Heysham makes excellent contribution to National Moth Day

The light breeze started SE, but quickly switched to west again. Mainly overcast but some sunny spells.

South shore 

Only my records from here so far today, I checked as the tide was covering the beach near the wooden jetty in the morning and again as it became exposed in the afternoon (MD)

Mediterranean gulls 9 - 8 adult plus 1 2nd calendar year.

The Meds are now managing to catch a few sand mason worms, but at the moment the high density of worms doesn't begin until 60m from the wall, so the birds are leaving the area when the tide covers that section. There was a white darvic ringed adult this morning, almost read it, but not quite positive. 

I'm sure the worms will quickly become more accessible, when they do, each bird defends its own patch to feed on, but today they were just strolling around. There are six adult on this clip, the top centre bird manages to catch a sand mason worm.

No Meds showed in the afternoon till the water was c50m from the wall, already beyond my ring reading range. There were three adult when I left.

Rock Pipits 3 - in the morning, the ringed male was feeding on the sloping wall near No.1 outflow. In the afternoon two were feeding, then resting on the scrub near the lighthouse, looked to be an adult (female) plus a juvenile.

Whimbrel 3 south together in the afternoon.

Grey Seal 1 female trying to relax in the morning. She is surrounded by surface feeding fish, almost certainly Grey Mullet.

National Moth Day is a bit of a misnomer, it is actually a three night day event culminating today.

New moth for Lancashire in Heysham office trap yesterday - Sharp-angled Carpet 

Sharp-angled Carpet

Kevin did his bit too:

Clouded Brindle
a new record for the Heysham area.

Lunar Hornet moth attracted to garden with a pheromone lure. It arrived at the lure almost immediately, suggesting that it had been nearby.

This is a nice shot of it resting on foliage 

This shot on graph paper nicely shows the area of coloured scales on the wing,
which isn't usually obvious. All the 'clearwings'  have patches of scales on their wings
 .. a reminder that they are moths.