Bad light (and raptors) stops play

A light SW wind. Overcast with just a few very light showers.

Middleton Nature Reserve (Malcolm)

Just a quick wildfowl check of the two main ponds.

Mute Swan the pair with a well grown cygnet were back on the "no swimming" pond. The other adult replacing them on the main pond.

Coot 22

Moorhen 8

No Little grebe seen

Mallard 32

Gadwall 18

Tufted Duck 6

Female and male Gadwall

Three Gadwall (front) with three Mallard (rear)

Mallard, two Tufted Duck and two Coot

Heysham skear - low water 17:10 (Malcolm)

Checked a couple of hours before low water, mainly as it would be dark at low water, also we are back to spring tides now and the waders can feed on the outer skear at low water, and I can't get there (without chest waders).

Little Egret 5

Great Crested grebe at least 7

Eider 9

Red-breasted Merganser 7

Red-breasted Merganser and Eider

The male Mergansers were displaying. It always seems to me that the males are more intent on impressing their rivals than the females.

Wader numbers as recent. At least two of the Knot had orange flags, but I only managed to read one. Partly because.....

Peregrine Falcon, there were four attacks, likely from more than one bird.

The light was fading, the waders spooked. Time to leave!

Just out of the recording area (Malcolm)

Horse Paddock behind Middleton Parish Hall.

Green Sandpiper.

Chiffchaff and Goldfinch keep coming, plus Fieldfare passing over

A very light west(ish) breeze. Largely overcast with light fine rain by evening.

Heysham Nature Reserve 

Report by Jean:

Yet more Goldfinches caught today - 15 new ones and 6 retraps. This October 102 new Goldfinches have been ringed. Only 17% of 124 caught have been retrapped indicating that they are moving through whereas 74% of the Great Tits caught have been retraps indicating that they are mostly resident ones. 

Some UK goldfinches get together in flocks and roam around for food in winter but there is a steady food source at the moment on the reserve as there are several feeders so you might expect a higher rate of retraps as there is no need to wander too far for food. The new birds might be those that migrate southwards and notice a core of Goldfinches that are heading to a food source and follow them in. I haven't looked up where Heysham Goldfinches sometimes end up in winter but I've caught a couple in the Lune Valley that had been in Buckinghamshire and Warwickshire in late autumn. Some Goldfinches go as far south as Spain and Portugal.

Today's list:

Woodpigeon 1 new

Coal Tit 1 new

Blue Tit 3 new, 3 retraps

Great Tit 1 new, 6 retraps

Chiffchaff 4 new

Goldcrest 0 new, 1 retrap

Dunnock 1 new

Greenfinch 9 new

Goldfinch 15 new, 6 retraps

The Chiffchaffs keep coming through and there have been NO retraps during September and October. Here's a photo of one of today's Chiffchaffs.

You can see how small it is compared to my fingers and it weighed 7.2 grams which is roughly the same as two one pence coins. Amazing to think how some of these migrate to Southern Europe or even North Africa in the winter, although some stay in the the south of the UK now that winters are milder.

Middleton Nature Reserve (Janet)

Fieldfare c60 flew south

Fieldfare

North shore

Howard checked out the Knot at high water. 

There were c3000 Knot at the heliport, but after two attacks by a Sparrowhawk they flew over to the Sunnyslopes' groyne. They didn't fare much better there, spooked by dog walkers they headed back to the heliport, most on the outer sloping wall.

Heysham skear (Malcolm)

Little Egret 6

Eider 6 (all quickly flew further north)

Four Eider flying north, another on the sea below them

Red-breasted Merganser 5

Male Red-breasted Merganser, showing off his red breast

This pair were fishing (crabbing) and preening in one of the larger pools. You can see that there is still loads of gutweed on the mud.

Great Crested Grebe 11

Mainly individuals feeding

But these two were together 

Oystercatcher 1,500

Curlew just 30 today

Redshank and Turnstone not counted but similar to recent.

Ringed Plover 12 close to shore

Knot only c1,000 arrived at the skear, and very few were colour coded. I had thought none, but eventually spotted two and managed to read one of them.

The melanistic (dark) bird seen yesterday was not present today. Peter Knight identified it as a juvenile as were the other Knot photographed with it (see yesterday's post). Rose Maciewicz kindly sent this link to a very interesting paper on melanism (it isn't all heavy stuff, and there are some nice photographic examples)

https://bioone.org/journals/Bulletin-of-the-British-Ornithologists-Club/volume-137/issue-1/bboc.v137i1.2017.a9/The-dark-side-of-birds-melanismfacts-and-fiction/10.25226/bboc.v137i1.2017.a9.full

Knot provide the main interest

A dry sunny day with a brisk west wind.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Report by Alan:

Another short session on a far from ideal morning.  The breeze was rather strong for mist netting and the WNW direction was not helpful either.
Three Redwings were trapped very early on and a single Lesser Redpoll, Chaffinch and Blackcap. A Wren, Cetti's Warbler, Long tailed Tit and Great Tit were retraps.  

Hopefully the promised easterly airstream at the end of the week will bring some migrants across the country.

Janet had a short walk this afternoon 

Common Snipe 1

Pheasant 1

Both accidentally flushed

Cormorant 

Heysham skear - low water 16:10 (Malcolm)

I went out a couple of hours before low water, mainly as it is getting dark so early now. But also before the skear became too extensive.

Little Egret 3

No Eider

Red-breasted Merganser 2

Great Crested grebe 4

Oystercatcher c1500

Curlew 190 - there were the regular 30 or so feeding on the skear, plus 160 just resting close to shore.

Some of the Curlew resting close inshore 

Same birds, more detail

Didn't count the Redshank or Turnstones, but similar numbers to recent.

No Ringed Plover seen today

Knot 2,000 plus, including 6 orange flagged birds. Initially, they were very flighty and wouldn't settle, but after two attacks from a Peregrine Falcon, they settled down to feed and rest. Presumably the second attack had been successful.

The above shot makes spotting flags look easy.
But for most of the time, most of the legs are obscured 

Herring Gull feeding with Knot

Unusually, one of the Knot had all dark (melanistic) plumage 

Can't say I'm keen on such short days, but it is lovely on the skear
in the "evening" (it was only 15:40!)

I'd like to say it wasn't a washout, but........

There was fine rain/low cloud all day. A light SW wind.

Heysham skear - low water 15:30 (Malcolm)

It was definitely fine rain as I walked out, although the clouds were almost at ground level.

This is looking past Heysham Head towards the harbour and Power Stations

There were no feeding hoards of gulls over the sea today 

Little Egret 6

Eider 2

Red-breasted Merganser 1

Great Crested grebe 3

Great Crested grebe

By the time I'd got as far as the tide allowed, the rain eased and the clouds
were lifting - I could see half of the Power Stations now.

Wader numbers similar to yesterday, although less Knot today at 750. Just one colour coded bird was seen.  Unfortunately, as the rain stopped a Peregrine Falcon began hunting and continually lifted the small waders.

Knot, Redshank and Oystercatcher 

Also Knot, Redshank and Oystercatcher 

Curlew and Redshank

The clouds were getting lower again and the Peregrine had just pushed all the waders away from me. It was time to leave.

This is the same view as the first shot, albeit from the other side of the skear.
The light rain had begun again as I got back to my car.

Middleton Nature Reserve (Malcolm)

I just called in briefly on my way home.

There were no Gadwall today.

Tufted Duck 7

Mallard 14

Little grebe 1

Mute, Coot and Moorhen unchanged

Cetti's warbler 1 singing by the "no swimming" pond

Kingfisher bonus

A dry but cooler day. A stiff SW wind developing in the afternoon 

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Report by Alan

It was quite chilly and very damp but calm before dawn.  Three Roe Deer were panicking on the road in front of the car as I approached the UU entrance in the dark.  One flock of about 60 Pink-footed Geese flew southwards over the power stations soon after I arrived.  A Jack Snipe was disturbed out of the western reedbed fringe soon after eleven o'clock.

The weather synopsis was far from ideal for ringing at Middleton this morning but I set a couple of nets anyway.  The catch was predictably low but did include an unexpected Kingfisher.

There were a few grounded Blackbirds. About a dozen Redwings were feeding in Hawthorn bushes on the reserve but they were mostly too busy to be attracted by my Mp3 player.

Ringed were:

Redwing   2

Lesser Redpoll  2 

Singles of  Kingfisher, Goldcrest, Great Tit, Chaffinch, Blackbird & Chiffchaff (retrap).

photo by John Mason
Hopefully we will be able to see if this is the one that frequents Red Nab, Although
Alan advises that spotting its ring may be difficult as they have such short legs.

A few more shots from the main pond yesterday - Janet

Coot

Mallard

Little Grebe

Heysham skear - low water 14:45 (Malcolm)

There weren't so many gulls feeding today (see yesterday's post). Just one group and much more mobile. Whatever they were feeding on, it must be small Whitebait, was clearly not as static as yesterday. The sea was much choppier today which would have made spotting the fish more difficult for the gulls.

Again mainly Black-Headed gulls

Little Egret 5

Little Egret

Red-breasted Merganser 2 

No Eider or Great Crested grebes seen

Oystercatcher 2,000

Curlew 30

Curlew and Oystercatcher with Knot

Knot 1,000 + they were feeding today which at least gives you a chance of checking more legs for rings. Even so, most of the legs are out of sight for most of the time.

Yesterday's orange flagged bird was still around. It is a non-breeding 2nd calendar year bird ringed in Bangor, Wales in March this year, and has been seen in several Merseyside venues over the summer.

Two more flagged birds were seen today.

One of the new flagged Knot - details awaited

One of these Knot still has a hint of summer plumage 

Redshank 40

Turnstone 50

Ringed Plover 25

Ringed Plover

Gull feeding puzzle, lots of Chiffchaff and a Pearl trio

A dry sunny day with a light south(ish) wind.

Heysham Nature Reserve 

Report by Jean:

Another ringing session at the Heysham "feeder ride" with even more Goldfinches! 17 were caught today.  Here's the full list:

Blue Tit 1 new, 1 retrap

Great Tit 0 new, 1 retrap

Chiffchaff 6 new

Dunnock 0 new, 2 retraps

Bullfinch 1 new

Greenfinch 3 new

Goldfinch 13 new, 4 retraps

All retraps were recent (from mid September onwards).

Many of the Goldfinches, like the Chiffchaffs, are passing through. Some end up as far south as Spain for the winter. 

4 Fieldfare seen this morning and 2 groups of Siskin over (heard only) - Nick Godden

South shore (Malcolm)

A walk from the saltmarsh then along the sea wall.

Shelduck 83 feeding on the mud.

Wigeon 143 resting by Red Nab then next to No.2 outfall.

Some of the Wigeon by No.2 outfall

Rock Pipit 3 (foreshore, Red Nab and Lighthouse)

Lighthouse Rock Pipit

Linnet 13 initially near the waterfall then flew across the harbour to the old sandworks.

Linnet

By this time it was 10:30. Looking north from the lighthouse were three huge swarms of feeding gulls more or less where the skear is.

One of three feeding groups of gulls, all this size.

A bit of a shaky clip, they were some distance away, but it shows the activity.

So, after lunch, I went out on the skear for a closer look.

By this time it was 13:15 and the gulls were still feeding, although only two and smaller groups now, one on the north side and one on the south side of the skear. This is the south side group. You can see the gulls diving into the water.

The gull bottom centre is diving in

The gull bottom, left of centre looks to have a small fish or at least 
part of a small fish

They continued feeding till slack water at 14:00. Whatever is happening it is obviously something to do with these very low neap tides. The water only moves very slowly, so it must have been concentrating something at either side of the skear. Not shrimps as they are bottom feeders and the water would have been a couple of metres deep when I saw them from the north side. I need to give it some more thought, but my only current theory is that plankton was being concentrated in pockets, which then attracted small fish, likely Whitebait, which the gulls duly fed on. But it is hard to imagine shoals of whitebait hanging around for three hours whilst being attacked by gulls. 

The gulls were mainly Black-Headed, but also young Herring and Lesser Black-Backed. Plus at least one Mediterranean gull. You would have to expect a repeat performance tomorrow.

No Eider or Mergansers seen

Great Crested Grebe 2

Great Crested Grebe

Oystercatcher 1500

Curlew 30

Redshank 60

Knot 1,000

Knot resting on the skear

Two were colour coded, but I only managed to read one - details awaited 

This time it was a raptor that spooked them.
A Peregrine Falcon attacked twice

Turnstone 65

Ringed Plover 36 at the shore side of the inner skear.

Some of the Ringed Plover

Middleton Nature Reserve (Janet)

Redwing 1 south

Meadow Pipit 5 feeding

Meadow Pipit

Stonechat 1

Stonechat 

The young Mute Swan was getting flying lessons

Common Darters

Both Kevin and Alison had Olive-tree Pearl moths in their traps this morning, three in total.

Palpita vitrealis (Olive-tree Pearl) Another migrant from Southern Europe