A fresh WNW wind. Sunny.
Heysham skear - low water 09:30 (MD)
I walked the tide in.
Osprey 1 female. The tide had already turned as I reached the western edge of the middle skear. All the gulls and Oystercatchers on the middle and outer skear suddenly lifted. For once the culprit was within visual range. This clip starts with some of the Oystercatcher above the Osprey. She flew into the wind, oblivious to the other birds, with her eyes fixed on the sea.
She was fishing for over 30 minutes, sometimes just a distant speck to the west, other times almost overhead. 
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| Unringed female Osprey |
I didn't see her dive, but it's difficult keeping track of something like this when you are on the skear, particularly when the tide is coming in. You have to watch your step and keep an eye on the tide. Anyway, eventually I looked back and there was no sign of her, but all the gulls were up again. I presumed she had managed to catch something and landed with it, probably somewhere on the skear, but I failed to relocate her.
Little Egret 3
Shelduck 1
Eider 1 male
Great Crested Grebe 3
Red-breasted Merganser 2
Oystercatcher c300 - more on outer skear
Curlew 5
Whimbrel 2
Turnstone 5
Ringed Plover 1
Dunlin 4
Sanderling 13 - there was a flock of 12 flushed by the tide from the outer skear, these flew low to the north. A single bird was in association with the four Dunlin on the middle skear.
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| Sanderling with Dunlin |
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| Detail of Dunlin |
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| Detail of Sanderling |
This is interesting, the Sanderling fails to catch a smallish shrimp, then when it disturbs a larger shrimp, the shrimp bounces around (they do this till they re-land in water or wet mud). In this case the bouncing appears to scare the Sanderling off - don't think it's cut out to be a shrimper!
A quick check in the evening as the skear was becoming exposed again didn't locate any Sanderling
Middleton Nature Reserve
Janet advises that the Cetti's Warbler has been singing in the bushes at the NW corner of the main pond for at least two weeks now.
This is the Wall from today's title. Kevin Eaves spotted this The Wall butterfly near the gate at the back of Red Nab. It was there both on his way out and on his return. So may hang around. This is the first confirmed record for several years.
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| The Wall male - not behaving badly for a change! |
