Almost breathless, what air movement there was came from the south. Overcast and warm till mid afternoon then the skies cleared after a short shower. Then sunny and hot.
Middleton Nature Reserve
Some shots from Janet:
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| Swallows bathing |
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| Male Common Darter |
I just did a quick check of the main pond late afternoon (MD)
Mute Swan pair plus 7 well grown cygnets
Coot 6
Moorhen 1
Mallard 5
Little Grebe 1 in summer plumage, dived as soon as it saw me and didn't surface in view again. First one seen in quite a while
Cetti's warbler 1 singing from "no swimming" pond
Common Darter 3
Migrant Hawker 3
This time last year we fixed a branched post in the NE corner of the pond, hoping to attract fish eating birds. Today, it did just that, but not exactly the target species!
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| Grey Heron perched on top of the perching post. |
Heysham skear - low water 14:30 (MD)
Low water today was only 3.4m. This morning's "high" water was 6.8m. So the tide moved a total of 3.4m in 7 hours! I've seen bigger waves!
No Eider.
Great Crested Grebe 1
Red-breasted Merganser 4 - what I took to be a female with 3 immature flew in together.
Then started feedingLittle Egret 6
Oystercatcher c300
Curlew c150
Redshank c150
Turnstone c60
Knot c800 - it was nice seeing flocks of Knot flying around again. These are two of the four main groups.
They often just rest on the skear, but today they were actively feeding, and seeming to find food easily.
Dunlin 2
Ringed Plover 10 restricted to a small area of inner skear near the Sandylands groyne, that remains mussel free.
Black-Tailed Godwit 4 - a single bird plus three together. All in fading summer or juvenile plumage.
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| This is the lone bird. The Herring gulls continue to find some small mussels |
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| It flew off to the middle of the inner skear |
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| Two of the three together, one clearly showing its black tail |
