Once again we were blessed with heavy overnight showers followed by a dry sunny day. A fresh west breeze
This from Rosemary and Peter Silvester - Middleton Nature Reserve yesterday
Main pond:
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| Small Red-eyed Damselfly |
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| Common Bluetail Damselfly |
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| Common Blue Damselfly |
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| Common Darter |
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| Emperor |
The Ruddy Darters were by the pond on the south side
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| Ruddy Darters |
South shore - Malcolm 09:45 - 11:15
I went along the sea wall to watch the incoming tide cover the feeding beach by the wooden jetty. Again hoping to relocate the green ringed bird seen on Wednesday. Today it was there!
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| There were gulls being moved up the beach by the tide, including six Mediterranean gulls. Just one was ringed |
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| ANLT. We are familiar with this bird. Ringed as a chick at Helgoland Germany in 2012. It has been seen at Heysham most summers since. Last year it was also seen on its German breeding ground. Hopefully it will have been seen again this year - details awaited |
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| I didn't think that it was this bird on Wednesday, but I had forgotten that, on one code the "A" was very worn. It has almost completely worn away now. The ring configuration plus head and bill pattern do match Wednesday's bird |
At least 9 Mediterranean gulls in total, there were some resting on the other beaches with Black-Headed gulls
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| Mediterranean (centre) and Black-Headed gulls |
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| Gulls between the two outfalls |
Little Egret 4
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| Three Little Egrets along the edge of No.2 outfall |
In the Nature Park
Red Admiral 2
Painted Lady 2
Meadow Brown several
Speckled Wood 2
Small White 3
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| Two Painted Lady |
Heysham skear - Malcolm 16:15 - 17:30
Red-breasted Merganser 1
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| Red-breasted Merganser, about to lose a feather |
Eider 2
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| Eider, also with ruffled feathers |
Great Crested grebe 1
Large gulls, mainly Herring gulls c300 (think I underestimated total at 250 yesterday as there seemed to be fewer today but managed 300 when I did a rough count) three ringed birds were seen, but all seen previously this summer. The gull in the centre of this clip in the water has a ring. It slipped into the water before I could read it, but eventually revealed it again. You can see that they are taking much longer now to find the small seed mussels amongst the well formed ones.
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| N:S53 - ringed as a chick in Bowland 2022 |
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| Mediterranean gull with hardly any face mask. It was high up the shore towards the promenade |
Oystercatcher c1200
Curlew c60
Redshank 16
Turnstone 9
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| A few of the Curlew arriving from the south. Flying over the area where the Mediterranean gull was. That's Rydal Rd slipway behind them |
