Insects provide the interest

Heysham obs

Four-spotted chaser at Middleton new for year

Similarly poplar hawk moth in the trap

Three burnet companion near office

Two singing male Cetti's warbler Middleton

Cumbrian Common Scoters

Heysham Obs

Sea 0715-0815ish (thanks Mark)
Common Scoter - two big gangs totalling about 200 individuals at long range

Middleton NR
Cetti's Warbler - unringed bird (age unknown) escaped from one of the CES nets next to the fence pond just before the ringer could get there.  Intriguing.  Singing male nearby
Lesser Whitethroat - in contrast to last year's dearth, a good number this year around the CES area with a further 5 caught, making it 8 different birds from the first two CES visits, the commonest bird!

Moths
A curious catch, none more so than Buff Tip and Hebrew Character sharing the same egg packing

Southerlies

Heysham Obs
.............are not a lot of use here.  A half-hour seawatch saw an adult British Lesser Black-backed Gull south (carefully checked).

Couple of decent things came to light in the afternoon
A belated check of the moth trap saw pale tussock - the second record I think
Also one of our cr grey wagtails is nesting at botton mill in upper hindburndale - a sighting today suggested a 2015- ringed bird

Red Nab/Ocean Edge
Whimbrel - late flock of three

Pics from the last few days (thanks Janet) at Middleton NR

Heysham obs
A good early incoming tide seawatching stint by Jonny produced a few odds and ends but was not really "nasty" enough for a significant skua passage

North wall 0650-0930
Arctic Skua - light morph and intermediate morph in
Common scoter - 4 out, c10 in
Fulmar - prob same bird in then out
Auk spp (prob guillemot) 12 in one out
Gannet - at least 15

Ocean Edge to Rednab 10:00-10:30 (MD)
1 Northern Wheatear (f)
1 Whimbrel
5 Little Egret
58 Linnet

Middleton Nature Reserve 17:00
Just a quick check to try and confirm Garden Warbler - no sign
2 Cetti's Warbler singing plus third bird seen
1 Little Ringed Pover

500000 visits!

Heysham Obs
A site which trundles along acting as both a daily log on line and, as can be seen below, an outlet for some excellent photography by Janet and others.  Thanks for all the contributions.......now lets have a bit of coverage of the sea this next week if, and it might be a big if after a lot of forecast 'changes', we do get some decent south-westerlies.

Middleton NR
Little Ringed Plover - single bird both today and yesterday flying towards the 'building site' sat the north end
Cetti's Warbler - both males singing yesterday and the second bird singing today
Warblers - there appears to be a (heard at distance) Garden Warbler along the golf course edge in the scrub (as there was a week ago) and this, if confirmed, was the 10th warbler species heard singing today on the reserve

Sea for 20 minutes
Arctic Skua - dark morph whizzing in low over the sea at 0955 - how many were missed earlier?

Insects
Burnet Companion - 2 Heysham NR
Shaded Pug - first of the year in the moth trap (also FFY were Chinese Character and Clouded Bordered Brindle)
The top one below is Cydia ulicitana (thanks Steve) on gorse.  Thanks Janet

A day of little effort so far

Heysham Obs
A slow start and no proper sea coverage

Sea/texting/email checks & responses/phone call 1000-1030
Common Scoter - 3 in
Swallow - 6 NE

Middleton pics - thanks Janet
This is the only known pair of Meadow Pipit left in the recording area

Mammal
Harbour Porpoise x 1

Moths
Herald the best of the three!

Quite a lot out of what appeared to be nothing

Heysham Obs
We have learnt over the years that a calm morning and clear skies at High Tatham with a very slight northwesterly airflow often means conditions at Heysham too windy for mist netting.  This was the case this morning with the added bonus, for a bit of sea coverage, of some cloud cover and the wind being fractionally west of north-west.  Always a good sign when there is a lot of immature large gull movement and there was some half-decent stuff during the hour:

Sea 0815-0915
Arctic Skua - a light morph 'sea-hugger' headed into the Bay at 0830hrs
Pomarine Skua - one light morph heading into the Bay circling and gradually gaining height at 0908hrs.   If this and the above had been reversed as regards distance, there would have been no chance of an identification of a sea-hugger at that range, but the requisite features were easily seen on a circling bird
Razorbill - two together in
Guillemot - one in
Gannet - 1+3+1 in (one of the three was a 2CY).  Unusually all flying at some height when passing the observation area between the windfarm and Barrow
Red-throated Diver - probable 2CY out
Mute Swan - flock of 6 imms flew across towards Barrow
Common Scoter - drake u-turned

Middleton Nature Reserve 15:00 - 16:00
Little Ringed Plover - 2 sightings
Cetti's Warbler 2nd bird (unringed) seen whilst male was singing - "no swimming" pond
4 mute pairs still on nest
2 shelduck
2 gadwall (m&f)
1 little grebe

Moths
Decent catch by recent standards, especially Ruddy Highflyer at its known regular site and male Muslin Moth

Token hour on the sea

Heysham obs
The only migratory action today was predictably a slow-fest over the sea

Sea 0650-0750 thanks mark
Gannet - 6
Arctic tern - distant flock of c20 in

A rather mysterious report of two Pomarine skua seen from a boat in morecambe bay mid morning

Little ringed plover - at least one Middleton
Nothing of migrant interest on Middleton CES

Little egret - 7 red nab-ocean edge saltmarsh a decent count

Calm weather overachievement

Heysham Obs
An hourly sample of a pretty calm sea until a bit of a northerly kicked in for the last 15 minutes was well worth it after the initial impression that I should have taken a tin of paint

North wall 0730-0830
Osprey - one picked up heading leisurely north on a 'flat sea scan' of the inner Bay - miles away but recognisable to the north of Ulverston.  It plunged once into the sea and drifted north until lost against the background.  It didn't fly past the normal seawatching line (looking towards Walney lighthouse), unless it was really high, so may have been a Cumbrian breeding bird on a calm sea fishing expedition?
Arctic Tern - one flock of 11 in (one more than expected)
Common Scoter - 10 in, 5 in, 6 out, 6 in
Little Egret - what was assumed to be this species headed NW across the Bay and seemed to come ashore at Baycliff (Cattle not completely ruled out on rear end views as not picked up very early and couldn't see any yellow foot projection or the bill)
Red-throated Diver - summer plumaged bird heading out was a surprise but they have been regular off Rossall of late
Knot - flock of 300 in summer plumage headed NNW and climbed

Pics from yesterday (thanks Janet)

Ocean Edge
Little Egret - 5 (3 OE saltmarsh channel, 2 Red Nab)

Moths
Pale Prominent is very rare here - not sure how many previous but only 1-2 from memory, also Small Square Spot new for year and a fresh Hebrew Character still

Mammal
At least one, probably two Harbour Porpoise (or one very fast swimmer - not together)