Fly day......and a Spotted one to order

Light east wind shifting to ESE by late afternoon and south by evening. The threatened overnight rain didn't materialise but heavy showers in the morning and some thunder showers early evening. Sunshine in between.

Sewatch report by Pete:

Sea this am 0810-0910.  

Good vis until 0850 yet no Scoter!  

Only saw 6 swallow, Great crested Grebe and Razorbill fly in

South shore (MD)

The rain had held off till 09:15, just before I set off. My forecast said "light showers", turned out they were light showers of biblical proportions! It chucked it down all the time I was out, only stopping when I got home about 11:00.

Little Egret 4

Wheatear 5 - too wet to use my camera today, this clip is from Saturday. Don't watch the Wheatear, watch the floor around, you can see it is covered in flies.

Today's Wheatear were all towards the slipway side of Ocean Edge foreshore, which is a little unusual as they normally favour the Red Nab side, where the above clip was taken. The answer presented itself as I approached Red Nab

Sparrowhawk 1 grounded on foreshore.

Rock Pipit 3 (Red Nab, sea wall and Lighthouse)

Linnet 4 between lighthouse and waterfall 

Willow Warbler 3 together, making their way along the brambles between lighthouse and waterfall 

Sedge Warbler singing near the small anemometer - there isn't usually one here.

Pete advised that Heysham Head for a Spotted Flycatcher was definitely on the cards today. So, mid afternoon, on my way to the skear, I stopped off briefly at Heysham Head, and wasn't disappointed.

Spotted Flycatcher 1

Spotted Flycatcher feeding above the wood on Heysham Head

By this time it was hot and sultry. This clip again shows the abundance of flying insects, the Flycatcher was spoilt for choice!

Heysham skear 

It was very pleasant on the skear the sun was shining and warm but the light breeze making it feel fresh. Unfortunately thunderstorms were forecast and you could see and hear them getting closer. I reluctantly cut short my walk. It's never a good thing to be the highest point for miles around in a thunderstorm!

Eider 42

Little Egret 7

Great Crested Grebe 1

Shag 1 feeding

Whimbrel 3

No Sanderling today

Black Headed Gull 34 - working hard to try and catch shrimps. They were in the right place, close to the shore near the mouth of a drain pouring sediment into the sea. I've shown clips before when shrimps are plentiful, the gulls heads bob up and down like a sewing machine, it wasn't like that today.

The term "drain" in this context, just means a natural channel draining water from higher up the shore into the sea. In this case markedly increased in volume with this morning's heavy rain. So, more sediment equals more shrimps and the gulls turn up.