An overnight frost but a mainly warm sunny day. A light NE breeze to begin with moved to west mid morning.
Report from Pete:
Sea Heysham 0655-0755.
11 sandwich tern in,
5 Red throated diver out (including one in winter plumage and three high birds),
just 3 Common Scoter
Shag 1 on wooden jetty
a possible White Stork in the heat haze over the other side - thought circling distant adult gannet then obviously further away as disappeared behind trees - shame about the heat haze!!! If it was a Stork, it would most likely be one of the free flying birds at Dalton in Furness Zoo.
South shore 08:00 - 09:00 (MD)
Shelduck 12 - 8 near Red Nab plus another 4 flew north. These are some of the Red Nab birds, just arriving and enjoying the fresh water in the run off from Red Nab.
Linnet 3 on the foreshore plus 9 between lighthouse and waterfall.Rock,Pipit, just the lighthouse bird seen today
Wheatear 1
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| Not had a Wheatear shot for a while |
This Cormorant has almost swallowed a decent sized Bass, but the second bird is still trying to prevent it!
Kittiwake 3 x 2nd calendar year alternating between feeding on the outflows and resting on their pipe in the harbour
Yesterday I managed to read this colour ringed Herring Gull resting on No.2 outflow (part of the NW England Gull project - see link on the sidebar).
The reason I am mentioning it now is that there was a surge of large gulls this morning, first on the sea, then some moved to the wooden jetty. Out of range today, but always worth checking any you see for rings.
This clip shows some of today's gulls resting on the wooden jetty, it pans to where the Shag was (and favours) resting. You may also notice roosting Turnstone.
There were also quite a few young gulls on the platforms in the harbour, unfortunately none ringed today. This one's instincts tell it that this is the time of year to collect nesting material, but it doesn't know why yet! You can see an adult Herring Gull sitting on a nest on the platform behind.
Turnstone 75 seen resting on wooden jetty, probably another 25 out of sight.
Heysham Skear - low water 14:50 (MD)
14:50 was the predicted low water time, in reality it was more like 14:20. Neap tides are much more difficult to accurately predict precise timings for, fortunately they come in so slowly it rarely matters. Still you should always watch the water to ensure you know if it is going out or coming in.
Eider 53 - once again mainly males attracted to the few remaining females. There are 10 males and 1 female in this clip.
Red-breasted Merganser 12
Great Crested Grebe 3
Little Egret 4
Shag 1 almost certainly the one on the wooden jetty earlier. It flew to the NW side of the skear to feed as the tide started to make.
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| Immature Shag, probably the 3rd calendar year |
Not many waders today:
c500 Oystercatcher, c100 Redshank, 5 Turnstone, 2 Curlew
It's green jelly blob season again! For new post readers, these blobs of green jelly are the egg sacs for some species of Ragworm. At this time of year, they are often strewn across the beach, but for now, most remain anchored, where they were laid. They may have a good year, this year as there are no obvious storms on the horizon.
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| Green jelly blobs as they should be seen, safely anchored in a small rock pool |
Kevin Eaves took this nice shot of a male Reed Bunting near the main pond on Middleton Nature Reserve
Male Orange Tip butterfly on Heysham Moss Lane is the first record for this year - ref Janet
