Another GWE

Heavy morning rain then dry till an evening shower. Sunny spells. A light south(ish) breeze

Heysham Nature Reserve 

A small amount of post rain ringing indicated a few chiffchaffs had arrived with 6 ringed - Pete

South shore - Malcolm

I checked on the rising tide after the morning rain had stopped.

No Linnets seen or heard. This doesn't mean they weren't around, they were probably feeding on the saltmarsh somewhere 

The only birds along the foreshore were a Robin and a Wheatear

Shelduck 27 out from the saltmarsh.

These are the gulls resting on Red Nab. I was going to check them 
for Mediterranean gulls.....

.....then something lifted all the small gulls. There are at least 4 Mediterranean
gulls in this shot, but you will have to open it to have a chance of spotting them.

I looked up and it was a Peregrine quite high and flying purposefully east

Adult Peregrine Falcon

Great White Egret 1 was resting by No.2 outfall. Likely grounded by the heavy rain.

This is a location shot

Great White Egret

This isn't long before it flew off it was looking in all directions 

Then it took flight to the north and I lost sight for a while behind No.2 outfall structure.

When I picked it up again it was past the wooden jetty and heading high to the NW

10 minutes later this one flew past low to the SE. Presumably the same
bird after resetting its bearings 

One of three Little Egret

A solitary Grey Heron flying east

Wigeon 3

Wigeon

In the Nature Park

Red Admiral 4

Speckled Wood 1

Common Darter 2

When Janet checked later there were three Wheatears feeding with the Pied Wagtails on Ocean Edge grass

Great White passes over

A dry day with sunny spells. A SE wind

South shore

Early am at ocean edge - Pete: 

One great white egret flew north quite high over Heysham ocean edge obvious migrant.  

Also flock of 9 meadow pipit in off 

Two Painted Lady, two Small Tortoiseshell, and a Red admiral flying in along the wall on my walk out to the lighthouse - Kevin

Janet:

Wigeon on the salt marsh

Solitary Knot on Red Nab

Rock Pipit and Knot

Painted Lady and a Red Admiral in the Nature Park

Painted Lady

Red Admiral

Janet also saw Common Darters on both sides of Middleton Nature Reserve

Heysham skear - Malcolm

Yesterday's Knot were interesting. The four flagged birds were this year's and last year's youngsters. The bulk of the other 3000 birds seen would have been the same. Three of the flagged birds had only been ringed in the last two weeks, providing useful information for the schemes. So I tried to find some more today. But some days things just don't work out.

I had a look on the rising tide this morning. As the tide moved the Oystercatchers off the skear they settled along the waterline. But when the Knot left the skear, they flew directly to the south.

Oystercatchers lined up along the waterline with one of two flocks of Knot
seen heading south. At least 2500 birds in total

I tried again this evening starting 16:00 in bright sunshine. The Knot began arriving from the south immediately, but in smaller groups (5 - 50) than yesterday. About 1000 had gathered when a Peregrine attacked and scattered them.

 

When the Knot began returning they were in larger groups, as yesterday. Perhaps a Peregrine had attacked before I started yesterday. But if there had been an attack yesterday it must have been successful, today's wasn't and as soon as a group returned it attacked again.

That's the Midland Hotel in the background 

Knot and a Peregrine 

By this time it was almost 17:00 and the light was already fading

It must have eventually managed to catch one as the Knot slowly returned and settled. But by this time the tide was a long way out and the returning groups settled in different areas. At least 1000 Knot and again mainly young birds, but I failed to find any flagged ones today.

Knot

Pink-Footed geese south:

1 skein of 78 10:15

3 skeins in quick succession this evening 13, 18 and 6

Some of this evening's Pinkfoot

Eider 9

Red-breasted Merganser 3

Great Crested Grebe 1

Little Egret 18

Grey Heron 1

Heron and Egrets

Oystercatcher c1500 on the skear this evening more along the waterline this morning 

Curlew 45

Redshank 100+

Turnstone 30

Ringed Plover 5

Knot numbers still increasing

A sunny day, but a cool start. A light variable breeze.

South shore - Malcolm 10:30 - 11:30

Linnet 200+ on the saltmarsh 

Robin 4 along foreshore

Skylark 1 flew SE

Meadow Pipit 7 flew SE

Rock Pipit 2 on Red Nab

Shelduck 117

Some of the Shelduck out from the foreshore 

Little Egret 6

Mediterranean gulls 3 on Red Nab 1 adult plus 2 2nd calendar year

Adult Mediterranean gull

2cy Mediterranean gull (top centre)

In the Nature Park

Red Admiral 6

Comma 1

Speckled Wood 2

Red Admiral sipping the syrup from a Rose hip

Comma and Red Admiral 

Kevin Singleton visited Middleton Sands a Clouded Yellow flew south past him. It must have come out of the recording area

North shore

David Kaye

Heysham head 10.45 

250 knot south carried on past harbour 

No knot on heliport but 11 lapwing and 7 snipe and a sanderling past

Heysham skear - Malcolm 15:45 - 18:15

Eider 30+

Eider - the males are following the females again

Red-breasted Merganser 3

Merganser - there were two in this frame, but one dived

Great Crested Grebe 1

Little Egret 16

Knot c3000

They all arrived from the south in groups from 50 to 500. Many of them juveniles, they seem to have had a good breeding season. Once again they were easily finding seed mussels and fed in one area until spooked by a passing Crow. It gave me a chance to carefully scrutinise them for any colour coded birds. I eventually found four, one from a Scottish scheme and three from a Welsh scheme. There were none from the more usual English, Icelandic or Dutch schemes.

Some of the Knot nicely spaced out on terrain as good as you get out here
for seeing marked birds. You just have to tread carefully!

This is the Scottish scheme Knot swallowing a seed Mussel

One of the Welsh birds having a preen

This Welsh Knot is also swallowing a seed Mussel

Dunlin 2

Oystercatcher, Curlew, Redshank and Turnstone not really checked, I was literally focused on the Knot. But numbers seemed similar to of late.

Just a quick high tide check today

Overcast, light morning showers with heavier ones in the afternoon with the odd sunny spell. A freshening south wind.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Rosemary and Peter managed another visit yesterday.

It was certainly much quieter in terms of dragonflies and damselflies with only brief glimpses of sun and a cool breeze at times.  Sightings were as follows:

Southern End:

Speckled Wood 7

Noon Fly 1

Common Darter 1 pr ovipositing

Male Common Darter 6

Female Common Darter 2 (one eating food)

Hawker sp 2

Chiffchaff calling

Coal Tit calling

Main Pond:

Speckled Wood 3

Common Darter 1 pr mating

Male Common Darter 3

Common Blue Damselfly 1

Mute Swan 2

Mallard 4

Coot 2

Long Tailed Tit 1 small flock

This female Common Darter looks to be eating a blackberry, but it would
have to be a tiny blackberry. Plus dragonflies are insectivorous. This must be 
all that remains of some sort of insect 

This one acting as bridgekeeper on the wooden bridge on the south side

Common Darters on the Southern pond

Common Darters on the main pond

Common Blue Damselfly on the main pond

Noon Fly

Speckled Wood 

South shore - Malcolm 10:15 - 11:00

Linnet c200 on saltmarsh 

Wheatear 1 on foreshore 

Robin 2 on foreshore 

Rock Pipit 1 between foreshore and Red Nab

Rock Pipit 

Knot flock of c100 flew south
Mediterranean gull 12 on Red Nab - 5 adults, 6 2nd calendar year and 1 1st calendar year 

An adult between two 2cy Mediterranean gulls.
The bird on the right has a red ring, not easy to see on dark legs

Ringed as a chick in Hungary last year. It was seen in Spain in February 
and turned up here in June, although it hasn't been seen since July. Pete
advises that there were c50 Meds in the Lune estuary out from Sunderland 
Point today. Perhaps that is where it has been roosting.

Two more 2cy Mediterranean Gulls

This 2cy Mediterranean Gull has some gutweed. Not sure what it was
planning to do with it

1cy Mediterranean Gull centre

Heliport wall - Malcolm

Just a brief stop off on the way home to see if any of the Knot were using this high water root. They weren't. 

Plenty of Oystercatchers roosting 

This one had grabbed the tail of another and physically swung it round.
It was lucky not to lose a feather

Some of the roosting Lapwings

Two of at least four Meadow Pipits