A nice sunny day......so, butterflies and sunflowers

Another dry and largely sunny day with a slight NW wind.

Red Nab

I didn't have much time today, just a quick lunchtime check of Red Nab towards high water (MD).

Mediterranean gulls 36+ there were 26 on Red Nab, but many of today's gulls were flying directly from where they had been resting on the shore towards Potts Corner. At leat 10 Meds seen doing this.

The ones that were on Red Nab were mainly squatting, making darvic ring spotting difficult. I did manage two, but they had been read previously this year. These are some of the Red Nab gulls.

This was one of yesterday's new birds and the first German ringed one this year.
Ringed in Saxony in 2019 as a nestling and has subsequently been seen in France,
Wales, Portugal and Holland. This is its first record at Heysham

Redshank 15

Ringed Plover 2

Ringed Plover

The rest of today's stuff from Janet

Rock Pipit on Red Nab

Janet also reported flushing a "silent Snipe" from Middleton yesterday.

There was a good selection of butterflies on the Nature Park/dog walk Buddleia.

Comma

Red Admiral

Worn Small White

Large White

Brimstone 

Peacock

Female Common Blue

Male Common Blue

Also abundant were Meadow Brown and Gatekeeper 

Janet took this shot of the Sunflowers growing along the sea wall at Red Nab. They have done really well this summer as the tides have been relatively low and the the weather was calm during the higher tides. There must be 100+ plants along the foreshore and Red Nab, but not all as splendid as these.

Sunflowers along the high water line. The seeds obviously deposited 
by the tide, but you wonder where they come from in such numbers
Unless we get storms, they should be fine till the first week of August