Middleton Nature Reserve (Janet)
These shots from yesterday:
 |
| The two young Cormorants now regulars |
 |
| Young Coot |
 |
| Male Black-Tailed Skimmer |
 |
| Male Common Darter |
 |
| Female Common Darter |
 |
| Small Tortoiseshell |
 |
| Male Common Blue |
 |
| Fresh looking Meadow Brown |
 |
| Worn Meadow Brown |
South shore this afternoon
These lovely shots and records from Martin Loftus
Had a quick walk up the powerstation wall today with the dog.
The only Gulls of note were 3 Great Black backed gulls and approximately 10+ Mediterranean gulls, 3 adults, 5 second year birds and 3 juveniles.
 |
| One of the Juvenile Mediterranean gulls |
Plenty of gulls on the outfalls, but no sign of the Little gull - Janet
Painted Lady along the sea wall - Kevin
Heysham skear ((Malcolm) 14:00 - 15:30
Gulls c250 mainly Herring
 |
| The sea was nice shades of blue and green this afternoon, a bit unusual with onshore winds that normally stir up the mud. |
Little Egret 4
Great Crested grebe 2
Oystercatcher 500
Curlew 60
Redshank 40
Turnstone 26
Ringed Plover 9
Dunlin 1
 |
| 8 of the Ringed Plover, a Dunlin and a Turnstone coming in to land |
 |
| Dunlin and a Ringed Plover |
 |
| Juvenile Turnstone |
Osprey 1 (not another one!)
 |
| It looks here to be high above the South Lakes hills |
But it was fishing in the low water channel. In this clip it dives, unfortunately the channel is behind a sandbar. The Osprey does not lift again, which suggests that it caught a fish. The target species here will be large flatfish. They can be very hard to lift from the water, not so much the weight of the fish but its surface area, plus a flatfish's instinct to swim down to the bottom. I have known Osprey here to have to swim to the shore and drag its catch out. An interesting possibility here, but played out behind a sandbar.
It was eerily calm by late evening, but not for long, strong winds forecast for tomorrow!
Just out of the recording area.
Glossy Ibis seen at the river Conder then flew towards the river Lune. Then later seen at Leighton Moss before returning to Conder Green. At some point, it likely passed through the recording area. It only stayed at Conder for a few minutes then headed towards, Middleton/Overton. One to watch out for!
