Black Tern, briefly

A fresh west-SW wind. Heavy showers throughout the day, but sunny spells in between.

South Shore

Pete had a scan from Ocean Edge c11:20:

Juvenile Black tern Heysham two outfall, first seen near outer end then worked its way up the outfall then swept high into the air on the inner end and disappeared!

(Two also seen at Leighton Moss at 10:30, moulting adult and juvenile, relocated in Cumbria on the Bela est and three at Conder pool - looks like they just whizzed through)

A qucik check of the gulls on Red Nab located 4 Mediterranean gulls - 2 adults, a 2nd and a 1st calendar year 

I checked twice (Malcolm)

10:45 - 12:15 

Linnet 30+ on the saltmarsh 

Wheatear 1 along the foreshore 

Wheatear keeping its head down out of the wind

Rock Pipit 6 - 5 at Red Nab and 1 near the waterfall 

As I reached the beach near the wooden jetty the tide was covering it quickly. But I had time to see that much of the soft mud had been scoured off and the Sandmason worms tubes were showing well again.

Plenty of gulls were feeding on the worms, but most were Black-Headed. There were three Mediterranean gulls, an adult and one each 1st and 2nd calendar year. They flew towards Red Nab when the tide flushed them, probably included in Pete's count.

Adult and 1cy Mediterranean gulls (centre)
You can see some of the Sandmason worm tubes, not exactly a forrest,
but much better than it had been.

In this clip the gulls are waiting for the worms to show, before trying to grab them. You can see islands of the soft mud covering some areas, I don't know how much mud has been removed further up the beach, but I'll have a look tomorrow.

By the time I got to the Nature Park, the sun was shining and it was quite busy.

Swallow 1 feeding

Migrant Hawker 1

Common Darter 3

Red Admiral 2

Comma 1

Large White 3

Green-Veined White 1

Comma

I returned late afternoon on the ebbing tide.

Guillemot 1

Guillemot battling the waves along the sea wall

Adult and 1st calendar year Mediterranean gull heading towards the 
feeding beach, an hour before it will be exposed.

So far this afternoon it had been fine, but I checked my weather "app"

Looking into the wind it was chucking it down! 
A 98% probability of getting wet before reaching my car......wet I got!

Middleton Nature Reserve (Malcolm)

Just a quick passing check of the main pond. The wildfowl is flourishing with the reduced disturbance (new fencing and no aggressive male Mute Swan). Some of the Gadwall and Tufted seemed to be commuting to and back from the "no swimming" pond. I didn't have time to check it today.

Mute Swan 1 adult plus 7 well grown cygnets 

Mallard 37

Tufted Duck 22 at least

Gadwall 8 at least

Coot 12

Moorhen 2

Little Grebe 1

Little Grebe

This clip starts on feeding Gadwall and pans through some of the resting Tufted Duck

Relaxed Tufted Duck. The above shots taken from the bottom car park

Swallow 3 feeding