A misty start with a light SW breeze drifting more towards the west during the day. Some hazy sunshine in the afternoon.
"Seawatch" Pete and Jean.
Report by Pete:
Visibility only just beyond buoys for an hour then twice that distance for the second hour of very intermittent seawatching.
A few bits on the sea in poor vis late stages of the tide :
1 Razorbill
5 guillemot
1 Gannet
25, 7, 15 common scoter
7 sandwich tern
2 porpoise
10 swallow.
South shore
It was still very misty when I went down the sea wall this morning (Malcolm), although visibility was starting to improve.
There are a lot of young large gulls around at the moment. This is what No.1 outflow looked like, and this is a big improvement to when I set off.
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| Immature Herring and Lesser Black-Backed gulls resting on the sea wall |
Bar-Tailed Godwit 54 feeding between the outflows.
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| Lesser Black-Backed gull collecting nest material |
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| This Herring Gull in the harbour is already sitting |
Rock Pipit 2 - one near the waterfall was feeding itself. But this one by the lighthouse was taking food to the nest.
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| It will never go to its nest site when it knows it is being watched. It is waiting here on the sloping roundhead wall, its nest is in the harbour wall. |
Linnet 2 between the lighthouse and waterfall.
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| This is what the two buoys out from the north wall looked like when I arrived. The southern yellow buoy was faring better than the northern buoy |
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| But only a few minutes later the southern buoy is almost submerged and a minute or so later it was completely under |
Janet checked later in the tide.
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| Post readers often ask where Potts corner is. It is the car park at Middleton sands, and these Eider are heading straight for it |
These shots are also from Janet, taken at Middleton Nature Reserve yesterday.
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| Male Pheasant |
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| This shot isn't about the Whitethroat, but look at all the insects around the bush! |
Heysham skear (Malcolm)
Just a very quick check,as the inner skear was becoming exposed.
Sandwich Tern 2
Eider 51
Great Crested Grebe 2
Little Egret 3
Grey Heron 1
Oystercatcher initially c300 but they were arriving all the time at least 800 before I left
Whimbrel 7
Knot none at first then c800 arrived
Turnstone 1
Dunlin 31
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| Dunlin |
This moth was trapped in Kevin Eaves' garden. But not in Kevin's trap! Alison Hayward is now running a separate moth trap in Kevin's garden.
She had this rather stunning Orange Footman last night.
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| Orange Footman - It has a southerly distribution in the UK and is not at all common this far North. A first for Alison..... and me! (Kevin) |
While we are talking orange, this clip, also from Kevin close to his home to the east of the recording area.
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| This railway line marks the eastern boundary of the recording area. Fortunately not a very busy line! |
