Amphibians and moths and Skippers

Light west breeze and mainly sunny

Middleton Nature Reserve (Janet)

First Large Skipper butterfly of the year

This moth was identified by Kevin as celypha lacunana.
"It's supposed to be very common but I haven't come across it."

The warm dry spell is driving the amphibians under cover.
This toad and newts sp were under a log, which was carefully replaced.

Plenty of Bee Orchids around, but they are easily missed

Kevin had this moth in his trap this morning. A Marbled White Spot

a very local species, which has only recently spread into Northern Lancashire. 

Things, pretty much, the same.

Quite a fresh SW breeze mainly overcast with some very light rain

Heysham Head high cliffs - yesterday 

Alan reported at least two, probably three Rock Pipits on the rocks below the high cliffs

Heysham Skear - low water 10:30

Great White Egret (probably). 10:10. 1 flew south along the line of the Kent channel, flight and flight line both looked right for a Great White. But it was too distant to see detail or get a picture. Last seen passing south past the wooden jetty at the harbour mouth. (MD)

Little Egret 5 feeding

Great Crested Grebe 10, possibly more, they were not as easy to see in the choppy sea today.

Curlew c25

Oystercatchers were the only other wader.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Janet checked mid morning, it was quite cool and no dragonflies were showing. But there were plenty of other things of interest.

Reed warbler carrying food
 (not marsh as per original caption.....just a senior moment! MD)

Swifts feeding over the main pond

Female Roe deer

I had a look in the afternoon it was a bit warmer then and a few dragonflies were around:

Emperor 3

Four-spotted Chaser 1

Broad-bodied Chaser 1

Common Darter 1

Once again the moths outnumbered the butterflies:

Butterflies 

Speckled Wood 2

Small Tortoiseshell 1

Day flying moths

Burnet Companion 1

Cinnabar 3. Cinnabar look splendid in flight with their bright red lower wing, but when they settle this is normally obscured by the mainly black upper wing. But this individual rested with its wings open.

Cinnabar moth

Birds

Only Grasshopper warbler of the nine resident warblers not heard today, including:

Cetti's warbler - both the "no swimming" pond and central marsh males singing, plus a glimpse of one on the western marsh.

Water Rail 1 calling on central marsh

Mute status unchanged, but no sign of the Mallards.

Little Grebe 1 adult on Tim Butler pond

Reed Bunting - I wanted to check that I've now set my camera video quality to be compatible with this post, so took this short burst of a male calling.

Godwit puzzle

Almost breathless first thing before a SW breeze picked up. Some cloud but plenty of sunny spells.

Heysham skear - low water 09:45 (MD)

Great Crested Grebe 15

Red-breasted Merganser 2

Eider 1

Little Egret 8

Curlew c35

Bar-Tailed Godwit 1 male in full summer plumage - the puzzle is, is he late leaving for the breeding grounds or very early returning?

The male's summer plumage didn't evolve to be an effective camouflage. But that is exactly what it is on the similar coloured skear.

He's just to the right of the central Oystercatcher 

Fortunately, a little easier to see when he moves.

Both today's clips were using my new camera (dropped it's predecessor!). Unfortunately, its video settings weren't compatible with this post format, so I had to take a video of the video, hence the unusual quality of both clips..

Shortly after this clip he flew off to the south.

You will notice from the clip that the mussels are establishing themselves again. This shot is where I showed the seed mussels just starting to take hold last month.

This is the middle of the middle skear looking west towards the first channel

Unfortunately, they are very vulnerable, they are only anchored to each other and are sitting on the remains of the honeycomb worm beds. In places almost a metre deep. The sand is already very weak, being made up of millions of tubes, the mussels cane be easily undermined. The long spell of light winds has been to their advantage, hopefully the old beds below them will consolidate, making them both lower and denser, before a serious storm arrives.

Middleton Nature Reserve - early afternoon 

Just the east side checked today

Cetti's warbler 1 - central marsh male singing

Dragonflies 

Emperor 4+

Common Darter 3

Common Darter

Black-Tailed skimmer 1 male

Broad- bodied chaser 6+

This is a slightly unusual shot of a Broad-bodied Chaser, with the light shining through it.

But it was even more unusual than that. It had obviously recently emerged and it was still pumping fluids around its body. You can see the abdomen convulsing.

Butterflies:

Painted Lady 1

Small Heath 1

Small Tortoiseshell 3

Small White 3

Speckled Wood several

The current population of Speckled Wood are all nice and fresh.

No day flying moths seen, although there were a couple of Silver-ground carpet disturbed.

There were three Drinkwater moth caterpillars near the "no swimming" pond. Two of them resting in the middle of a well trodden tracks - not a great survival strategy!

Drinkwater moth caterpillar

This Buzzard drifted in from the east, but was quickly chased back by the gulls.

New, for the year, dragonflies

SW to W fresh wind. Mainly overcast, but some sunny spells.

Ocean Edge foreshore and saltmarsh 

Mediterranean gull 1 second calendar year out from the saltmarsh with

c140 Black-Headed gull

The only wader was a single Lapwing

Middleton Nature Reserve 

I just checked the western side (MD)

Once again the day flying moths outnumbered the butterflies 

Moths:

Burnet Companion 5

Cinnabar 2

Mother Shipton 1

Butterflies:

Speckled Wood 3

Small Tortoiseshell 1

Small Heath 1

Dragonflies 

Not many over the only water bodies I checked, the small scrapes on the western marsh. Just Emperors patrolling.

But sheltering from the cool breeze were

Black-tailed skimmer 1 (female or immature male)

Southern Hawker 1 (immature male, I think) - first record of the year

Southern Hawker

Janet took these shots:

Common Whitethroat 

Common Darter - first record this year

Not a lot.....so far

WSW lighter wind, mainly overcast but some sunny spells in the afternoon.

Heysham skear - low water 08:25

Eider 3

Great Crested Grebe 7 (looks like the additional group of 11 seen last night have moved on)

Little Egret 9

Lighthouse area mid afternoon 

There were quite a few families out for an afternoon walk. The ringed male Rock pipit was very wary of them, but seemed happy to tolerate me, presumably I'm seen as part of the furniture! (MD)

He appeared to be hiding from visitors behind this old bolt

And when they moved closer, he got lower behind the bolt.

The Herring gull chicks are hatching 

Possibly more later

First Great White Egret of 2021

West wind all day, occasional cloud cover but mainly sunny.

Middleton Nature Reserve late morning (MD)

Mute two pairs with 2 and 9 cygnets

Coot 2 pairs with 3 and 1 chicks

Moorhen 5

Mallard pair plus 10 well grown young

Little grebe 1 adult

One of the Coot families 

Cetti's warbler 2 (central marsh and "no swimming" pond males singing - initially intermittently but by 11:30 much more regularly).

Up to 11:00 I hadn't seen a single butterfly and was a bit disappointed to see three in the return leg of the walk:

Common Blue 2

Small White 1

The butterflies were outnumbered by day flying moths!

Burnet Companion 3

Cinnabar 1

Dragonflies 

A couple of Black Tailed skimmer males on the main pond, but most of the blue bodied dragonflies on the main pond were Broad-bodied Chasers, which were also on most ponds and scrapes. Also:

Emperor 

Four-spotted Chasers

Heysham skear - evening 

Great White Egret 1. 17:20. Flew south along the line of the Kent Channel, too distant for a decent shot, but enough to confirm species. This is the first record since early December last year. Today's title reflects the change in status of this species, i.e. we expect to see more!

Great Crested Grebe 18 - this clip shows 11 of them.

Little Egret 5

Curlew c20

Grey seal 1 - it's caught a flounder and the gulls await any scraps

It always amazes me how confident gulls are on the water, when they know a seal is directly below them. It could easily grab one from below, but clearly never does (MD)

Red Kite

A surprisingly cool SW wind eased during the day. Rain showers early on then mainly overcast.

 Red Kite 1. This is only the second sighting for the recording area, the only previous one being last August.

South wall 14:23 (MD). The Kite was high above the Power Stations heading NE. Although the gulls weren't happy there was nothing like the commotion that they greet an Osprey with.

It must have turned to the east as a few minutes later it was seen passing over Middleton Nature Reserve by Alan Physick.

Not much else on the south shore, just one Rock Pipit seen taking food to the lighthouse nest area.

There was also little to see on the skear earlier (although it might had been better if I'd remembered to take my binoculars!)

Eider 2

Great Crested Grebe 1

Little Egret 8

But there were a lot of young Lion's Mane Jellyfish, c20 in the 100m of waterline just before the SE corner of the skear.

This one is just a bit paler than the adult jellyfish 

But most were almost transparent and white, which is typical for juveniles 

This clip gives you a better idea of the form:

And this shot an idea of size.

Even at this size, I would be reluctant to handle a Lion's Mane jellyfish.
The adults have a painful sting. But don't worry, it's not a mass invasion, the SW wind
had concentrated them in this corner, I didn't see any further away from the skear.

Spot the gull

A fresh SSW breeze, overcast till mid afternoon then mainly sunny.

South shore mid morning (MD)

There were lots of gulls feeding on both outflows including:

Mediterranean gull 1 x 2nd calendar year 

2cy Mediterranean gull 

Common gull at least 3 x 2nd calendar year 

2cy Common gull

This is No.1 outflow, there are five gull species in this frame.
Mediterranean, Common, BHG, LBBG and Herring.
But you may need to open the image to find some.

Rock Pipits 3 - both lighthouse adults were collecting food so there must be chicks in the nest. This is the ringed male waiting with food above the nest site, but he wouldn't go to it as there were a few people around. Eventually he flew to the female and left it with her.

A third bird was chased away.

Middleton Nature Reserve late afternoon 

Just a quick check of the two main ponds.

Cetti's warbler 2 - male singing from "no swimming" pond, plus one from the scrub on the north side of the road where the old brick building used to be. This area has become denser scrub over the last few years, this is the first time I've heard a Cetti's from here.

Dragonflies - both Black Tailed Skimmers (3) and Broad-bodied Chasers (2) males defending territory on the main pond.

Wildfowl- no change in status except the female Mallard has left the 10 young birds to fend for themselves, they have all remained together for now.

Janet sent these shots of quite well grown fox cubs playing in the horse paddocks at Knowlys Road.

But not just playing, most dog owners will recognise this activity,
digging a hole. But for wild foxes it isn't just an instinct, it's a way of finding food.

Still plenty of interest......as long as you have plentiful interests

Light early SWS breeze became quite blustery and SW  by evening. Mainly overcast but still warm.

A morning check by Pete:

Canada goose 29 south c09:00

Mediterranean gull 1 3rd calendar year in summer plumage - with Black-headed gulls, a long way out from Ocean Edge toward Potts Corner.

Black-headed gull 1 1st calendar year 

Also on south shore (MD)

c40 geese north low over the caravan park. Only seen from a distance, but suggested Greylag

c30 geese even further away landed on sea out from the estuary - not possible to identify with my optics.

The 1st calendar year Black-headed gull was with two adult, but it at least 
tried to feed itself 

It very kindly did a pirouette to show both profiles 

Rock pipits 2 - the ringed male was standing guard at the lighthouse and chased off a second bird.

Grey Seal 2 a male and a female, just out from Red Nab. The male is the larger of the two on the left.

Here are a couple of details:

This is the female yawning, she is much smaller and females have
dark spots on a pale background 

Males are much larger and have pale markings on a dark background 

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Just a quick late afternoon check 

Cetti's Warbler - no swimming pond male singing

Summer plumage Little Grebe feeding on "no swimming" pond.

The Tim Butler pond Mute swans have, at last, at least two cygnets.
At one point they had up to 6 eggs, I thought they had all gone when I managed
a glimpse a few weeks ago, but she has either laid again or the eggs were obscured.
I hope they have the sense to remain on this pond, the aggressive male won't tolerate 
them if they move to the Main pond.

There were the remains of at least 7 Signal Crayfish on the peninsula of the main pond.
These are in addition to the few remains that were there a couple of days ago.
As far as I know, the only predator to leave remains like this are Otters, they were
active a moth or so ago, then went quiet, hopefully they will continue to rid the pond
of the introduced crayfish. A check first light might be productive, if we have any insomniacs.

This is a detail of the head - they do actually look like an alien species 

Slightly more "attractive",  Silver-ground Carpet moth.
Another common species, this is one of two seen this afternoon 

The only Dragonflies seen were Emperor 2, but just the three large ponds checked. 

The Spotted Orchids are starting to bloom
There are various varieties plus hybrids.
My knowledge limit only goes as as Spotted Orchid sp. (MD)

400 up, and still counting

Light SW to WSW breeze. Mainly sunny

A check of the Rock Pipits below Heysham Head found at least 3, probably 4 below the high cliffs, at least one young bird. Plus 1 male singing on the northern tip of the Head.

Canada Geese - this is what today's title refers to, there were a total of 110 today, bringing the count since the moult migration began on 29th May to 405, this is significantly higher than previous years.

Today:

Four flocks between 08:10 to 08:30

28 north

34 northeast, crossing overland at Heysham Head

17 north

31 north, then 10 minutes later, presumably the same 31 returned and landed on the sea and were still just out from Half Moon Bay at 09:30.

Some of the 31 Canada geese out from Half Moon Bay

Heysham Nature Reserve (Janet)

Painted Lady 1

Burnet Companion - lots

Burnet Companion 

Small moths, especially common ones like this rarely get a mention,
but seen close up they are nicely patterned - Crambus lathoniellus

Bee Orchids have started to bloom, they are much more abundant than
many think. But you need to get your "eye in" to find them both here
and on Middleton Nature Reserve.

Heysham Skeer - low water 17:45

Great Crested Grebe 6

No Eider or Red-breasted Merganser

The only waders were Oystercatcher and a handful of Curlew 

Still several hundred large gulls, mainly Herring.