Osprey becoming a regular

Overnight rain and a heavy early morning shower. Mainly overcast with more showers after lunch. A very light variable breeze

Middleton Nature Reserve

Janet reports a big increase in Goldfinch numbers, partly due to large numbers of juveniles 

South shore 

I had a walk along the foreshore and the sea wall 13:00 - 14:00 (Malcolm)

Wheatear 4 along the foreshore 

Wheatears

Linnet 2 along the foreshore and 2 at Red Nab. This one was freshening up after a bath. The second bird looks like it expecting to be fed.

Rock Pipit 1 on Red Nab

Plenty of gulls on Red Nab. Mainly Black-Headed

I didn't go out to check them but could see at least 8 Mediterranean gulls
from the sea wall.

An Osprey was sat on the post at the end of No.2 outfall again.

At first, that's all it was doing, sitting on the post. By this time the tide
was quite high and dead flat. These are the conditions that large numbers
of Grey Mullet come close in to feed near the sea wall. I was hoping the
Osprey was waiting to fish close to the wall. But......

.......after a while it began feeding on a Bass that it had already caught.
You can see the Bass's tail, quite a large fish, so a few courses. 
The Osprey has a blue ring on its right leg

It was still feeding 20 minutes later

Grey Heron with Cormorants on the wooden jetty

Little Egret on the wooden jetty

All of the above 

White Wagtail on the sea wall

It was catching flies disturbed by the rising tide

Whimbrel 1

Kevin was setting off along the wall as I was heading back. 

The Osprey was still feeding.

Silver Y "hidden" in plain sight on the sea wall

Alison had this fine moth in her trap this morning.

Maiden's Blush Cyclophora punctaria. A good record for Lancashire 

Maiden's Blush

Not really an insect day, but a Clouded Yellow anyway

Sunny spells and the odd very light shower. A light variable breeze.

Red Nab - Malcolm 12:00 - 12:45

Mediterranean gulls - just 6 seen roosting on Red Nab

Mediterranean gull (right) with Black-Headed gulls

This Dutch ringed bird (LCG) was ringed as a chick in 2010.
Its 16 year old white ring is now wearing in places and can be difficult to
read from some angles

Common Gull with Black-Headed gulls

An Osprey was resting on the post at the seaward end of No.2 outfall

Along the foreshore 

Painted Lady 2

Painted Lady

Clouded Yellow flew along without stopping 

Clouded Yellow. Not very clear shots, but fortunately they are a very
distinctive butterfly

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Ringing report by Alan

I set three nets this morning after an early light rain shower.  A reasonable catch of 26 birds included 8 Lesser Whitethroats and a Grasshopper Warbler.  The latter was the first one caught there for two years.  This species has been fairly numerous at Middleton in earlier years but possibly the changing habitat now suits them less.
The Grasshopper Warbler was a juvenile suggesting, but by no means proving, breeding here.
The total catch:
Singles of Common Whitethroat,  Cetti’s Warbler, Sedge Warbler, Swallow, Blackbird, Grasshopper Warbler.
Reed Warbler  4
Lesser Whitethroat  8
Robin  2
Blackcap  4
Chiffchaff  2

I just did a passing check of the two large ponds - Malcolm

Main Pond

3 Mute Swans

10 Coot

No Mallard seen, probably resting out of sight.

3 Swallow

"No swimming" pond

1 Mute Swan

4 Gadwall (2 each male and female)

5 Coot

2 Moorhen

I Grey Heron

Female Gadwall

Male Gadwall

Heron resting in the trees

No dragonflies seen on either pond, although it was overcast at the time

More interesting than expected

A dry day with varying degrees of cloud cover. A fresh NW wind.

South shore - Malcolm 10:15 - 11:30

A walk along the sea wall on the rising tide.

Mediterranean gulls at least 15 - there were at least 8 on Red Nab, 3 between the outfalls and 4 on the feeding beach by the wooden jetty just before the tide covered it.

Mediterranean gull with a Black-Headed gull behind

Little Egret 3

Eider 1 looked to be a male out from the outfalls

Rock Pipit 3 on Red Nab

Rock Pipit

Linnet 6 came to drink from the freshwater runoff on Red Nab

Linnet taking a drink

Whimbrel 3

Whimbrel 

Heysham skear - Malcolm 17:00 - 18:30

Eider at least 6. 2 definite males 

Male Eider

I wasn't sure as to these four bobbing around, possibly 2 males and 2 females

Great Crested Grebe 1

Great Crested Grebe

c200 large gulls, mainly Herring gulls. Less than recent but they included a ringed one not seen since June and a bird ringed by a different scheme

This one is seen most visits. But this shot again demonstrates just how
thin the plastic is that the rings are formed from

This one, ringed at Bowland last year hasn't been seen since June

This yellow ringed bird is from a wider ranging scheme. Although the
range does include Walney and Bowland - details awaited

Mediterranean gull 1 - the bird with the very pale mask was high up the shore again.

These location shots show that it is easily visible from the promenade.
Thats the Grosvenor Apartments on the right 

Osprey 1 - for once I spotted it before the birds did. Or perhaps the birds did see it but it was too distant to bother them. As I pan out in this clip it shows how high it was over the sea. Their eyesight must be amazing!

A few minutes later everything lifted! A quick check showed that it was considerably closer.

It then flew high over the skear, and I lost it in the sun.

Oystercatcher c1500

Curlew 25

Redshank 30

Turnstone 40

Ruddy Darter still the star of the boardwalk

A hazy start, the sun not really breaking through till after lunch. A west breeze freshened as it swung to NW.

South Shore - Malcolm 11:15: 13:30

In view of what we didn't see yesterday, I parked at Potts Corner and walked out to the waterline out from the saltmarsh. Then walked back in with the quickly advancing tide. Loads of Oystercatcher headed south as Red Nab was covered. A few Curlew headed south too but most would have already moved on.

There was nothing along the waterline except a handful of gulls and Oystercatcher. It felt odd being out here with so few birds around, it won't be long before there are thousands of waders here. At this point the tide was coming in at a slow walking pace, but a little later on a flatter stretch of beach, I had to walk as fast as I could. This isn't a problem as long as you know that there is a safe route back to the shore with no gullies to cross.

The only waders in the recording area were 

Ringed plover 6 and Dunlin 2 feeding mid way up the shore.

Ringed Plover and Dunlin 

By this time the tide was high up the shore. These Dunlins were just
south of the recording area.......

.......but they were seen to fly north into the recording area with more
Ringed Plovers

Back at Potts Corner it was interesting to watch c30 swallows feeding on the insects lifted as the tide moved up the saltmarsh gullies - these are definitely just outside the recording area.

This from Janet

Painted Lady in my the garden. Not much again at MNR just Brown Hawker

Heysham Nature Reserve - Malcolm 16:00 - 16:45

Just a quick circuit, hoping to see a Purple Hairstreak around the oak trees at the NW corner of the plateau. But not today.

Ruddy Darter 1 male on the boardwalk rail

Location shot, Ruddy Darter arrowed

Common Darters several around the reserve 

Common Darters

There weren't a lot of butterflies around, partly due to the lack of flowers. Just Knapweed and fleabane were seen in bloom.

Red Admiral 2

Painted Lady 1

Meadow Brown 5

Small White 15+

Speckled Wood 10+

Common Blue 5

Small White

Meadow Brown 

Common Blue

Speckled Wood

The Rudd in the dipping pond were showing nicely