A bit of ring news

A dry day with intermittent sunshine. Pleasantly cooler (19°C max). A light west breeze

South shore - Janet

Mediterranean gulls with Black-Headed gulls and Curlew
On Red Nab, towards high water

We have received the history of the white ringed Mediterranean gull seen on Saturday, just 28 days earlier it had been seen on its nesting grounds in the Netherlands. Yesterday it was seen at the Conder pool.

Several Painted Lady seen in the Nature Park and Middleton Nature Reserve 

Heyshan skear - Malcolm 15:00 - 1700

Little Egret 9

Great Crested grebe 3 (1 plus 2)

Great Crested grebe and feeding Herring gulls

Gulls c400 most were Herring gulls

The gull just left of centre manages to eat five seed mussels in the duration of this clip.

They feed like this for a short while, but their crops are soon full and then they just rest, often just floating on the sea. Nevertheless, I managed to find four ringed birds, including 3 new ones for this summer.

These two 3rd calendar year Herring gulls could well be siblings 
N:49K eating a seed mussel

And resting just 5m away N:47K. Details awaited 

Oystercatcher 1000+

Curlew 25

Another(?) Yellow-Legged gull

Overnight rain and some light morning showers. Increasing sunshine as the day progressed. A fresh west breeze

Report by Pete Crooks:

Heysham 2 Power Station – 3 Peregrine (adult & 2 juveniles) on ledge near roof, with one of the juveniles practicing its hunting skills by chasing passing Herring and Lesser Black-backed Gulls 

Heysham Wooden Pier – regular 2nd CY Shag roosting with 8 Cormorant during incoming tide

Heysham Stage 2 Outfall – adult Yellow-legged Gull briefly stood on railing alongside Herring and Lesser Black-backed Gulls. Perhaps the same bird as seen by Malcolm on the low-tide skears a couple of days ago.
Red Nab – 7 Mediterranean Gull (2 adults, 3 3rd CY and 2 2nd CY) displaced from HS2 outfalls area by incoming tide.
125 Curlew

Just some shots around Red Nab - Malcolm

They were very flighty, there were none on Red Nab as I approached,
then this lot arrived, but quickly moved on again

Black-Headed gulls, including a juvenile 

Two 3rd calendar year Mediterranean gulls with Black-Headed gulls
Some of these birds would not be visible from the sea wall.

Still very flighty 

Some of the 2nd calendar year Meds with Curlew in front

Some of the Curlew with a 2cy Med behind

The gulls ended up on the shore out from the play area.
Black-Headed gull with 2cy Med (right)

Middleton Industrial Estate Main Pond – Pete Crooks 

A gusty wind and only intermittent morning sunshine were not ideal for looking for flying insects.
Dragonflies – Emperor, female Common Darter, Black-tailed Skimmer and Four-spotted Chaser, but none of the scarcer species seen in recent days.
Butterflies – 2 Painted Lady, 2 Gatekeeper, 3 Small Skipper, 1 Green-veined White, 2 Speckled Wood

These on the southern section - Janet

Common Darter with breakfast 

Common Blue Damselfly 

There were so many Ringlets!

Brown China-mark

Large Skipper

Peacock Butterfly caterpillar spotted by Angela Gillon

Meds arrive in numbers

A cloudy start cleared by lunchtime then mainly sunny. Not quite as hot, but still reaching 25.6°C. The early south breeze shifting to SW this afternoon 

Middleton Nature Reserve - Janet

These shots from the "no swimming" pond

Emperor 

This looks to be a Red-Veined Darter, the male Common Darters seen 
so far have not turned so red.

Four-spotted Chaser in the southern section of the reserve 

Meadow Brown

South shore

Pete checked from Ocean Edge this morning towards high water

Shag 1 2cy resting on the wooden jetty 

Mediterranean gull 23  on red nab high tide (12 ad/3cy - sev wingtips not visible - rest 2cy)

I had a walk along the sea wall towards low water this afternoon (Malcolm)

Most of the Mediterranean gulls were preening in two main groups between the outfalls, but there were a few at the seaward end of the feeding beach by the wooden jetty. I ended up with a minimum of 28. 

9 adults

9 3rd calendar year

3 adult or 3cy

7 2nd calendar year 

Adult Mediterranean gull

12 Meds in this shot by No.2 outfall

More in this group by No.1 outfall. The arrowed bird has a white ring

I had to check it from various angles but I eventually managed to read all
the characters. Helped by the fact that it is one seen here before, so the
code is familiar. 34ET. Ringed in Belgium in 2019, it has been seen here
every summer since apart from 2022

There are no Sandmason worm tubes showing close to the sea wall yet.
But there are some at the seaward side. Last year they were just starting 
to show nicely before a storm covered them again. This is the prime feeding
option for the Meds here, so hopefully they won't get covered again this year.

Rock Pipits 2 along the inner harbour wall

Both Pipits

This is an adult 

But this one a juvenile, so at least one pair has been at least partially successful 

Peregrine Falcon just one today chasing the gulls around the Power Stations. It was hanging on the breeze, uplifted by the sloping sea wall, then dropping on anything that passed below it. Unfortunately dropping too quickly for me to be able to follow it!

Still loads of top dragonflies and a YLG bonus

Overnight showers did nothing to reduce the temperature, it didn't get below 22°C overnight. A sunny start had the temperature up to 31°C by 11:00, then cloudy spells and a freshening west wind brought it down slightly. 

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Janet exercised her dog at 05:30 before it became too hot again. Even at that time there were dragonflies on the wing. A Darter sp darted past her. Ringlets were also flitting around.

Lots of birds singing 

Common Whitethroat 

Pete scanned the main pond from the car park

At least one male lesser emperor 

several black tailed skimmer over the water. 

At least 15 male Red-veined Darters plus 3 females

David Talbot checked late morning 

A Norfolk Hawker settled very briefly on east bank, also Brown Hawker, Southern Hawker flying, Broad-bodied Chaser, Four- spotted Chaser, Emperors, loads of Red Veined Darters, Black-Tailed Skimmers and the usual 3 damsels - so 11 species a lovely morning.

Male Black-tailed Skimmer

Emperor

Male Red-veined Darter

Janet had another quick look this afternoon 

Black-tailed Skimmer

Common Blue Damselflies

Ringlet

Heysham skear Malcolm 16:00 - 17:30

This was my only outing today. Yesterday's exertions in the heat took its toll!

Still, by the time I set off there was total cloud cover and a fresh breeze blowing in off the sea. I wore a long sleeved T shirt and a lightweight sleeveless jacket, and was barely warm enough.......Bliss!

This was the view looking south, the wind assisted StenaLine ship
approaching the harbour

I hadn't expect to see much, it was just nice to get out on the shore. There was nothing on the sea other than gulls. There were plenty of gulls scattered around the skear as well, c500

None were in a rush, there is food aplenty all over the skear now.
Two green ringed birds were seen but both seen earlier this year

There was an adult "Herring gull" with a slightly darker mantle. Checking revealed yellow legs. I was just going to get a shot when it decided to move on. Still, I managed some in flight shots confirming it as a Yellow-Legged Gull

Yellow-Legged Gull

In places on the skear at the moment, it's like walking in a rough field!
But the "grass" in this case is acres of gutweed 

Oystercatcher 350

Curlew 14

More RVD and more coming in

Hot and sunny (it was already 28°C at 09:45 peaking at 31.6°C by 15:00). A light but freshening east breeze.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Pete scanned from his car in the bottom car park 09:15. This method of checking only allows views of the eastern half of the pond, nevertheless:

Two male lesser emperor and at least 12 red veined darter (three in tandem) in quick check from car park 

The Lesser Emperors not allowed to settle by patrolling Emperors

I did a circuit at 10:30 (Malcolm). By that time there were dragonflies everywhere, with Emperors covering all the sections around the banks. I didn't try to count any as everything was so mobile. But I managed one glimpse of a male Lesser Emperor and there were at least 12 male Red-veined Darters.

Male Red-veined Darters

Male Broad Bodied Chaser

Also: Four-spotted Chaser, Black-Tailed Skimmer, Blue Emperor, Common Darter

South shore - Malcolm 13:30 - 15:45

It was hot, very hot! The tide was out and the breeze from the east. These are ideal conditions to attract insects in off the sea here. But things didn't look promising, there were just a handful of butterflies in the Nature Park and walking out along the sea wall saw only the following come in off the sea:

Red Admiral 3

Painted Lady 3

Small Tortoiseshell 3

Small White 2

But when I reached the end of the wall the reason was obvious. The breeze was coming from the other side of the Power Stations and the bulk of the insects were heading to the north side of the Power Stations. Including Dragonflies.

A two minute check from the lighthouse saw 7 Small White and 3 Painted Lady come in off.

There were at least 30 each Small White and Painted Lady plus 5 Red Admirals in the brambles between the lighthouse and waterfall.

Four species of Dragonfly!

Blue Emperor 1 male resting on the inner wall surrounding the roundhead scrub.

Location of Emperor circled

Black-Tailed Skimmer 1 male in the scrub

Male Black-Tailed Skimmer

Red-veined Darter 2 males and 3 females - all but 1 male in the scrub

Male Red-veined Darter between the lighthouse and waterfall

This male is in the scrub. This stance is called the obelisk pose to 
minimise the amount of sun hitting the dragonfly to prevent overheating 

Two of the females

Also cooling down with the obelisk pose 

But the breeze was picking up, thankfully, and maintaining the pose wasn't easy!

Red-veined Darter catching the sea breeze

Norfolk Hawker (probably). This one by elimination only. A larger duller dragonfly came in off but didn't settle and continued east. The size, shape, colour and lack of obvious marking were right for a Norfolk Hawker and there isn't really anything else it could have been.

Other stuff

One of two Ruby Tiger caterpillars along the sea wall

Adult and juvenile Black-Headed gull on No.2 outfall

Adult Mediterranean gull on the beach by the wooden jetty 

Brunswick Road Heysham today - escaped Chukar?