Canada Goose moult migration gathers pace

Very light SE breeze early on freshened slightly during the day. Hot and sunny.

Cetti's warbler - central marsh bird singing on Middleton Nature Reserve 

A shot from Kevin. Male Linnet, treading carefully near the lighthouse.

Heysham skeer - low water 10:25 (MD)

Greylag goose 5 south

Canada goose 95 - as mentioned yesterday Canada goose movement has been increasing at this time of year, as non breeding birds fly north to moult sites.

Some have already started moulting 

09:40 a flock of 23 must have been resting on the outer skear, then flew low past me and carried on overland to the east.

Scanning the distant sand bars two more groups could be seen, at least 51 and 15

This is the larger of the two groups

At 11:15, five more flew in from the south and landed where the above birds would have been, but now behind the sand bar.

Great Crested grebe 4

Red-breasted Merganser 3

Curlew 16

Sanderling c200 only two individual birds on the middle skear, but flock of c200 seen flying to the outer skear.

This is the same species of jellyfish photographed by Steph the other day. That one had settled dome up, but this one had been rolled over, revealing why it is called a Medusa (postscript - I've always known these as Medusa, but the correct name is Barrel jellyfish, I will call them such in future MD)

The tentacles resemble a head of snakes

The one Steph saw high and dry at the top of the beach would have had no chance of survival, but this one has. As with all jellyfish the dome is safe to touch, and the Medusa's tentacles are only short.....

....so it is safe to handle them like this - this is only a small specimen.
Sometimes you need both hands, and some strength!

I placed it dome side up in a pool that would remain till the tide returned.

Jellyfish go with the flow, they can propel themselves, but mainly it is just to alter their depth. The direction of travel is at the mercy of the tides and currents. Some years you hardly see any, other years you see them every visit. I'll see if I can find a big one!