Pomarine Skua

The fresh breeze oscillated between SSE to SSW. Mainly overcast with some protracted showers.

Seawatch report from Pete (M)

Sea 0603-0803.  Slow but some quality in first hour - 20 mins of second hour in poor vis and rain and zilch seen: 

Pomarine skua - one out 0608 then landed possibly next to another ‘bird spp’ (a dark wing appeared to be raised), then floated in with tide

Arctic Skua 1 dark morph mid range heading in at 0658 

10 Gannet

1 Sandwich Tern

9 Guillemot

c15 Common Scoter

22 Dunlin

1 Swift

Pete Crooks checked a little later:

Heysham North Harbour Wall (8.20 – 10.50 am) – Just about enough interest to persevere given that I’d missed PJM’s early morning Pom and Arctic Skua.

5 Gannet (flying out of the Bay)

7 Common Scoter (flying in, landing on the sea, then continuing into the Bay)

1 Red-throated Diver (flying out)

6 Razorbill (5 + 1 flying out)

29 ‘auk sp’ (5 + 11 + 3 + 10 flying in very distantly)

20 Kittiwake (10 + 5 + 1 + 1 + 3 flying out, mostly distantly)

3 Sanderling (flying out)

4 Sandwich Tern

Not much else today

Whimbrel 1 on Red Nab

Linnet 5 Red Nab + 3 near lighthouse 

Rock Pipit - it was strangely quiet near the lighthouse, just the ringed male silent on the harbour wall. Still no birds seen carrying food.

Even a metal ring is easily seen, if not read.

More Skuas and a top moth

The wind was quite fresh and swung from north early on NW mid morning and west by the afternoon. Steady rain first thing but brightened up later in the morning, then mainly sunny.

Report from Pete:

Sea 0610-0740 north wall: niggling rain straight into optics, even with extension pulled out a nuisance for the window clamped scope so may have missed something wiping the lens:  

three Arctic Skuas flew in at 0630.  The first was picked up chasing a Sandwich Tern before heading in when it was joined by two more (getting up off sea?). The first bird was a dark morph. The views available did not allow confirmation of morph type for the other two.

The rest was all during the early period before the wind swung NW from N:   

Guillemot 4

Razorbill/Guillemot 4

Kittiwake flock of c7 in

Sandwich Tern 6

Gannet 4

A quick check of the south shore:

Whimbrel 1 on Red Nab 

Grey Seal 1 out from outflows

Middleton Nature Reserve 

A mid morning report from Janet:

The Cygnets are doing well, still all 9 on the main pond.
There was another Swan hiding in the reeds.

The Mute are tolerating the Mallard. 
The ducklings are almost full size now

When there's bread to be had....full speed ahead!

Phoebe (Russell) spotted this Roe Buck before I did!!!

Heysham skear - low water 15:30

My only contribution today was what I didn't see! (MD)

Eider 3

Little Egret 6

Apart from the omnipresent Oystercatchers, the only other waders were:

Curlew 2

Whimbrel 2

Not a sign of the Turnstones.

Also Great Crested Grebe and Red-breasted Merganser not seen, but I might just have missed them.

Kevin only had one moth in his trap this morning but it was a very special one!

Chocolate-tip

It's the first county record North of the Ribble for Chocolate-tip.

Pleasant Siskin surprise

Very light SE breeze in the morning switched to NNW and became fresher after lunch. Rain pretty much all day, but lighter than yesterday.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

The aggressive male and his family have now abandoned the main pond, now, apparently, empty of other mute and were sat on their "no swimming" pond nest site this morning.

The Mute family back at the family home

The main pond isn't quite bereft of Mute though,  this one was still "hiding" on the NE corner
Even with the aggressive male on a different pond, it was still not prepared to come out of the reeds

Two more adult Mute on the Tim Butler pond

Mallard 2 male 2 female + young

The Mallard and her young were hunkered down on the peninsula 

Gadwall 3

Coot 2

Moorhen 3

Little Grebe 1 adult seen on both Main and "no swimming" ponds, just possibly the same bird

Main pond fish:

For the past few years, there have been large numbers of goldfish/Rudd or Roach hybrids shoaling at this time of year. I have seen none so far this year, plus the number of Cormorants feeding on the pond has declined significantly. The laws of predator/prey relationships would suggest that all the fish will have not gone (eventually the low numbers of prey means they are not worth hunting for). So unless another factor is involved there will be some fish to continue breeding, presumably a more natural balance will now be maintained.

Warblers:

Everything seems more businesslike at the moment. Plenty of warblers to be seen feeding, but not as many singing males. Willow warbler, Chiffchaff, Blackcap, Common Whitethroat, Sedge and Reed warblers were the only species heard.

Reed Bunting 1

Roe deer 1 female

I know fungi isn't of many people's interest,
but I think this fresh Yellow Fieldcap has an elegant beauty
(At least that's what I think it is! MD)

South shore

Plenty of large gulls feeding at the seaward end of No.1 outflow (No2 outflow is on reduced capacity at the moment).

Grey seal at least three

By the time I took this clip, many of the feeding large gulls had moved on, it pans from them towards where the seals were feeding and resting. Just two seals visible on this occasion. 

Rock Pipits 2 feeding on the south wall, including the ringed male. A third bird was stood over the lighthouse nesting area.

I'd just settled down for the evening and was about to download today's images from my camera when two Siskin, very kindly, started feeding on my feeder. Two visits 17:30 and 18:30. I do get occasional passage in my garden, not quite annual, but the previous latest spring record was on 12th March 2018 (MD)

Male Siskin

Female Siskin 

This is a clip of both of them feeding, they ate a lot of seeds!

On this one the female gets moved on by one of the regular House Sparrows

Presumably, wherever they came from, they are accustomed to feeding from feeders. This feeder is directly in front of my living room window, not a natural flight line.

Early morning Puffins

Strong SE winds all day. The rain started about 10:30 and never really stopped.

Seawatch report from Pete:

Sea 0600-0730 heysham north wall: 

Arrival met by a distant outbound procession of auks and Sandwich Terns which ceased abruptly at 0625 so an earlier start would have helped! 

Highlights: 

two Puffin out together at 0614

4 Sanderling 

1 dark morph Arctic Skua.  

Others: 

Sandwich tern 42 out, 2 in

Razorbill/Guillemot 59 out

Red Throated Diver 1 out

Gannet 4 

1 Pink foot floating out.  

4 Swallow north

Common Scoter dearth continues.

Grey Seal 1

The only other bits are from my walk out to the skear at low water (MD)

At 3m low water height, there is very little skear showing. Most of what there was was taken up with the large gulls, c400 mainly Herring, feeding on the seed mussels.

Unfortunately, that left little room to walk without disturbing them, but there wasn't much around. The only waders apart from Oystercatcher were Turnstone c30.

Eider just 2 seen flying north.

Great Crested Grebe 1

Great Crested Grebe in the rain!
You can tell by the size of the rain drop splashes how heavy it was.

There were at least two seals feeding, marked by a cloud of gulls above them.

A bit of a washout, but at least my new lightweight waterproofs passed their test.

Hopefully more to come, but I doubt it.

No dramatics today

Fresh west breeze and sunshine all day

Heysham skear - low water 11:40

Large gulls, mainly Herring 500+

Eider 9

Red-breasted Merganser 3

Great Crested Grebe 1

Turnstone c80

Sanderling 1

Dunlin 4

Ringed Plover 7

All the small waders are well camouflaged on the skear.
There are four Ringed Plover and a Dunlin on this shot.

Kevin took this shot of a very rufous female Wheatear on Ocean Edge.
He also advised that access along the wall was restricted due to work on
the outfall - hopefully not for too long

Middleton Nature Reserve - early evening

Janet was correct, the female Mute with her nine chicks has now moved to the main pond. She, at least is tolerating the female Mallard with her 10 chicks. They were using the shallow bay near the peninsula as a nursery.

The aggressive male Mute was patrolling the pond now apparently free of other Mute.......

......but this one was hiding in the reeds in the NE corner

Mallard 3 male, 3 female + 10 chicks

Gadwall 2 male

Little grebe 1 adult on Tim Butler

Insects:

The areas of vegetation around all the ponds have lots of immature Damselflies, but they are not going over the water yet.

Almost mature male Azure Damselfly

This immature male Broad-bodied Chaser was near the
Shallow scrape in SW corner of the western marsh

There were three newly emerged Four-Spotted Chaser around the Reserve

Bonxie attack!

West breeze early on freshened slightly during the day. Mainly sunny.

Heysham skear - low water 10:40 

On these neap tides, the water only goes out as far as the middle of the middle skear. This has the effect of concentrating the large gulls that are grazing the seed mussel beds.

This is just part of the largest group of grazing gulls, there are c400 in this frame,
plus there is a smaller group to the east and another on the northern edge of the skear

So, there were upward of 600 gulls mainly Herring on the middle skear. I've been walking on and around the skear for over fifty years, but I have never before seen what happened next! (MD).

The birds started lifting off the skear from the northern edge, not just the gulls but the Oystercatcher too. The wave quickly moved across the skear and soon every bird was in the air. I thought it must be an Osprey so I was trying to check the sky through the swathes of birds, then a Herring gull was chased over my head, no more than 5m above me, by a.....

Great Skua (Bonxie) - 10:10. suddenly it was like being in a huge spin drier with 500+ screaming (there is no other word for it) gulls swirling around me, I occasionally managed a glimpse of the Bonxie, the white wing flashes remarkably intimidating, but no chance of getting my camera on it. It probably lasted less than a minute, the Bonxie would have been chasing the gulls to get them to drop what they were eating, but most almost certainly would only have had seed mussels. 

As the frenzy eased slightly I noticed a large dark bird heading off to the east and tried to get a record shot.

This is about the "best" shot. It is slightly clearer if you open the  image
Even as it flew across the bay, it lifted the gulls resting on the sand bars

I have seen the occasional Bonxie here in the past, but nothing so dramatic as today. I suppose so many large feeding gulls concentrated like this, is a huge lure for any passing Bonxie (I'll check again in the morning, at least I can expect the "lure" to be in place again).

Eider 17

Great Crested Grebe 3

Red-breasted Merganser 2

Whimbrel 2

Turnstone c60 - well spread around the skear

Dunlin 1 with

Sanderling 8

Summer plumage Dunlin with four of the Sanderling moving to summer plumage.

Four of the Sanderling with a Turnstone in this clip.

Heysham Nature Reserve (Janet)

The warm weather brought out the insects. There were lots of Damselflies, as well as lots of "flies"

The dipping pond was covered in "flies"

There were several Common Blue butterflies 
Mainly males

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Ringing report from John:

Short ringing session this morning, not ideal conditions, breezy and sunshine early on.

Only five birds caught and no moths in the trap set overnight.

New birds caught were single Sedge and Reed Warblers. 

Retraps were a Willow Warbler, Great Tit and a Lesser Whitethroat.

The Lesser Whitethroat was originally ringed in 2017, and had not been caught again until today.

No Grasshopper Warblers heard during the time there.

I had a quick look around after lunch (MD)

The aggressive male Mute had almost cleared the main pond

just two left which he had driven up the east bank.

I was surprised that the mute was tolerating this Greylag sat on the peninsula.

But as I walked away, I heard the mute fly across the pond to "see it off". But the Greylag just honked a few times, then, literally, stood up to it. The mute pretended that it had flown across the pond to do some urgent preening, then sidled off......

The female mute was still on the "no swimming" pond with her 9 cygnet. As Janet said, they may soon move to the main pond, and will be tolerated by male, but I just think he wanted the prime feeding pond back, irrespective of family.

Mallard 2 male plus 2 female one with 10 chicks.

Gadwall 1

Teal 2

Jay 2

No Grasshopper or Cetti's warblers heard

Insects:

Butterflies as Sunday, but at least 4 Small Heath now.

Silver Y moth

There were several areas where damselflies were flying in clouds, but only two dragonflies seen, both Broad-bodied chaser. 

One immature flying near the small scrape near the yellow barrier - looked to be a male.

The other was probably the same female I photographed Sunday, was just east of the golf course.

The aggressive male mute, lives up to its name!

Very heavy early morning showers. What air movement there was early on was from NE, but by 10:00 it was westerly and remained so and freshened during the day. Overcast till late morning then mainly sunny.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Ringing report from Alan:

Ringing this morning was interrupted by a very heavy 45 min rain shower. Nets were set before 06.00 but had to be closed between 06.45 and 07.45. After the rain there were plenty of birds moving around within the reserve but the catch was low.

Grasshopper Warbler 1 retrap from earlier this year. There were two singing birds in the western marsh.

Sedge Warbler 2 plus 3 retraps, one of which was from 2020

Reed Warbler 2

Common Whitethroat 1 plus 1retrap from 2020

Willow Warbler 1 retrap from earlier this year

Blue Tit 1

The female mute is still on the "no swimming" pond with her 9 young

This striking pose from Kevin

Meanwhile Janet took this shot of the male trying to clear the main pond of the other mute.

Janet expects the male to relocate his family here soon.

A nice shot of a Song Thrush.

This tree is just west of the reserve on the southern boundary of Ocean Edge
(There is a public footpath that runs along here and the south of the reserve)
Yesterday, this male Great Spotted Woodpecker was resting on its tail.

Today, in the same tree, this female was looking for food.

South shore 

A check just after the heavy shower located

Wheatear 2 together at 07:45

By 10:40 there was just one

A particularly chunky individual 

By 14:20 there were 2 individual birds

A more streamlined bird but quite rufous

So a minimum of 4 different birds.

House Sparrows disappeared from the saltmarsh area just a week or so after lockdown started. Today two had returned

Whimbrel 2 near Red Nab

Rock Pipits 2

It was strangely quiet near the lighthouse, no sign of activity near the waterfall, the lighthouse bird moved on the ringed male when it came too close, but for the most part the ringed bird was feeding in the scrub, then flying into the Power Station grounds. Unfortunately I didn't see it carrying any food away. 

This clip is the ringed Rock Pipit feeding with a Starling, it always amazes me how much food the birds find here, from such a spartan area. The Starting finds a grub, probably a leather jacket.

This male Linnet is keeping an eye on  me as I approach it's nesting area (MD).

Report from Pete:

Female Whinchat horse paddocks.  

Single Sandwich Tern and 8 Swallow north on seawatch.

Female Wheatear north harbour wall (at least five Male linnet on the mound on gorse) 

Grasshopper warbler not frustrating today...... Plus first dragonfly

Light variable breezes again SE first thing NW by the afternoon. Light showers in the morning then largely sunny.

No Wheatears on Ocean Edge foreshore this morning

Blackcap - there were two males together plus two singing near the small anemometer. Two singing is typical here but presumably the two together were new in.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

I checked the western section in the morning (MD)

Blackcap were the most abundant singing warblers at least 6

Lesser Whitethroat 3 singing, which is more than I have been hearing recently.

Also Common Whitethroat, Chiffchaff and Willow Warbler, plus:

Cetti's warbler 2 - 1 singing from the slope to the west of the western marsh. This prompted the western marsh bird to sing too.

Grasshopper warbler 2. There was one singing quietly from the scrub on the ridge that forms the SW boundary with Ocean Edge. The other was where I left it last night on the hill in the western section between the small copse by the egress road and the golf course. But this morning it was more obliging!

Grasshopper warbler 

I even managed a clip of it singing.........with the bird actually in the clip! This is at 09:40.

I returned after lunch to check the eastern side of the reserve.

Mute status unchanged.

Mallard 3 male 2 female

Don't know where the Mallard with the 10 chicks has been for the last few days,
but they are growing quickly. All 10 were present.

Cetti's warbler 1 - the central marsh bird was singing. Giving a total of 3 for the day

It was a bit quieter Warbler wise in the afternoon, no Grasshopper or Garden warbler heard, but all the other regulars present - a total of 9 species for the day.

The Long-Tailed Tits have fledged young. 

Newly fledged Long-Tailed Tit

At this point I was surrounded by at least five young plus several adults. It seemed a lot noisier than this clip suggests.  

Insects:

It was quite warm in the sunshine and light NW breeze, things were emerging.

Butterflies included: Speckled Wood, Orange Tip, Green Veined White, Peacock and first records of the year for.

Small Heath

Small Copper

There were lots of Damselfly around, most too insipid for me to identify (MD).

Think this could be one of the varied female forms
of a Common Bluetail

There were some more easily identified, including several Common Blue.

This was a pleasant surprise, a Broad-bodied Chaser. Near the shallow scrapes created for this species at the west side of the western marsh. I believe it to be an immature female, but I've left the images in full resolution, in case anyone wants to open them to check the detail.

Otter status - there was another spraint marking a stone on the edge of the main pond.

Evening Grasshopper Warbler was a consolation

Light breezes again mainly fro NE to east. It started raining about 08:00 and pretty much continued on and off for most of the day till 18:00.

South shore

A check just after the rain started located:

Wheatear 3 on Ocean Edge foreshore

Rock Pipits 2 between lighthouse and waterfall.

No sign of Rock Pipit(s) that held winter territory on the rocky outcrop to the east of the saltmarsh 

The lighthouse area Rock pipit.

A check of the foreshore at 16:45, while it was still raining, located:

Wheatear 7

By 18:00, the rain had stopped and all but 1 Wheatear had left.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

This nice Mute family shot by Phoebe Russell shows that I 
miscounted the cygnets yesterday. There are an impressive nine.

Janet confirmed, that apart from the Mute above there were 6 on the main pond plus 2 on Tim Butler pond.

No sign of the female Mallard and her brood again today.

A brief check of the west side of the reserve at 17:00, still light rain (MD)

Swallow 4 + 1 

House Martin 5 + 4

Both the above were low heading south

Grasshopper Warbler 1 reeling from a bush on the hill on the NW of the reserve. I nearly always find Grasshopper warbles both satisfying and frustrating at the same time.

Satisfying - as their song is unmistakable and usually clearly identifies where it's coming from.

Frustrating - as even knowing where it is you seldom get to see them.

Today was such a day! It was singing  heartily, and I didn't want to disturb it, so I satisfied myself just videoing a bush!

Although the bird is in this bush or the scrub just behind, this clip doesn't show it, but it does allow you to hear its song (apologies to birders who will know very well what they sound like, but many of this blog readers are not experienced birders, and may not recognise the song). It was still raining slightly the shadow at the top is from my hand keeping the rain off the camera - you might want to turn the volume up.

You could doze off counting all the seals!

Very light variable breeze, mainly overcast with some sunny spells

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Ringing report from John:

A very quiet ringing session this morning. Three nets set but only five birds caught in nearly four hours. New birds were:

Lesser Redpoll

Willow Warbler

Sedge Warbler

Grasshopper Warbler. This bird was caught on the east side while a second bird was singing on the west side.

also a re-trap Coal Tit.

Heysham skear - low water 08:00

Just a quick check

Eider c30

Great Crested Grebe 8

Red-breasted Merganser 1

Turnstone c80

Swallow 4 east

Pete watched the sea for an hour as the tide was flooding:

Mammals:

Grey Seal 10 drifting in with the tide - a high count for Lancashire.

Harbour Porpoise 2 just beyond the buoys out from the north wall.

Birds:

Sandwich Tern 8

Guillemot 8

Razorbill 1

A quick check of the south shore located

Mediterranean gull 1 second calendar year

2cy Med Gull ocean edge foreshore

Middleton Nature Reserve - early afternoon

Mute swan - 5 on the main pond. The "no swimming" pond pair have 8 chicks. The other nesting pair are still sitting on the nest, but a brief interlude allowed a look and unless the nest is very deep it is empty.

The "no swimming" pond mute family

The other "active" nest appears empty,
at least there shouldn't be any unpleasant battling this year.

Gadwall 5 males

Mallard 3 males (the female with chicks not seen today)

Cetti's warbler- just the "no swimming" male heard

Swallow 5

Swift 3

We have just received the details of the Herring Gull seen in the Harbour 1st April.

LIfe history of Herring Gull Left: White N:85C on Dark Green ring and Right: Metal

Date	Activity	Location	Movement	Duration
05 Jul 2019	Ringed as a nestling	Bowland - Brennand West,  UK. SD640552
01 Apr 2021	Colour marks read	Heysham Harbour,  Lancashire	26km  NNW	1y 8m 27d