Home grown RVD

Mainly overcast with the odd sunny spell. A west wind

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Janet's injuries have improved enough to allow her to use one of her old cameras. Can't use the large lens yet but the small ones are fine for insects.

These were on the spit of the main pond

Teneral Red-Veined Darter

Common Darter

Black-Tailed Skimmer

Common Blue Damselfly 

Meadow Brown

Alder Leaf Beetle

These were on the southern section of the reserve 

No sign of a Ruddy Darter today 

Male Common Darter

Female Common Darter

Speckled Wood

Small White

Painted Lady

Alder Leaf Beetles here too

Common Drone Fly 

Garden Cross Spider - or as they are commonly called, A Big Spider!

I just did a wildfowl check of the two largest ponds - Malcolm

Main Pond

Mute Swan 2

Mallard 23

Coot 7

Moorhen 2

"No swimming" pond

Mute Swan 1

Mallard 4

Tufted Duck 2 females

Little Grebe 1

Moorhen 5

Coot 5

Grey Heron 1

Heron

Little Grebe

Both the Tufted Duck had some white around the bill

Tufted Duck with adult and immature Moorhen 

This Fox was patrolling Janet's garden last night.

Plenty of stuff around, but not much new

Mainly overcast with a couple of morning showers. Some sunny spells later.  A fresh NW wind

Heysham skear - Malcolm  09:15 - 10:30

Not much new today so I've included some terrain shots. A heavy shower was just ending as I was walking out.

The rain managed to hold off while I was out, but only just

Eider at least 21

Eider between Honeycomb worm reefs on the north side

Eider between a Mussel bank and a sandbar 

These are on the south side and I would call these large Honeycomb worm
beds rather than reefs. The south of the skear takes the brunt of the storms 
and reefs struggle to become fully established, but it does happen occasionally 

Great Crest Grebe 2

Little Egret 12

Little Egret. The stakes mid distance right are all that remain of the
old Battery skear fish traps

Grey Heron 1

Heron resting on the extensive Honeycomb worm beds in the SE corner,
perhaps these will become large enough to be called reefs this year.

Oystercatcher a lot more birds today probably 3500

The partially leucistic one was amongst them. These are on a sandbar
you can see the indents in the sand left by the recent shower 

Curlew 25

Bar-Tailed Godwit 1 juvenile - first one this autumn 

Juvenile Bar-Tailed Godwit 

Redshank just 25 and most of those were high up the shore

Turnstone 45

Turnstone, giving me a dirty look!

Two visits by a Peregrine might explain the low numbers of small waders

Middleton Nature Reserve - Rosemary and Peter Silvester

Insects seen at the Southern end were:

1 Ruddy Darter

Several Male Common Darters (no females)

2 Migrant Hawkers

1 Small Copper

3 Speckled Wood

2 Small White

2 Red Admiral

Ruddy Darter

Common Darter

Migrant Hawker

Common Blue Damselfly at the main pond

We didn't see any dragonflies when we were at the main pond but it was only a very brief visit today.

Southnshore - Malcolm 15:00 - 15:30.

I just did a circuit around Ocean Edge

Common Darter on the fence at the entrance to Ocean Edge
There are still lots of Harlequin Ladybirds here too

Linnet 10 flew out to the saltmarsh 

Wheatear 1 along the foreshore 

Rock Pipit 5 - 1 on the foreshore and at least 4 more on Red Nab

Pied Wagtail 1 on Ocean Edge grass

In the Nature Park 

Common Darter 4

Small White 1

Large White 1

Red Admiral 1

Speckled Wood 5

Small White

Large White

Male Speckled Wood

Female Speckled Wood

The female flew down to a lower leaf and the male joined her......
I made my excuses and left

What a difference a day makes

Mainly overcast with the odd light shower in the morning. More serious showers began mid afternoon.

South shore - Malcolm 09:45 - 11:15

I started by retracing my walk from yesterday morning when I saw so many passerines. Today there were hardly any!

No Linnet seen or heard

The only bird along the foreshore was a solitary Pied Wagtail 

Pied Wagtail 

Rock Pipit 2 between the foreshore and Red Nab

Rock Pipit. It has found something to eat, looks like an insect pupa.

Wheatear 1 on Red Nab

Wheatear

And that was it for passerines, other than a second Wheatear later along the eastern edge of the saltmarsh.

Mediterranean gull 1 adult and 2 1st calendar year on Red Nab.

Osprey 1 briefly on the post at the end of No.2 outfall

Distant Osprey

I didn't go along the sea wall today, but walked out onto the mud then back to the faux castle that defines the southern limit of the recording area and back along the shoreline. The only waders seen were Oystercatchers along the waterline and a single Redshank on the mud.

There are loads of small snails for the smaller waders. This is just 
a 10cm x 10cm section 

There were a few gulls

This is a young Great Black-Backed gull with Black-Headed gulls.
Showing just what a large gull they are

From left to right: Black-Headed, Lesser Black-Backed and Great Black-Backed gulls

Middleton Nature Reserve - Janet

Young pheasants seen scurrying along a track.

Painted Lady 4

I didn't manage to get any on MNR but this one was in my garden this morning.

There were two Buzzards pestering crows on Clay Lane near the Moss