More Little than BHG!

Very heavy overnight rain. A fresh south wind, largely sunny with the odd shower in the morning increasing cloud in the afternoon leading to evening rain.

South shore

I went along the wall at high water 08:40 (MD)

At No.2 outflow there were just two species feeding

Little Gull 7 - 1 adult, 1 second calendar year and 5 first calendar year. This clip is remarkable, not for what you can see, just a 1cy and adult Little Gull, but for what is missing, not a single Black-Headed gull was feeding here.

The only other species was.....

Arctic Tern 1 juvenile 

It isn't as though there was nothing to attract the other gulls, the juvenile Arctic Tern easily picks a Whitebait off the surface towards the end of this clip.

When Janet checked at lunchtime there were a few Black-Headed Gulls feeding with the Little Gulls, but not many.

1cy Little Gull with 2 BHG

1st calendar year Little Gulls

Also this morning:

Shelduck 25 at saltmarsh

Wigeon c70 around Red Nab

No Rock Pipits seen or heard again today.

This orange ringed Cormorant was on the wooden jetty, frustratingly just beyond my capability to read.

It is just in front of the lighthouse on the wooden jetty. I've seen it here before.
High water is always best for seeing Cormorants roosting here. This shot is 30x optical magnification
zoomed to 60x digitally. It should be within reading range of good scope with a decent zoom

Mediterranean Gull 1 adult resting on Red Nab

Mediterranean Gull (top) with Black-Headed Gull

This Mediterranean Gull was on Red Nab 31/08/23. It was ringed as a nestling 
at Leipzig Germany 18/06/22 and was seen in Newport Wales 12/11/22 and
Dawlish Warren Devon 21/07/23

Two days ago it was seen at Alderney in the Channel Islands. Wayne Turner nicely summarised its history with this map.

Thanks to John Horton for the record and Guy McClelland for spotting this on Alderney Observation Blog.

Chiffchaff 1 calling in the Nature Park

North Shore

Report and Pictures by Howard Stockdale 

The  helipad Knot were displaced by the female Sparrowhawk within 10 minutes of my arrival.

Female Sparrowhawk

The Knot looked like they were going to land on the naze but did many passes before heading over to the headland where they stayed until around 11.0am, they were too far off for any viewable sightings so I watched the Turnstone feeding on the shoreline on the skear in the hope the Knot would eventually arrive but alas they didn't.

Turnstone with what remains of a Hermit crab

Turnstone with a Cockle

Redshank 

Just out of the recording area  - Newgate White Lund - first Waxwing (ref Pete - see https://lancasterbirdwatching.org.uk/forums/forum/bird-insect-sightings/  for details)