Not again!

A dry and brighter day with a very light SE breeze.

Heysham Nature Reserve 

Marsh tit caught again! That's the third time in four days on two different Nature Reserves. It was still calling in the tank farm mid morning.

Heysham Skear (Malcolm) 08:30 - 10:30

Pink-Footed goose 15 in one skein south

Wigeon 2 south

Eider 6

Red-Breasted Merganser 4

Great Crested Grebe 9

Grey Heron 3

Little Egret 12

Heron and Little Egret

Shag just one juvenile seen

Juvenile Shag (left) and Cormorant 

Gulls c100 mainly Herring gulls

Oystercatcher 800+

Curlew 40

This Curlew was ringed at Llanrhystud near Aberystwyth, Wales 10/02/2016
Amazingly, this was its first sighting, after almost a decade!

Redshank 140

Knot 280

Knot amongst the Honeycomb worm reefs. It was difficult to check for any 
colour coded  birds, but there was one orange flagged, unfortunately I didn't 
manage to read it

Turnstone 40

Ringed Plover 9

Common Snipe 1 flying around

South shore (Malcolm) 15:00 - 16:15

It was warm with an east breeze, albeit a gentle one. These are conditions that favour insect migration, normally better when the tide is out, which it wasn't. Today, unlike yesterday, the Nature Park was devoid of butterflies other than Speckled Wood.

There were a few butterflies coming in off the sea though.

Small White 16

Red Admiral 5

Small Tortoiseshell 1

Comma 1

The perimeter wall to the Power Stations get very warm in the sun and some stop for a rest

Red Admiral

Small White

Small Tortoiseshell 

Silver Y - spotted by Kevin

Juvenile Great Black-Backed gull and juvenile Herring gull in the harbour 

Shag 4 juveniles - three were resting on the wooden jetty and this one between the wooden jetty and the roundhead.

Juvenile Shag

It tried a bit of fishing 

Then headed off to the north (the skear would be exposing about this time)

Two Cormorants in the harbour 

Rock Pipits 3