Very little air movement early on, later developing into a west breeze. Some cloud cover, but mainly warm and sunny.
Seawatch report from Pete:
Just 30 minutes seawatch 06:15-06:45 then switched to search of Heysham Head area, because:
Calls - thought golden plover initially until the penny dropped (it sounded like a Bee-eater) but right over the car and couldn’t get out in time to see it/them as flying straight into sun 0635 - so, unfortunately, that's it as far as any record goes.
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| Canada goose - flock of 30 floating in |
Gannet - 3 in
Guillemot - 2 in
Grey seal - 2
Lots of small 4-6 inch fish leaping out like they were being chased - at or just beyond yellow buoy range (sounds like small mullet being chased by large bass or Harbour Porpoise (MD))
C1600 gulls on skeer late afternoon mainly 2cy Herring.
Heysham Head
I went down to see how the Rock Pipits were doing (MD)
Below the high cliffs there were two adult with at least two newly fledged young.
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Presumably this is the male, I don't know if he helps with the feeding when there is
no threat, but judging by the amount of guano on this rock, he spends some time there |
This is the other adult, walking on water. She's hunting for flies on the wrack.
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| She caught a couple of flies, then managed to find a Harbour Ragworm |
Meanwhile, the young were spread out and waited on the rocks to be fed. Two were the most I saw at one time, but it was difficult to keep track as they were mobile and House Sparrows and Starlings were also feeding their young in the same area.This one would have been quite happy to have been fed by a sparrow!
Before the female fed the chick she spent some time making sure the food was correctly arranged.
Finally! The feed.
There could have been two additional adults, one either side of this territory. Or perhaps the male regards the whole length of the cliffs his territory and met me early and followed me off. There was another adult below the northernmost outcrop. So the very minimum number 3 adult plus 2 young.
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I like this shot - Little Egret fishing by the near rocks
Anglers fishing on the far rocks |
Middleton Nature Reserve
Myself, Kevin and Janet all had a look at different times today.
Wildfowl as recent except
Little grebe 2 adult feeding together on "no swimming" pond.
Water Rail 1 calling from western scrape
Cetti's warbler 3 singing males, possibly 4 ("no swimming" pond, western marsh, plus the Fence pond and one from the opposite side of central marsh near the path - possibly just one bird)
Butterflies again not many species:
Painted Lady 1
Common Blue
Small White
Speckled Wood ( now looking vey faded)
Small Heath
Burnet Companion moth
Broad-bodied Chaser by far the most common dragonfly, at least 20, followed by
Four-spotter Chaser
Black-tailed Skimmer 1 male on the main pond
Emperor 1 male on the main pond
A couple of shots from Kevin:
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| Broad-bodied Chaser male |
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| Four-spotted Chaser |
