Another grey miserable day

Heysham Obs
Sea watch 0830-0930 hrs NHW
Gannet 9 out (5ad +4imm)
Fulmar 1 out

Outfalls Stage 2
Arctic Tern 1
Little Gull 1st S

Outfalls/Red Nab late pm
Med Gull - one 2nd S
Black-headed Gull - leucistic bird
Kittiwake - 1 1st S
Common Tern - 2
Sandwich Tern - 2

No sign of Black Guillemot am, not looked for pm.

Moths
Barred Straw new for the year

Mammals
Grey Seal off NHW am

Elsewhere
Two Spotted Redshank Leighton Moss area along with 2 adult Greenshank (one ringed in Aberdeenshire).

Two second summer Meds

Heysham Obs
Red Nab roost late afternoon
2 x 2nd summer Med Gulls virtually together, one presumably the north harbour wall bird
1 x 1st S Kittiwake
1 x Sandwich Tern on outfalls (unusual)

Earlier in the day, seawatching was dreadful with just:
2 x Arctic tern
2 x Common Tern
...............passing by or remaining briefly on the outfalls

Elsewhere
Nothing individually of note - see LDBWS site for Swift postings

One less Grey Squirrel

Harbour
Black Guillemot

Outfalls
Kittiwake 1st Summer

Grey Squirrel Moneyclose Lane - DEAD

Elsewhere
Leighton Moss/EM Pools: Female Garganey, 2 Greenshank, 24 Knot, 2 Dunlin, Avocets, Common Sandpiper.
Conder: 3 Little Ringed Plover, 4 black-tailed Godwit, 6 Common Sandpiper.
Glasson: 1500 Knot.
Fluke Hall: 2 Whitethroat.

Aah - lots of baby birds

Not baby birds:
70 Swift and 3 Sand Martin feeding and moving steadily northward (ahead of the forecasted rain?).

Baby birds:
Today's Common Bird Census and Constant Effort ringing revealed the following Heysham/British Energy site born and bred youngsters -
On the reserve: Lesser Whitethroat, Wren, Song Thrush (red-listed), Dunnock (amber-listed), Great Tit, Blue Tit, Robin, Blackbird, Greenfinch, Goldfinch.
On the power station: Starling (red-listed), Swallows (amber-listed) still in the nest, Pied Wagtail.

Still singing (i.e. holding territory) on the Reserve: Reed Warbler, Whitethroat, Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff, Linnet.

Red Nab
400 Black-headed Gulls and c100 larger gulls.

Harbour
BLACK GUILLEMOT
At least 15 fluffy juvenile Herring Gulls on the warehouse roof.

North Harbour Wall
Female Wheatear at sandplant gate
Sandwich Tern blogging
22 Swift NNE
Female Eider in

Negative news

No news so far.

Blowin' a gale....

....and not much else - yet. So far (to 13:15hrs) the only items of interest have been:

2 Arctic Terns seen on the drop tide. Fulmar at 13:00hrs
Large willow tree blown over along Moneyclose Lane.

NHW 1430 - 1730 hrs
Arctic Skua 2 in 1550 hrs and then over Centrica towards the harbour; ran down to harbour to intercept and never saw them again.
Kittiwake 1st S flew into harbour.
Common Tern 1 in harbour.
Swift 1 in-off, 2 out later
Dunlin 8 out

Middleton Industrial Estate
2nd summer Mediterranean Gull on the Model Boat Pond

Elsewhere
Jenny Brown's Point: Red-throated Diver, Arctic Skua (d.m.), 1st S Kittiwake, Fulmar
Pilling Lane Ends: Glossy Ibis (15:00hrs)

NHW before the rain set in

Black Guillemot inner harbour.
Sandwich Tern 4 blogging
Swift 10 in-off East

Middleton Industrial Estate
Mute Swan, Mallard with 2 chicks, 4 Coot with 4 chicks, 2 Little Grebe, 2 Grasshopper Warbler reeling, 20 House Martin, 1 sand Martin, 6 Swallow, 2 Swift

Elsewhere
2 Spoonbill at Leighton Moss, 2000 Knot at Conder Green.

Heysham NHW

The afternoon visit was about as quiet as it gets apart from Black Guillemot in the inner harbour.


Stage 2 - Juv Black-headed Gull

First for reserve?

Feast your eyes on this little brown job which John Girdley photographed on Sunday (15th). This "widespread and common throughout the British Isles" moth is now on the Heysham list and has the grand name of Glyphipteryx thrasonella (who makes these up?). It feeds on rushes and flies in the sunshine during May to August. The specimen in the photo will be on display in Heysham Nature Reserve office tomorrow. Bet you can't wait to see it!

On the down side, no-one was on site today to witness any Storm Petrels and there must surely have been some.

Elsewhere

R. Conder: summer plumaged Spotted Redshank, Common Sandpiper, 2 Black-tailed Godwits.

Sea watch 0900-1000 hrs

Great Skua 'out' close in to end of wooden jetty
Gannet 5 in 8 out
Fulmar 7 in
Kittiwake 6 out
Arctic Tern 1 blogging
Sandwich Tern 7 out + 1 blogging
Black Guillemot on sea below wooden jetty