YLG best of a reasonably interesting day

A dry day with a light NW breeze, turning to light wind later

Heysham Nature Reserve 

Report by Alan:

Just two nets set this morning in the feeder rides.  

The total catch of 54 birds included 39 Goldfinches.  The Goldfinches just kept coming into the net all morning and included only one retrapped bird. 

Two Grey Wagtails were colour ringed and the remainder comprised 2 retrapped Blue Tits, 3 + 1 retrap Robins, 1 Dunnock and 4 + 2 retrap Great Tits.

Pink-Footed goose - a small flock flew south over Heysham at 10:00. First birds this autumn - Malcolm

South shore - Janet around lunchtime 

Shelduck out from Red Nab

Rock Pipit on Red Nab

Eider

Cormorants on No.1 outfall

Cormorants and a Grey Heron on the wooden jetty

Turnstone 

Juvenile Redshank

White Wagtail

This Vestal moth seemed to come in off the sea and landed on the slope down
from Red Nab. Kevin confirmed that they are migratory and fairly uncommon 

In the Nature Park

Chiffchaff 1 singing

Small White

Heysham skear - Malcolm 13:45 - 15:30

Eider 2

Male Eider moulting to breeding plumage and what looks to be a female

Shag 1 immature probably 2nd calendar year 

It was constantly looking in all directions 

Cormorant for comparison 

Gulls c300 mainly Herring gulls. Three ringed birds were seen and two were new for here.

It really isn't as easy as this shot makes it look! Both these two were new.
N:14P will be one of the Power Station birds from last year. We await details
of N:43D. They weren't actually together the second birds carried on its way 
and I never saw it again.

Yellow-Legged Gull 1 adult

A noticeably darker mantle than the Herring gulls that were around it

I have some shots to add here, but the blog simply refuses to upload them! They include in flight shots that support YLG identification. I've spent best part of an hour trying to find a way, goodness knows if I'll manage to post any pictures tomorrow!

Finally managed to upload the pictures by uploading to an old post,
then cutting and pasting here. Still doesn't bode well for tomorrow though

Sandwich Tern 1 juvenile. There was no sign of any adults, presumably the recent storm separated them. The youngster looked well, but it will need to be very lucky if it is to survive 

Juvenile Sandwich Tern

Oystercatcher c1500

Curlew c60

Redshank c50

Knot 6

Turnstone c70

Knot

The wind provided some interest

Strong overnight SW winds eased slightly as it shifted more westerly. A few showers, but nothing prolonged.

Seawatch - Pete

from Knowlys road ‘wave troughing’ 1020-1050: 

Gannet 5 out

Common scoter Drake out

Sanderling 3 together out 

Bonxie-like skua very distantly into bay from back of harbour 1209.

South shore - Malcolm 09:00 - 10:30

Wheatear 1 flew across the saltmarsh 

Rock Pipit 1 each foreshore and Red Nab

Mediterranean gull 2 first calendar year on Red Nab with Black-Headed gulls

1cy Mediterranean gull centre with a 1cy Black-Headed gull in front

Bothe Meds in this shot

Waders on Red Nab

Oystercatcher c300

Curlew 15

Redshank 17

Turnstone 11

Ringed Plover 3

Another Turnstone further along the sea wall

One of the larger ferries dwarfing the wooden jetty

Providing a nice backdrop to view the Cormorants 

Unfortunately, I failed to sea anything else on the sea!

In the Nature Park

Speckled Wood 4

Small White 3

Large White 1

Male Small White

Male Large White

A request for help 

I took these shots on Middleton Nature Reserve yesterday (Malcolm). I didn't want to show them until I had spoken to Phil Reddell who is responsible for the maintenance and development of the reserve. 

This is Himalayan Balsam, as the name suggests, not a native species. They are a very
vigorous growing annual wetland plant. They grow to 2m in height and their mature seed
pods explode, sending seeds for many metres.

They were in two areas of the western marsh near the ringing road. I have not seen any on the reserve before, but Phil said that he first saw them here last year, and has no idea how they became established in what is a relatively isolated area. He has been uprooting any that he sees and has encouraged me and anyone else who sees them to do the same. He has also asked that if anyone sees them in other areas of the reserve to let him know.

preddell@lancswt.org.uk   

Most were around the recently heavily strimmed area around the new ponds
in the NE corner of the western marsh. If left unchecked this diverse area will
become a 2m high monoculture!

Lots of Goldfinch

Overnight rain and early morning showers then dry until heavy evening rain. The only sunshine was hazy. A freshening SW wind end up being quite strong 

Nature Park - Janet

Just a walk through while exercising a dog. Two Grey Squirrels quickly went up the trees.

Painted Lady

Common Darter

Middleton Nature Reserve - Malcolm 14:30 - 15:45

Main Pond

Mute Swan 2

Mallard c20

Tufted Duck 8

Little Grebe 1

Coot 7

Moorhen 3

Cetti's warbler gave one burst of song

Tufted Duck

Tufted Ducks and a couple of Coot

The Little Grebe was below the surface for most of the time

"No swimming" pond

Just 1 Mute Swan, 3 Coot and a Moorhen

I checked the open water on the central and western marshes, no wildfowl seen

Just 3 Common Darter and 1 Common Blue Damselfly seen and each was resting on something light to gain whatever heat they could from the watery sun.

Common Darter

Common Blue Damselfly 

Goldfinch 40+ in one mobile flock. Mainly youngsters. I was amazed that there wasn't a Sparrowhawk around, probably already fed.

Juvenile Goldfinch

All these are youngsters

Goldfinch 

Southern Section of the reserve

I checked the pond, the water level is increasing again, but I only saw one Common Darter and a Migrant Hawker was the only dragonfly seen on the wing today

A walk through the central meadow, hoping I might find the Copper-Tip Longhorn moths that have been seen on the Fleabane here in the previous two years. None seen today, but a lot of insects were visiting the Fleabane.

I know very little about flies etc. but I do like their names! These are what I believe these insects are called, but I would be happy to be corrected if I have got any wrong.

Tiger Marsh Fly

Marmalade Fly

Locust Fly

Long Winged Dusky Face (what a great name!)

This Parasitic Wasp only has a Latin name
Enicospilus ramidulus

Painted Lady 1

Red Admiral 1

Small White 2

Speckled Wood 2

Not a bad tally as no butterflies at all were seen on the north side

More geese over

 A few showers this morning, but mainly dry this afternoon with some sunny spells. A light SE wind.

Heysham Nature Reserve 

Ringing report by Jean

You could almost call the ringing session today “Before the rain” as that’s when most of the 53 birds were caught. 

The target was Grey Wagtail and 7 were colour ringed. 

The commonest bird was Goldfinch, specifically young Goldfinches - 14 of those and mostly in one flock (plus one retrapped adult). 

After them (literally) were Blue Tits - 14 of those. 

Robins were on the move and 4 accidentally blundered into the net. 

The rest consisted of Dunnock (3), Wrens (2), Greenfinch (2 plus 2 retraps), Great Tit (1 plus a retrap). The only warbler was a Chiffchaff (1) which arrived after the rain as did an exceedingly plump Woodpigeon.

Middleton Nature Reserve - Janet early afternoon 

Greylag geese c50 south, more than we typically see here

Male Tufted Duck on the main pond

Female Tufted Duck on the main pond

Dabchick (Little Grebe)

Ruddy Darter by the pond in the southern section 

Common Darter

Small Copper 1 seen

Field Grasshopper 

Noon Fly, sunbathing after the showers

A couple of additional shots from Peter and Rosemary Silvester's visit yesterday 

A very nice inflight shot of the male Clouded Yellow

Common Darters ovipositoring 

North shore

Hummingbird Hawk-moth on the play area buddleia - Kevin Eaves

Heysham skear - Malcolm 13:15 - 14:40

Eider 1

Red-Breasted Merganser 6

Red-breasted Mergansers and an Eider

Red-breasted Mergansers

Little Egret 5

Gulls, mainly Herring gulls c250. Two previously seen colour ringed birds seen

This one ringed at Walney in 2014

The lack of gutweed on Red Nab might be frustrating for any returning Brent Geese,
but any early arrivals will enjoy this Sea Lettuce in the SE corner. It won't last long
though

But the fallback option of gutweed is plentiful here, hopefully this should
see them through winter.

Oystercatcher c1000

Curlew 30

Redshank 35

Knot 10 together

Turnstone 50

Ringed Plover 3

Knot

Ringed Plover

The generation of the post was only moderately annoying this evening. Perhaps the demon has a day off on Sundays