Well......not even the ducks were impressed!

It rained all day!  Light east wind till after lunch then it switched to north.

Middleton Nature Reserve (Malcolm)

Just a quick check of the two main ponds.

The cygnet has rejoined the adults on the main pond.

No Mallard, no Gadwall and just 5 Tufted Duck

1 winter plumage Little Grebe

Coot 20

Moorhen 2

South shore (Malcolm)

A check from Red Nab to saltmarsh in the morning and a walk along the sea wall in the evening.

Shelduck 23

Wigeon 15 - on Red Nab this morning, resting on the mud between outfalls this evening.

Some of the Red Nab Wigeon

This evening's resting Wigeon

Rock Pipit 5. 3 together on the foreshore this morning, 2 along the sea wall this evening.

Wheatear 2

Wheatear in the rain

Linnet c60

Linnet shaking off the rain

Pied Wagtail 57 feeding on Ocean Edge grass this evening 

Chiffchaff 1 in the same small piece of scrub at the Red Nab end of the foreshore as the Sedge warbler was in the other week

The only waders feeding high up the shore were Redshank 175

Redshank having a rest on the foreshore 

Grey plover 2 with c 150 oystercatcher along the waterline

Snipe 2 - one this morning and one this evening flew high over the saltmarsh towards Middleton Nature Reserve 

Lapwing just 1 seen

Mediterranean gull 1 adult flew along the sea wall this evening. There were no gulls on the beach by the wooden jetty

Little Egret 4

Grey Heron 1

Kingfisher 1 this evening resting on the rocks at the side of No.2 outfall.

The Kingfisher is in the centre of this location shot

The Shelduck this evening were feeding where I photographed the tiny snails (see post 24/09/24). They will be feeding on them in this clip.

The weather is set to be fairer tomorrow 

You have to learn quickly to survive

A dry, mainly sunny, but cool day. A light SE wind.

South shore (Malcolm)

Just a look out on the shore again this morning. There was a mixed flock of Knot and Bar-Tailed Godwit on the waterline before flying further south, similar numbers to yesterday.

Curlew 89

Oystercatcher 30

Redshank 62 near the saltmarsh 

Lapwing 8 on the saltmarsh 

Common Snipe 2 flew high towards Middleton Nature Reserve (later Janet flushed one on the reserve)

Little Egret 7

Grey Heron 1

Grey Heron had been on the saltmarsh then flew towards Middleton Nature Reserve 

Cetti's warbler singing just south of the caravan park

Linnet 40 on saltmarsh 

Wheatear 3 along foreshore 

Wheatear 

Pied Wagtail 2 south

Shelduck 97

Wigeon 5 on Red Nab

Wigeon and Shelduck

Mediterranean gull 8 on Red Nab

This green ringed German Med has been around all summer,
although it has not been seen for a month

Peregrine Falcon 1 - today's lesson for the Carrion Crows was how not to get eaten! The Peregrines here seldom bother the crows, particularly as there were thousands of waders further south. It must have sensed an opportunity, presumably some were young and inexperienced. It attacked them for over 5 minutes and almost caught them in flight, but rested when they were grounded. 

It was seen off this time but soon returned and repeated the attack. But this
time the crows had learned, and were quicker to group on the shore. The Peregrine
eventually gave up and flew to the south, where it duly lifted all the small waders

Middleton Nature Reserve (Malcolm)

Just a quick look at the two main ponds. The water level on the "no swimming" pond is now only 0.5m above its normal level. Strangely, the young swan was there alone.

Solitary cygnet on the "no swimming" pond. There were two adults
on the main pond, perhaps they are flying between the two ponds,
but the female doesn't normally leave her young alone

Tufted Duck 10 (9 on main pond)

Mallard 8

Gadwall 4 (3 males)

Gadwall

Water Rail 1 calling

Cetti's warbler and Chiffchaff both singing 

The Mute family were still separated when Angela Gillon checked mid afternoon. 

Also:

Sparrowhawk flew over main pond 

2 Swallows heading out in the direction of the sea.

Half-Moon Bay

Rock Pipit 5 - 3 near the cafe plus 2 between slipway and the rocky outcrop (Malcolm)

Long-Eared Owl and another(?) Yellow-Brow

A cold start to the day, it was mainly dry with just a couple of showers, one heavy in the afternoon. A light variable breeze till lunchtime when it freshened a little from the west.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Report by Jean:

On arrival just before it got light, a Long-eared Owl, illuminated by the headlights on Pete's car, shot out of the bush nearest the road and headed low just to the north of where I was putting up a net. Interestingly Cetti's Warblers which have been vocal recently before dawn were conspicuous by their silence. A new one was caught and ringed. Have the others moved on??

It was a fairly quiet morning with 21 birds ringed over a period of 5.5 hours. The Chiffchaffs continued to pile through and nearly 40% of the catch consisted of Chiffchaffs. A Yellow-browed Warbler was seen in the vicinity of one of the nets but it cannily avoided going in. It had a metal ring on one leg, suggesting it may be the one caught recently on the reserve.

List of birds ringed (unusually no retraps):

 Blue Tit 1

Great Tit 2

Cetti's Warbler 1

Long-tailed Tit 2

Chiffchaff 8

Blackcap 1

Wren 2

Robin 1

Grey Wagtail 1 (though 3 others ignored the nets)

 Meadow Pipit 2

There was hardly any visible migration but birds were up there. Winter thrushes are arriving: 2 Redwing dropped in, followed by another 2 later on and a total of 6 Song Thrushes flew in. Noisy Blackbirds heard before it got light may well have been resting migrants.

Other vis:

Pink-footed Goose 95

Jackdaw 2

Rook 2

Carrion Crow 3

Skylark 3+

Grey Wagtail 4 (includes the one ringed)

Pied Wagtail 4

Meadow Pipit c10

Greenfinch 2

Linnet 4

Goldfinch 5

Siskin 1+

Reed Bunting 2

Also present:

Water Rail 2

Mediterranean Gull - 2 flew over later in the morning heading for the shore.

Common Darter from Janet. Also a Chiffchaff heard

South shore (Malcolm)

A walk out from the saltmarsh as the tide was rising. We are still on neap tides, but that is about to change quickly.

Grey Plover 3 resting high up the shore, near the saltmarsh.

Grey Plover

Not only do these tides come in slowly, there were no waves reaching the shore. This tends not to move the non feeding waders forward till the water is "too high", then they all move off. So it was today.

Bar-Tailed Godwit 93

Knot 100

Bar-Tailed Godwit and Knot, graded by leg length.
The air was still cold, causing the water vapour from No.2 outfall to condense.
And the hills of the South Lakes nicely lit by the morning sun 

Not long after the above shot they were off

Dunlin 40 

Sanderling 1 - these were feeding so mainly in front of the waterline, but some distance away,

Sanderling just behind the Carrion Crow

This location shot shows it to be just out from the sloping sea wall

Curlew 30

Oystercatcher 60

Mediterranean gull 13 - 11 at the waterline (unfortunately all with legs obscured) plus 2 on Red Nab.

Mediterranean gulls

It was 09:30, high water. This is the view looking back to the saltmarsh 
A vast expanse of dry mud, only fit for resting on, but by Tuesday it should
be full of feeding opportunities again higher up the beach.

Ringed Plover 7 flew south

Ringed Plover

Redshank 58 near the saltmarsh 

Lapwing 42

Shelduck 125. Nothing to feed on the beach at high water, so they took to upending to feed on the invertebrates on the mud below. In this clip they are directly above the drain they were feeding on yesterday, and no doubt fed there again when the tide ebbed today. You wouldn't think a few tiny molluscs would justify this effort. They must have been hungry.

Pink-Footed goose 89 south in 2 skeins  - not the same as seen from Middleton so 184 total 

Linnet 50+ on saltmarsh 

Wheatear 2 along foreshore 

Rock Pipit 1 on foreshore 

Little Egret 9 between saltmarh and Red Nab

Immature Little Egret, Med gull and a Bar-Tailed Godwit on Red Nab

Wigeon 1 on Red Nab

Wigeon

The Carrion Crows were feeding on Periwinkles again at the start of the sea wall

Meadow Pipits 5 in off

Skylark 1 grounded and giving a fine display 

Skylark with a bouffant Dusty Springfield would be proud of

Upper shore now pretty much sterile

A dry day with plenty of sunshine, but a cold north wind.

South shore (Malcolm)

A morning walk on the shore on the ebbing tide. The upper shore hasn't been covered by the tide for three days now, and despite yesterday's rain it is pretty dry. There is no sign of the small molluscs the inshore waders have been feeding on (they will be deeper in the mud out of reach). Understandably, there were no waders near the shoreline.

Shelduck 97 - but again the acres of tiny snails earlier this week, are now reduced to the areas where the tide has still reached. Most were along this drain.

Shelduck now restricted to the diminishing areas still covered by the these neap tides

There were some waders along the waterline, I don't normally go out on the ebbing tide as the waders are likely to move on. And most did.

c350 Knot and 20 Bar-Tailed Godwit flew off before I could get near the waterline. All that remained were

Grey Plover 29

Knot 4

Dunlin 4

A few of the Grey Plover and the SeaTruck displaying a nasty scrape!

The receding tide was exposing a sandbar. Black Combe on the background 

Meadow Pipit 2 in off

Swallow 1 in off

Mediterranean gulls 5 - 3 along the beach plus 2 on Red Nab.

Mediterranean gull on right. Resting Bar-Tailed Godwit on left

On the saltmarsh 

Lapwing 46

Redshank 23

Little Egret 4

Little Egret and Redshank

Linnet 52

Kevin checked this afternoon 

Wheatear 3 (2 along foreshore and 1 at the lighthouse).

I had a walk along the sea wall this evening (Malcolm)

Rock Pipit 2 together near the lighthouse 

Eider 1 female

There was a large gathering of feeding gulls way out in the bay.

The only explanation I can think of would be a huge shoal of small fish (Whitebait or Sandeels) being attacked by larger fish (Bass and/or Garfish).

In the Nature Park:

Common Darter 1

Red Admiral 1

Small White 1

This young Carrion Crow was getting an etiquette lesson

Trying hard not to spook the gulls

Calm and dry till just after 09:00, then rain for most of the day. The NE wind was quite strong by early evening.

Heysham Nature Reserve 

Ringing report by Pete:

Absolutely dead in the calm weather window pre 0900 

just four chiffchaff which have been around for a bit I think.  

Surrounded by cloud and rain blocking overhead movement  

South shore (Malcolm)

Same morning walk as yesterday, but today in the pouring rain!

Along foreshore all grounded

Meadow Pipit 6

Rock Pipit 1

Pied Wagtail 2

Wheatear 2

It was raining too hard to get a Wheatear shot today, this is one from yesterday 

Shelduck 25

Just a handful of small waders feeding close to the shoreline 

Dunlin 34

Ringed Plover 17

Mediterranean gull 19 including 1 second calendar year and 1 third calendar year - at least most were stood for most of the time today. Three had darvic rings, unfortunately although they were all together, it wasn't a tight group and also included other gulls. Approaching close enough to check the rings, was invariably too close for the outer birds causing them and others to move a little further south. By the time I'd managed to read all three, they were well past the faux castle. And after all that stalking, all three birds have been seen here previously this year. Still, good practice.

This well traveled bird was ringed in the Netherlands in 2019
More details can be found in the Annual Report, see side bar.
Or the Lancashire Bird report - see bottom of today's post

Same Med, this time with a Black-Headed Gull and Common gull

This is the 3rd calendar year - ringed as a nestling in France in 2022
Now looking adult

An evening walk along the sea wall - still raining! And by now the NE wind was surprisingly strong.

Wheatear 3 

Rock Pipit 5 (1 Red Nab, 2 + 1 along the sea wall and 1 at the lighthouse)

It was sheltered from the wind and rain on the sloping wall.
This Rock Pipit wasn't for moving

Kingfisher 1 flew past No.1 outfall

Grey Seal 1 near No.1 outfall

Grey Seal, closer to shore than typical 

A comprehensive account of the birds of Lancashire in 2023 - essential reading for local birders with plenty of Heysham input, especially ringing recoveries.  Please visit Lancashire and Cheshire Fauna Society website to obtain a copy 

https://lacfs.org.uk/

Yellow-Browed warbler and other goodies!

Generally overcast with the odd sunny spell. One heavy shower 08:30, other than that the odd light shower.

Middleton Nature Reserve

John was ringing, just a summary for now.

Yellow-Browed warbler 1 ringed

Yellow-Browed warbler

Other catches included an impressive for this time of year 11 Chiffchaff. 

Also Blackcap, new Cetti’s warbler and a single Grey Wagtail

Great White Egret 1 south from the direction of the main pond

South shore (Malcolm)

A mid morning walk along the foreshore then along the shoreline beyond the saltmarsh.

Wheatear 6 grounded

Rock Pipit 2 grounded

Meadow Pipit 45 - in off then SE

Skylark 5 individuals also in off then SE

Pied Wagtail 8 grounded 6 south

Linnet 41 feeding on samphire seeds on the saltmarsh 

Linnet

Swallow 3 south (plus 1 this evening)

Jackdaw 4 south

Raven 3 (2 + 1) south

Raven 

Two Raven and a pretend raptor

A real raptor lifted everything off the saltmarsh, a Marsh Harrier most likely a juvenile. Unfortunately it was quite distant with the light behind it, so no decent shots.

Pink-Footed goose 147 south in 4 skeins

Shelduck 26

Little Egret 4

Lapwing 37 lifted by the harrier

A walk south to the southern boundary of the recording area (the buildings around the faux castle) saw no small waders feeding in close, till I got to the castle. Just one small group 12 Dunlin and 10 Ringed Plover. I was just about to walk back when a juvenile Curlew Sandpiper flew in and joined them.

Juvenile Curlew Sandpiper, slightly darker than yesterday's pale bird

I do like it when a bird walks towards me.

Mediterranean gull 25 at least, including 1 2nd calendar year. They were mostly sat on the mud in two main groups, plus others scattered around.

2nd calendar year Med on right

The Med bottom left has a white darvic ring

Robin perched on the "What to see on the Salt Marsh" notice

I returned this evening hoping the light rain at that time would mean any Meds would be standing rather than sitting, and indeed it was. Shame there was only one and not ringed!

There were a lot of waders on the waterline and these neap tides only come in slowly and was unlikely to move them on.

Bar-Tailed Godwit 30

Oystercatcher 15

Grey Plover 80

Knot 300

Dunlin 500

And that was just the group directly in front of me, many more, still within the recording area were a little further south.

Knot, Bar-Tailed Godwit, Dunlin, Grey Plover and Oystercatcher 

Some of the Grey Plover still largely in summer plumage

Only a few of the Knot still had any red from summer plumage.
The second from bottom Knot here has an orange flag. Too far to read yet,
but the tide was pushing it towards me. I only had to stand still and wait.

Then a Grey Heron flew north above the waterline and lifted everything!

Knot and Dunlin heading off

Suddenly I was alone on a deserted beach! So I walked back to check any inshore feeding birds. Just one small group of Dunlin and Ringed Plover, possibly the same group seen this morning. No Curlew Sandpiper with them now, but second prize wasn't bad.

Sanderling 2 juveniles 

The speed they move makes this clip look like a Charlie Chaplin film!