Light rain early on, then dry and mainly sunny in the afternoon. A light SW wind.
Heysham skear (Malcolm)
I checked twice 07:30 - 09:00 as the tide was uncovering the skear, then 13:00 - 14:00 as it covered it again.
Eider 4 (2 each male and female)
Little Egret 4
Oystercatcher just 100 this morning 400 this afternoon.
Bar-Tailed Godwit 1 this morning.
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| Bar-Tailed Godwit with a splash of summer plumage |
Curlew 1 this afternoon
Gulls, just 150 when I started this morning, but had grown to 450 by the time I left. Fortunately many were resting waiting for the feeding areas to be available and I managed to read three ringed birds, one new for here.
This afternoon there were 800 gulls on the sea and around the margins, plus a further 300 on a sandbar. They will all have been shrimping in the ideal conditions with the light SW wind. Those closer to shore still were, as were the Egrets. Shrimping in these conditions does not require stealth, the gulls just wait, watch and then grab. Watch the Herring gull in the middle.
Needless to say, I didn't see any more ringed gulls.
Middleton Nature Reserve
Janet checked first.
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| Grey Heron |
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| Common Whitethroat |
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| Common Darter - first of the year. |
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| Large Red Damselfly |
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| Straw Dot |
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| Garden Grass-Veneer |
I checked later in the afternoon (Malcolm)
Mute Swan the adult male was alone near the feeding area, meanwhile the female was giving up ending lessons.
Mallard 6 adult on the main pond, a female with 10+ very young chicks disappeared into the reeds on one of the central marsh ponds.
Coot 5
Moorhen 3
Little Grebe 1 on the "no swimming" pond
There weren't many warblers singing
Cetti's warbler 4 minimum
Willow warbler 2
Chiffchaff 2
Reed warbler 1 singing plus 1 seen
Common Whitethroat 3 seen
No butterflies seen.
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| One of two male Broad-bodied Chasers |
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| One of three Four-spotted Chasers |
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| One of eight male Black-Tailed Skimmers |
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| Just one, very fresh Common Darter |
Imperial Rd (Malcolm)
Buzzard 1 soaring
Stonechat 1 - again just the male seen. He took three large portions of food to the nest site within 5 minutes.
Possibly he is just feeding the female on the nest, or just possibly the female is sitting on a second brood before the first one is fledged (they are known to do this in favourable conditions). Time should reveal the answer.
