A light west wind, with some south in it to begin with then more NW later. Mainly sunny.
To further qualify yesterday's comments regarding poor seawatching at Heysham. Walney had a good early morning seawatch yesterday 0600-0900hrs (eg 7 Arctic Skuas and puffins) but there was no water in the bay at that time and nothing happened from 1030 on as the tide started coming in!
Middleton Nature Reserve
Janet had a walk around exercising a dog.
The Mute Swan pair had their young on display - 9. This is the same number as they hatched last year.
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| Some of the nine cygnets |
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| Male Common Whitethroat |
A nice sequence of the swallows feeding......
.......and collecting nest building mud near Tradebe
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| Male Orange Tip |
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| Immature male Azure Blue damselfly |
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| Common Blue Tail damselfly All the above are high resolution shots, this is a particularly nice one, and definitely worth opening to appreciate |
Kevin Eaves had a walk around the reserve in the afternoon and managed to tick off eight warbler species singing. The ninth was not heard today, but yesterday Janet heard a Grasshopper Warbler singing, and it will still be around.
I didn't have much time today and just managed a short walk on the north shore towards low water (MD).
Eider, Great Crested Grebe and Red-breasted Merganser similar to yesterday.
The only waders, apart from Oystercatcher were Whimbrel 3, Ringed Plover 5, Turnstone 1
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| Turnstone - looking splendid in summer plumage |
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| Male Ringed Plover |
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| Female Ringed Plover |
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| Despite their bold markings they are well camouflaged in this terrain There are three Ringed Plover in this shot |
