Youngsters beginning to arrive

Early showers then dry and quite sunny after lunch. A SW wind

South sea wall - Malcolm 10:00 - 11:00

I was earlier in the tide this morning and much of the shore was still exposed. The Curlews didn't start arriving from the north side until I was back to Red Nab.

Many gulls were resting on the mud between the outfalls. Mainly Black-Headed
but the second bird from the right is a 2cy Mediterranean gull

2nd calendar year Mediterranean gull (centre)

The first juvenile Black-Headed gull was by No.2 outfall

Peregrine Falcon 3 flying and calling around the Power Stations. Presumably, at least one of them a juvenile

Unusually, no Rock Pipits seen or heard

Middleton Nature Reserve - Janet

Azure Blue Damselfly 

Amber snail

Celypha lacunana (apparently)

There were at least five Ringlet today

Painted Lady, seen on both sides of the reserve 

Heysham skear - Malcolm 16:45 - 18:30

Little Egret 8

Eider 1 female

Great Crested Grebe 2

Great Crested grebe, almost hidden by gulls

Gulls c450 on the skear, but more on the sea on both sides.

Herring gull next to a stranded Barrel Jellyfish 

Some of the gulls were feeding on seed mussels, but many were just resting. There is so much food available now they can soon fill their crops. This Herring gull has found a crab, but can barely bring itself to eat it. Even more unusual is that the other gulls totally ignore it. They normally fight over every scrap!

These are just some of the Oystercatcher and gulls

Then an Osprey arrived and cleared everything 

I say, an Osprey "arrived", but in reality it was very high to the north to begin with.

Osprey

This clip shows just how high over the sea it was fishing.

I saw it dive twice without success as it moved further south.

The gulls resettled on the water and waited for the ebbing tide to expose the skear below them. I eventually managed to see four green ringed birds, but all seen previously this summer.

I did see one new green ringed bird though. But not a gull.

This Oystercatcher is part of a Mid Wales scheme. It was ringed at Ynyslas National
Nature Reserve, Ceredigion last year, identified as a bird hatched in 2023

Oystercatcher c2000

Curlew 10

Another bird with a crab, but this one went down quickly!