A dry day with sunny spells. A light west wind
This gull seen on Heysham skear on 17 May 2025 is a 1st summer Caspian Gull with a Dutch ring seen previously at Redcar tarn x 2, Dewsbury and Sheffield. Second record for the Lancaster and District area following one which just crept in occasionally at Fluke Hall a couple of years or so ago.
The scheme manager advised that over 80% of the chicks identified as Caspian have Caspian gulls for both parents.
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| Dutch ringed first summer Caspian Gull |
I photographed it on the skear in May (Malcolm). Unfortunately Pete had no internet access at that time, I identified it as a Herring Gull and somehow managed to find a UK scheme that matched the ring configuration. It was only when they never responded and I saw the Dutch scheme did the option for it being a Caspian Gull manifest itself. Fortunately I still had the above shots for Pete to check and confirm the identity......all's well that ends well!
Heysham skear (Malcolm) 09:15 - 10:45
There were c300 gulls on the skear but spread far and wide. We are on spring tides now and there is an awful lot of skear exposed.
Great Crested Grebe 3 (1 + 2)
Red-breasted Merganser 2
Little Egret 7
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| Two Little Egret, but this shot is really to show the archipelago of Honeycomb Worm reefs that currently flank the northern side of the skear. |
The waders are likely to be woefully underestimated as they to were spread thinly.
Oystercatcher 600
Curlew 70
Redshank 95
Turnstone - none seen out on the skear but 33 closer to shore
Ringed Plover 3 flew east from the outer skear, probably a different 3 close inshore
Dunlin 1
Osprey 1 feeding, or at least looking for an opportunity to feed in the channel to the north of the skear. By this time the tide had been coming in for an hour and was rushing through the channel, not ideal for spotting fish.
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| Osprey |
It was scanning the water from a considerable height, they must have superb vision! This clip shows just how high it was, but still clearly scanning the water for an opportunity.
South shore (Malcolm) 11:00 - 12:00
I went to check the gulls on Red Nab on the rising tide.
Mediterranean gulls 9 - 8 adults and a juvenile. Very flighty though, flushed by something unseen once and they relocated just below the sea wall. I was just about to go to the wall to check them, when a dog flushed them again. I gave up, mainly as I was ready for lunch and my rumbling tummy would surely have spooked them again!
Still I managed to read two ringed adults, a white one that has been previously seen and a returning yellow ringed German bird.
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| Ringed as a chick at Leipzig Germany in 2019. It was first seen at Heysham the same year, and most years since |
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| Wheatear on the foreshore |
Middleton Nature Reserve (Janet)
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| Southern Hawker |
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| Black-Tailed Skimmer |
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| Small Skipper and a "weevil" |
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| Comments from Alison - It's one of the Seed weevils. Based on the fact it's on clover and that the legs look to be a different colour than the body. It's probably a Clover Seed Weevil - Protapion apricans. But I can't be 100% sure. |
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| Common Blue |
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| Gatekeeper |
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| Surprisingly, only two Copper-Tipped Longhorn moths could be found |
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| Shaded Broad-Bar |
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| Cormorant |
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| Swallow taking a dip |
