Not a warbler day

A clear night and a bright start. Very light variable breeze, but mainly from the west. Cloud cover after mid morning then sunny again in the afternoon.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Ringing report from Alan:

After yesterday's excellent catch, this morning was very poor, the only highlight being the first Grey Wagtail capture of the year.

Grey Wagtail 1

Wren 1

Reed Warbler 2

Lesser Whitethroat 1 retrap

Blackcap 1

Willow Warbler 3 + 1 retrap

Blue tit 1

Great Tit 1

Chaffinch 1

No swallows seen and the only passage birds seen were 2 alba wagtails.

I had a walk around mid afternoon (MD)

Mute and Mallard unchanged 

Gadwall 6 - a male with 4 female/immature on "no swimming" pond plus a male on the main pond.

Male Gadwall on the main pond coming out of eclipse 

Green Woodpecker 1

Swallow c10 SW

Otter - spraints now also marking the track the wildlife takes to the "no swimming" pond.

Dragonflies:

Common Darter everywhere - at least 30 seen

Emperor 2

Brown Hawker 4

Migrant Hawker 6 (3 + 3)

Butterflies - not as abundant as yesterday but more variety. In order of abundance:

Meadow Brown

Speckled Wood

Common Blue

Red Admiral 3

Gatekeeper 2

Peacock 1

Small Heath 1 ( first one for quite a while)

Brimstone 1 - a particularly pale female

Unfortunately, Brimstone invariably settle with their wings closed, showing only the underside.

Not a great shot as it took off, but it does reveal how pale the upper wings were.

South shore

A check of the beach near wooden jetty 4 hours before high water revealed..........nothing. At least at first, eventually 1 Mediterranean gull turned up, but didn't feed and quickly left.

Bar-Tailed Godwit 1

Lapwing 10 on the saltmarsh 

Rock Pipit 3 Red Nab

Wheatear 6 together on foreshore 

Song Thrush 1 high to the east

Eider 1 solitary juvenile (I think (MD)) just out from harbour mouth

Juvenile Eider

Grey Seal 1 - briefly