First decent dragonfly day, notably Black-tailed Skimmer

Heysham Obs
Sea/offshore
Predictably little with 4 Arctic Terns on the outfalls early on and one flying into the bay later. No Shag seen and no obvious sign of the Rock Pipit. Three Swallows flew north in about 2.5 hours of observation!

Evening visit
Shag 2 wooden jetty
Arctic tern 6 off No. 1 outfall
Sandwich tern 2 blogging
Ringed plover Red Nab
Long-tailed tit 6 Nature Park
Linnet 2m 1f on mound

Nature reserve
TWO singing male Reed Warbler in the reserve reedbed

Middleton IE
Jackdaw - 2 of this scarce Heysham bird on the shoreline of the model boat pond
Canada Goose - a singleton of this thankfully scarce Heysham bird on the model boat pond
Tufted Duck - pair on the No Swimming pond
Little Grebe - Pair with 4 smallish young on the No Swimming pond (4+ other pairs on this site)

Dragonflies
Male Emperors recorded singly on the Middleton IE new scrape & fence pond and on BE properties on the 'dog walk' pond & Nature Reserve marsh

Immature male Black-tailed Skimmer on the model boat pond was much earlier than the previous two years

Four-spotted Chaser - c30 on Middleton and two on the 'dog-walk' pond

Common Blue, Azure, Large Red and Blue-tailed Damselflies all seen

Butterflies
Large Skipper was early BUT NO Wall Brown seen on the census yesterday or during todays more casual check. Please record all individuals you will hopefully come across. Thanks.

Elsewhere
Female-type Black Redstart showed reliably at Lancaster University until about 1100hrs opposite the Sports centre then was seen about 1800hrs on the rooftop of the nearby hotel (c250m to the west over the other side of the 'ring road'). At least one Spoonbill reported at Leighton Moss. Singing male Wood Warbler still in the Trough of Bowland at Tower Lodge this afternoon along with several Spotted Flycatcher. 100+ Sanderling in the high tide roost at Cockersands Point this lunchtime

Very little coverage

Heysham Obs
The only report today was of a juvenile Shag in the inner harbour

Elsewhere
No sign of the Common Rosefinch on Pilling Lane. Two Spoonbill at Leighton Moss and area

Rock Pipit still present

Heysham Obs
Two hours at the heliport and a few short checks of other areas this morning

Inshore
Shag - one juv still around wooden jetty
Rock Pipit - on the north harbour wall mound & briefly on seawall this am
Med. Gull - 1st S along the tideline to the south of Ocean Edge with c25 Common Gull

Swift - 32 north along seawall 1030-1130 and 1210-1310
Swallow - 16 north along seawall 1030-1130 and 1210-1310
Wheatear - one at Half Moon bay foreshore

Insects
First (3) Cinnabar of the year in the hut moth trap.

Elsewhere
Red male Common Rosefinch just outside the LDBWS area visiting a garden feeder and singing from nearby bushes at Pilling Lane near Knott End. Contact the usual bird information services for up to date access information as this involves private land. Several hundred Dunlin & Ringed Plover on both sides of the outer Lune Estuary but just one Sanderling reported with them. TWO Spoonbill in the Leighton Moss area.

Zero to force 4 in 30 seconds!

Heysham Obs
Sea/inshore heliport area
The two hour vigil at the heliport saw the highlight as one of the fastest increases in wind speed I have ever seen without an obvious reason (e.g. squall). Alerted by distant windfarms starting to 'work', at 0942hrs the previously calm water rippled across the Bay and the wind (from the north-west) suddenly increased to about force 4 before settling to cF3 for the rest of the day. Not many birds:

Offshore
Common Scoter - distant flock of 50-60
Gannet - even more distant 2 out and across
No migratory flocks of small waders seen (c/f Stone Jetty)

Inshore
Rock Pipit - not particularly good views but enough to see that it was at the dark end of petrosus and perhaps kleinschmittii (not littoralis). It frequented ths mound and adjoining seawall but unfortunately I did not have time to study it. It did not, however, show any sign of display flight or other than sseeep calls. Cannot find any precedent for this record, at least in recent times
Shag - at least one juv

Elsewhere
Little Stint on the Stone Jetty groyne at lunchtime with a few Dunlin and Ringed Plover

Yet another surprise if you wait long enough!

Red Nab from Ocean Edge

Heysham Obs
Seawatch north wall 0630ish-1030ish
Gannet- 4
Guillemot - 1
Kittiwake - 1

Inshore
Arctic Tern - 4
Shag - at least one juv
Rock Pipit - unprecedented record for this time of year of an individual presumably of the form petrosus [unless it is a littoralis which has not budged at all from very similar winter plumage - outer tail feathers not seen very well]. The bird was on the mound and the rocks below the seawall

Elsewhere
Ad Curlew Sandpiper still in Conder Creek at at least 0715hrs & again at 1610hrs. The north wind holding up more Sanderling than usual in recent years e.g. 62 at Cockersands today

Little Gull surprise

Heysham Obs
Seawatch from NHW 0630ish to 1030ish
Gannet - 2
Sandwich Tern - 2
Little Gull - ADULT in
Common Scoter - 6

Inshore
Shag - 2 juv
No tern species around outfalls but observations at/near HT

Red Nab/OE foreshore
Wheatear - 1 female

Middleton IE
4-5 pairs of Little Grebe with at least one with young (3). c40 House Martin feeding over pools.

Insects
Treble Bar rather belated new species for the year. Four Shaded Pug.

Elsewhere
Dominated by small wader passage on the Lune Estuary with Curlew Sandpiper at Conder Creek, Little Stint elusively on the shore by Cockersands Abbey and 12 Sanderling (Cockersands) and 5 (Sunderland side). Lots of tundrae Ringed Plover (400+) and Dunlin (1,200+). There are 5 singing male Wood Warbler in the LDBWS recording area, however two of these were reported from a wood which has not been accessible in recent years

New Med and distant Scoter

Heysham Obs
North harbour wall 0630-1030ish
Common Scoter - flock of c80
Gannet - 1
Fulmar - 1
Kittiwake - 1
All the above very distant

Inshore
Shag - there are still two juvs around!
Med. Gull - First summer drifted south along the wall and was last seen passing the wooden jetty
No mention of any tern species
Trickle of inshore northbound Swallow with 2 House Martin

Thanks to Mark and John for all the above records

Evening visit to Red Nab

Wheatear female

Ringed plover 14

Dunlin 2

Whimbrel 1

Curlew 6

Shelduck 21

Red-breasted merganser pair

Great crested grebe 1

Greenfinch juv Nature Park

Middleton IE
A few Marsh Orchid spp. (x ??)


Thanks Malcolm

Elsewhere
Spoonbill adult on flood (E end of EM Pool, Leighton Moss). Secondhand, but seemingly reliable information re-the Whitendale Eagle Owls taking a collie (spp.) as prey yesterday. Osprey Dunsop valley c1000hrs. Common Crane still Chipping Moss area - last known position was c674424, about 7km east of Chipping and c10km south of the LDBWS recording area.

Bits and bobs

Heysham Obs
Outfalls/Red Nab/ inshore am
A quiet morning.
Oystercatcher c600 off RN & Ocean Edge
Turnstone 5 south + 6 below wooden jetty
Shag juv wooden jetty
Cormorant flew in from Bay with 'nest mats' in bill & offered to its mate with alot of sideways head movement - display?

North wall seawatch/outfalls/inshore 1200-1400hrs
This was better than expected:
Arctic Skua - light morph 'in' at 1255hrs
Fulmar - one very distantly out and across at c1300hrs
Turnstone - 13 on rocks
Common Tern - 2 on Stage one outfall, seaward end [no Arctic Tern seen]
Common Gull - maximum of c25 on seaward end of Stage one outfall
Shag - the most interesting sighting was a juv flying out of the harbour seemingly heading for its usual roost/preen on the wooden jetty. However the landing was aborted in the fresh wind and the bird simply continued out of the Bay until lost from sight! Are there any left from the epic influx?
Swallow - 2 north

Middleton IE
Two Grasshopper Warblers in territorial dispute

Moths
New for the year were May Highflyer and Yellow Shell. Two Shaded Pug were also in the trap.

Elsewhere
Quail heard calling from just south of Stauvin Farm, Roeburndale East, this early afternoon. Common Crane on nearby Chipping Moss this evening (not sure where this is - hope in the right county!).

A quickie

Heysham Obs

1620 - 1710 hrs
Heysham 2 outfall - Arctic tern 10, common tern 2
Heron off Red Nab
Shelduck 13 RN/Ocean Edge

Shag juv wooden jetty
Herring gull on nest on one of the three platforms in the harbour near the 'waterfall'

Insects

The first Shaded Pug of the year in the moth trap. This species is very local and coastal in NW England and has only been recorded at Heysham, albeit in increasing numbers, during the last 5 years. Shoulder-striped Wainscot and Common Swift were also new for the year

Thanks to John Holding

Elsewhere

Osprey over the Dunsop valley

A drizzly morning

Heysham Obs
A walk taking in Ocean Edge, Red Nab and the outfalls in poor visibility produced not a lot.

Wheatear OE

Ringed plover 3 OE foreshore

Shelduck 2

Arctic tern 2 off No. 2 outfall

Common gull c10 1st summer

Insects
Treble lines at the Observatory in the moth trap. This is the first record for the site. This moth has a curious distribution with evidence suggesting that it has declined in north Lancs with all but two recent records from the limestone areas around Warton/Silverdale. However, the coastal distribution in the Fylde and SW Lancs suggest that it may indeed be thinly scattered, but until now unrecorded, in coastal areas north of the Wyre



Thanks to Alan Draper