - Malcolm

Two checks, 09:15 - 11:00 and 16:30 - 17:00. The following records all this morning unless stated

Eider 2 males and a female

Little Egret 3

Sandwich Tern 70+ this morning, still 20+ this afternoon 

Common Tern 5

The terns along with many large gulls were catching whitebait out in the channels. This is just a fraction of the feeding birds

Seed mussels are just beginning to arrive. Prior to settling into life as a static mussel they are a swimming zooplankton, and at this stage they will be quite large zooplankton. Presumably this is what is attracting the shoals of Whitebait, which in turn attracts the gulls and Terns. Whatever the cause, the effect is plenty of Whitebait to go around. There were typically 50 Sandwich Terns settled on the shore and skear, many awaiting their mate to return and feed them. Interestingly I didn't see any ringed birds today, so clearly a different lot to those around yesterday.

A nice shot of St Peter's church with Sandwich Terns on the mud in the foreground 

Sandwich Tern returning with a "love offering"

But not all offerings were gratefully received, this one tried several potential mates and none were impressed. A measure of the glut of food, or was his technique just not good enough?

The Common Terns were resting on the skear rocks. Five was the most I saw at one time, it is likely there were others.

Common Terns

At 10:30 all the Terns that had been on the mud out from St Peter's shot past me.

I checked out to sea and there was a large raptor with a white head hovering high as it scanned the sea below. It even made an aborted dive, so I assumed it was another Osprey - a mistake, but it just goes to show how relatively common Osprey visits are now.

I was more interested in what had been lifted, but I took a couple of shots of the raptor before checking the skies for anything different. The shots clearly show it to be a Marsh Harrier. 

Marsh Harrier - it must have been eyeing the feeding gulls and Terns, not
fish as I had assumed

When everything settled down, many of the large gulls had moved to the skear.

Most of them were Herring gulls, but not all.

Common Gull

I managed a glimpse of a green ringed adult Herring gull this morning, but didn't 
manage to read it. But I did read this one this afternoon. N:34E Ringed at Bowland
in 2020, its only other sightings were here last spring and again in autumn 

Curlew 1 this morning 2 this afternoon 

Whimbrel 2 this morning 5 this afternoon

Curlew (left) and Whimbrel 

Bar-Tailed Godwit 14 this morning 

Ringed Plover 3 and Dunlin 9 this afternoon - they are a bit easier to see when they move.

Middleton Nature Reserve - Janet

Greenfinch

Common Whitethroat 

Robin taking food to the nest

Azure Blue Damselfly 

Large Red Damselfly 

Green-Veined White

Orange Tip