Heysham Obs
Less floaters and glaze in the haemorrhaged eye the last two days prompted a scope and tripod "lunchtime (and a half)" long the north harbour wall with Andrew Cornall and the long-range sight seemed fine although I cannot be trusted with reading ring numbers!
Sitting by Heysham 2 outfall, a small gull on the seaward end of Heysham One seemed worth following up as it flew further out and landed in the boat channel. However the heat haze impaired definition. Then it flew towards us and was confirmed as the recently 'lost' Bonaparte's Gull. It then gave the full range of long-range instructive right down to close flight views plus a spell of landing both on the railings and on the sea. Maybe it is just my odd perception but the original attention was obviously caught by size/underwing glimpses of what appeared to be an adult, but also a rather Kittiwake-like slightly stiff-winged direct (as opposed to feeding) flight with the wings not dropping below the horizontal. Still showing about 1330hrs
The summer plumaged head pattern is still fully intact apart from perhaps a rather 'fuzzy' edge to the central rear crown where it may have lost the odd feather i
Gatekeepers reached a new milestone with the transect (as opposed to total count) reaching 120! and there appeared to be an influx of Silver Y (12 seen)
Med Gull - at least 8
Bonaparte's Gull - see above
Little Gull - surprisingly no obvious sign (not a two bird theory - seen well and photographed yesterday!)
Moths
Too many! 10 Dingy Footman, 18 Straw Underwing, 2 Blackneck, and perhaps the best for here was Epiblema roborana. A nearby actinic produced 50 Shaded Broad Bar and 30 Straw Underwing!
