A sunny day with a fresh west wind.
Middleton Nature Reserve (Janet)
Plenty of Swallows, House Martins and a Swift, feeding over the main pond
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| Swift |
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| House Martin |
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| A particularly acrobatic Swallow |
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| First Meadow Brown of the year |
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| Burnet Companion |
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| Common Darter |
Heysham Skear (Malcolm) 14:30 - 16:00
Eider 2
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| Female Eider |
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| Male Eider |
Red-breasted Merganser 2
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| Female and male Red-breasted Merganser |
Great Crested grebe 1
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| Great Crested grebe |
The only waders were 200 Oystercatchers
Gulls 600 mainly Herring, but a few Lesser Black-Backed. The west wind providing easy shrimping options.
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| Some of the gulls shrimping along the waterline. |
I managed to see three ringed birds, but all seen previously here.
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| This one is the only one that you could call regular. It has been seen eight times since first seen on the 7th May. Interestingly, while most of the other gulls were shrimping it was still after the seed mussels. Ringed 02/07/24 at Bowland |
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| The trouble with shrimping birds is that you sometimes have to wait for the right wave. Also ringed at Bowland 02/07/24. But only seen once before |
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| Carrion crows don't always get a mention, but there are always some. Four today |
Imperial Rd (Malcolm)
I checked twice today, morning and afternoon. The water table has risen considerably again, I don't know if that has any relevance, but the Stonechat behaviour has changed.
Stonechat 1 male. No longer near the road, but further west into the wetlands. I saw him carrying food a couple of times but there was no singing or calling today. The only place I saw him take food to was this bush.
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| I'm hoping that the female is on the nest in this bush |
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| This is looking from the road, the bush above is circled |
No sign of any youngsters on either visit, and I couldn't even spot the male this afternoon, although it isn't so easy looking into the afternoon light. I checked further to the south this morning hoping to locate at least one youngster. They surely can't be totally self sufficient yet.
Buzzard one seen soaring and "hovering" on both visits. Today's west wind seemed ideal for hovering.
Kestrel 1 also hovering
Grey Heron 1
Reed Bunting 1
Swallows and House Martins feeding
Warblers
Cetti's warbler seen carrying food and heard singing, probably not the same bird.
Chiffchaff 2 singing
Sedge Warbler 1 seen
Common Whitethroat 1 seen (although not immediately recognised!)
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| One wet Whitethroat |
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| Greenfinch eyeing up this winter's food supply |
Ringlet two together, or rather chasing each other around, this afternoon. First record this year.
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| Ringlet, a rarity here until recently, now common. They will be showing everywhere soon. |
20:50 a skein of geese sounding like Canada Geese flew over Janet's house
