Watch your cabbages!

Heysham Obs
North wall area
Whimbrel - one in
Black Guillemot - on water by jetty

Gull nest count Fishers west side

Lesser Black-backed Gull - 29

Herring Gull - 17

Great Black-backed Gull - one (still sitting)

Nature reserve CES ringing

Jay - a retrap from 2006 caught on the CES - obviously still an elusive breeding bird in this area

Middleton IE

4-spotted Chaser - 93 seen, a majority in the central marsh pond in what were quite windy conditions. The model boat pond was very windswept (see tomorrows posting)

Mammals
Grey Seal - one offshore - the only item of interest amongst a lot of speedboats taking anglers to the mouth of the bay

Butterflies
Large White - 37 on the north wall mound & c8 moving north
Painted Lady - c10 north at the north wall - much fewer than Large White - & only about 10/hour heading north over the rest of the recording area until at least mid-pm

Elsewhere

The Woodchat Shrike postings/photos from the Lancaster DBWS site have been removed due to serious issues with the accuracy of some of the posted written material. No discussion will be entered into on this, as further material in the public domain will serve no purpose other than increase the chances of people suppressing their finds due to perceived endemic irresponsibility at rare birds, when in fact it is a very small minority who are not present at every 'twitch'. Osprey Leighton area all afternoon and 14 Crossbill (including adult males) NW over Tarnbrook fell

Butterfly Day

Heysham Obs
North wall angler report
Canada Goose - flocks of 28+11 blogging for a short time
Black Guillemot

Insects
Following yesterdays 'invasion' of Painted Lady butterflies a count of 58 were recorded on the reserve between 12.30pm and 13.30 thanks to Doreen Carmen.

A single Clouded Yellow was also seen in the far marsh on the reserve late afternoon as well as two Four-spotted Chasers and an excellent count of other butterfly species.

Outfalls grilling

Mediterranean Gull two 1st S between the outfalls, side by side for comparison one had slightly more of a dark mask, neither appeared to be ringed.
Black-headed Gull C100 mostly 1st S

Black Guillemot off NHW

Heron N over WJ eventually came down on Sandylands skeer

Swallow pair near Gate 38

Pied Wagtail F near Gate 38

Feral Pigeon nesting inside large rusty cylinder on end of WJ entering on foot through door which has been left ajar.

Small white SHW inner harbour

Elsewhere

Female nominate form Woodchat Shrike Tower Lodge

Hazy gulls

Heysham Obs
A quick check of the gulls on the outfalls prior to the tide through a significant heat haze produced:
Arctic Tern - 2
Common Gull - 67
Black-headed Gull - 19
Little Gull - a worn-looking 1st summer

Elsewhere
Nothing yet (1445hrs)

Purple Sandpiper surprise

Heysham Obs
North harbour wall
Purple Sandpiper - one with a flock of 11 Turnstone below the north wall was a surprise - perhaps the latest spring record for here
Black Guillemot inshore

Lunchtime seawatching Ocean Edge foreshore
This was pretty hopeless with the wind dropping and the low cloud not really clearing
Manx Shearwater - 2 together across the mouth
Arctic Tern - one outfalls
Common Gull - 37 outfalls
Black-headed Gull - 39 outfalls
Whimbrel - 2

Mid-morning routines

Heysham Obs
North harbour wall 0845-1045
Fulmar - 7 in
Gannet - 8 in (5 of these out), 6 across the mouth
Sandwich Tern - 2-3
Black Guillemot - on wooden jetty

Outfalls/Red Nab - low tide 1000-1025
Arctic Tern - 3 Heysham 2 outfall
Common Tern - 1 Heysham 2 outfall
Common Gull - c35
Med Gull - the usual 1st summer (forgot to post it!)

Moths
A Mother Shipton was found in the recently created heath area below the observation tower. No vast number of Painted Lady in the cool breezy conditions (c5)

Elsewhere
Ad male Honey Buzzard giving great views as it flew low to the SW over High Tatham 0750-0755ish mobbed by 2 Ravens. Up to four 1st summer Little Gulls have been around Leighton with a further bird at Aldcliffe. At least one of these will probably end up moulting at Heysham outfalls from the late summer

Pale bellied Brent heads north

Heysham Obs
Lengthy seawatching by Mark produced a small reward but no proper seabird movement in the early stages of the incoming tide

North harbour wall 0600 to 0915 (ongoing)
Pale-bellied Brent Goose - one headed north accompanied by 6 Shelduck at 0645hrs. Worth checking Shelduck concentrations north of the Stone Jetty?
Common Scoter - 14 blogging, then out
Sandwich Tern - 14ish
Black Guillemot

Half Moon Bay
1 wheatear - unusually perched on top of lamppost next to car park

Moths
Quite a nice selection including Peppered, May Highflyer, Herald, Poplar Hawk-moth

Elsewhere
Nothing yet

Summer mode after a trickle of seabirds

Heysham Obs
Looking at the weather forecast, I think today is probably 'it' for attempting to connect with skuas etc. this spring. This last fortnight has been the most frustrating period of spring seabird coverage since we started proper monitoring in the late 1990s. We have never been fans of other than morning coverage, not the least because of the light conditions, and I suspect that we have missed quite a few skuas in what have been rather good conditions in the last week or so as many of the birds have been passing through the Irish Sea in the afternoon/evening...............apart from yesterday when there was no-one here! Thank goodness for a car-less John Wood who rescued one afternoon's worth by 'bussing' to the Stone Jetty. More work committments than usual have also taken their toll amongst the regular observers. However, I dont think we missed the early May Arctic Tern passage. It did not appear to exist through this area in any numbers other than during late April. Thanks to Tony who valiantly covered JBP and confirmed that this site is (usually) too far into the bay unless the skuas are "kept down" (from circling up and heading overland e.g. via the Keer) by fresh south-westerlies and poorish visibility.

You post the above rubbish and then Ian has a flock of 95 Arctic Tern going into the bay, then out again off Cockersands at 1140hrs. This most be the latest large passage flock seen in this area and fits in with a strange disruptive spring as regards migrant arrival/passage

North harbour wall 0600-1015hrs
Arctic Skua - lm in at 0650, dm in at 0850
Sandwich tern - 15 in
Arctic Tern - 6 in (but see above)
Common Tern - 2
Wheatear - 1
Black Guillemot
Ringed Plover - pair with 2 mobile chicks at the heliport end (SD46A)

Middleton IE
Four-spotted Chaser - at least 23
Large Red Damselfly - 49
Common Blue Damselfly - 13+
Painted Lady - 2 (see Portland site for last few days) & one north harbour wall
Wall - one - recently scarce in this area
Mute Swan - at least one small cygnet 'under' the mother

Mammals
Harbour Porpoise of NHW

Elsewhere
10 Sanderling and 95 Arctic Terns on/off Cockersands

Bank holiday fare

Heysham Obs
Two jetskis cleared the area to the south of the outfalls quite effectively

North wall
Black Guillemot - 1
Sandwich Tern - 1

Red Nab
Whimbrel - single flushed
Med Gull - 1st summer, then flew towards Middleton Sands

Wheatears
1 Ocean Edge
2 North Wall Round Head

Jonathan Livingstone birding

Heysham Obs
A heaving great feeding flock of smallish/medium sized white things on the Cumbrian side of the Bay in early afternoon seemed to indicate some sort of fish spawn-fest. In the most coordinated seawatching effort ever in this area, simultaneous watches from Jenny Brown's Point, the Stone Jetty and Heysham heliport came to the very distant heat-hazy conclusion that they were.....seagulls

North harbour wall 0930-1045
Kittiwake - 2CY harbour area
Gannet - 6 in, 2 across bay, 2 out
Grey Plover - 2 out
Sandwich Tern - 3 in
Common Scoter - 25 in then landed on sea
Black Guillemot - on the wooden jetty

Ocean Edge/Red Nab
Whimbrel - 5

Elsewhere
Nothing yet but a few Quail in Northern England on the pager