Tuesday 26 July 2022

Eider creche grows

NW to WNW light wind. Overcast with the odd light shower in the morning, sunshine increasing during the day.

Only my stuff so far (MD)
Red Nab to saltmarsh 
A check towards high water to see if anything was roosting on the mud. There was today, but just Oystercatcher and Gulls
Mediterranean gulls 4 adult/3cy and 2 juvenile on Red Nab, two more adult with the gulls on the mud.
Rock Pipit 3 on foreshore 
Linnet 5
Little Egret just 2 today, this one looks like it's on a white string, I suppose in a way it was! 
Little Egret, and what my car manual euphemistically calls "bird lime"
You wouldn't want this on your windscreen! 

Middleton Nature Reserve 
I just called in briefly at the top car park to see if I could relocate the Purple Hairstreak. I did have one possible sighting, right size and colour and high in one of the oak trees, and it quickly disappeared. But I didn't get a good enough look to rule out other options. I'll keep checking when conditions suit.
Plenty of other stuff around the gun club/ car park
Red Admiral 1
Gatekeeper loads
Meadow Brown 3
Green-Veined White 2 mating
Small White 1
Large White 1

Common Darter 4

Heysham skear low water 17:30
Shag 1 feeding
Little Egret 6
Eider - the creche of ducklings has grown, very hard to count accurately as they were constantly diving, but at least 39 juvenile with one adult female. Another two adult female were seen sloping off.
One of the juvenile Eider, still with under developed wings. 

They were feeding in the NE corner of the skear and catching loads of crabs. I sat on a rock and watched a few minutes and saw several crabs caught. Two of these have a crab, they break off the claws before swallowing (I wonder if that is instinctive, or if they learn the hard way!).

Adult female Eider with two juvenile 

By this time, they had moved quite close to me, but when I stood up to move on, they formed a tight protective creche. I think they are all in this clip.

Great Crested Grebe 1
Redshank 50+
Turnstone 9
Plus Oystercatcher and Curlew 

Several people have told me that there have been a lot of jellyfish washed ashore recently. I can't say that I'm seeing more than normal, there were several on the mud south of the saltmarsh this morning, but I didn't see any this evening. This was the largest of this morning's, it's a Lion's Mane Jellyfish, they all were. Their tentacles do sting, and hurt, but are not normally dangerous.
Lion's Mane Jellyfish next to my size 9 wellie