Meds mystery

And, so it continues, hot, sunny and SW to W breeze.

South shore as tide was leaving the sea wall.

Large gulls juveniles - there were 25 between Red Nab and No.2 outflow plus another 7 between No.2 and No.1 outflow.

Rock Pipits 3. 2 together on Red Nab plus this one feeding on top of the sea wall near the lighthouse. It appeared to have turned vegetarian, but it must have been finding small invertebrates or possibly eggs in the sparse flora.

This is a still from the above clip, you can just make out a small morsel in its bill

Rock Pipit - Pete advises that it is a worn adult in moult.

The Rock Pipit wasn't the only bird feeding like this, a young Linnet was too, and being watched over by dad.

Male Linnet

Mediterranean gulls 5 - on this date last year, on a similar height tide, there were 40 Mediterranean gulls feeding on the beach next to the wooden jetty. Today I got there before the mud was exposed. These two 3rd calendar year birds were waiting for the sand mason worm beds to become available.

3rd calendar year Mediterranean gulls

Later they were joined by two adult and a third adult was making its way to the beach as I was walking back. It wasn't the unavailability of sand mason worms keeping the meds away, they seemed to be finding them easily enough. This 3cy catches a worm at the start of this clip.

Perhaps the sand mason worms have just started to become available, I'll have another look in the morning (MD)

I couldn't work out what was "wrong" with this cormorant's bill. But it was only feathers, presumably after a good old preen.

Cormorant 

There were quite a few butterflies around the scrub near the lighthouse.

Meadow Brown 6

Gatekeeper 4

Common Blue 2

Small White 2

Small Tortoiseshell 1 (this seen to come in off the south wall)

Heysham skear - low water 14:00

Great Crested Grebe 1

Little Egret 4

Curlew c80

Turnstone 10 scattered around inner skear.

Redshank 81 - three lots 16, 3 & 62

Knot 6 partially summer plumage birds with the 62 Redshank. - I could see they were ready to move on so took this clip. Another Juvenile Oystercatcher was the last to leave (I did know that young birds have a white ring around the throat, I just hadn't realised how wide it can look - see yesterday's post).

This is still from this clip as they were taking off.

Knot in partial summer plumage

The flock flew off overland to the east. I haven't pre compressed this picture, so if you open it you should be able to see enough detail to pick out the six Knot

Redshank plus six Knot crossing the shoreline
before heading east overland

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Just a very brief check of the main pond mid afternoon 

Only dragonflies were:

Emperor 

Brown Hawker 

Blak-Tailed Skimmer

Swift 2

House Martin 2

Swallow 4

Kevin has had some more top moths in his overnight light trap a couple of days ago. Scarce Silver Lines, scarce Footman the best. I'm just waiting for more details and the images, so I'll either add later, or put on tomorrow's post

Knot back!......well, a Knot about

Light westerlies and hot sunshine continues, although there were some clouds around today.

South shore mid morning 

Rock Pipits 2 on Red Nab

Mediterranean gulls 5 adult plus 1 x 3rd calendar year, on the beach next to the wooden jetty, the tubes of the sand mason worms are becoming more prominent, hopefully the worms will become accessible to the gulls soon. In this distant clip there is an adult and the 3cy Med, plus a juvenile Black-Headed gull. None of the gulls were finding worms, but the Oystercatchers were catching them by digging down. You can see the end of the sand mason worm tubes protruding out of the mud.

There is a significant crèche of young Herring and Lesser Black-Backed gulls developing on the beach just north of Red Nab. There were 14 this morning.

Part of the crèche of large gulls just north of Red Nab

There were not just young gulls on the beach this morning. This Oystercatcher puzzled me with it having so much white on its throat and neck, until Jean showed me that this is typical juvenile plumage. You learn something new, most days. (MD)

Heysham skear - low water 13:00

No Great Crested grebe seen

Little Egret 6

Curlew c80

Redshank 6

Dunlin 14 - one flock south

Turnstone 52 - one flock of 35 plus 17 scattered around the inner skear.

Knot 1. There was one with the Turnstone flock.

Knot resting with Turnstone flock

They were temporarily spooked by a passing helicopter allowing in flight views.
Revealing that it was still in partial summer plumage.

Some, but not many, like it Hot

Light west breeze sunny and very hot (30C car temperature at 14:00)

South shore 

A check 4 hours after high water

Mediterranean gull 2 adult on waterline next to the wooden jetty 

The Black-Headed gulls were feeding on No.1 outflow again, presumably it's back on line.

Rock Pipits 2 - one young bird on Ocean Edge foreshore a second along the sea wall looked to be a youngster, but didn't see plumage clearly enough to be certain (MD)

Young Rock Pipit on Ocean Edge

Grey Seal 1 at sea end on No.1 outflow.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

I was planning on keeping out of the sun till evening, but at midday it was cooler out than indoors, if you could find shade. Even so, there was only me out, fortunately no mad dogs! (MD)

Mute Swan the Tim Butler pair had both cygnets on show today, plus a single female on the "no swimming" pond. The pair with 9 cygnets still on the main pond.

Mallard 17 juvenile 

Gadwall 1 female plus 3 young - they were having to work hard to reach as deep as mum, but on a day like today it looked very refreshing.

Little grebe 2 adult on the "no swimming" pond. This clip shows the number of damselflies around today. The grebe make a half hearted effort to catch one.

There were plenty of warblers calling and feeding, but only the Chiffchaffs were singing.

Swift 4

Swallow 10

Butterflies were plentiful and I didn't attempt to count, but in some areas Ringlet are the predominant species, Meadow Brown and Gatekeeper are the most common in other areas. Also around today: Small and Large Skipper, Red Admiral, Speckled Wood, Small White and Comma.

Dragonflies: Emperor, Brown Hawker, Black-Tailed Skimmer, Broad-Bodied Chaser and Common Darter.

Black-Tailed Skimmer

Broad-Bodied Chaser

Grasshoppers are everywhere and have been for some while, but for some reason this one decided to rest on the concrete road. Not an obvious resting place in today's temperatures.

Common Field Grasshopper 

Ringing and Moth report from Pete

Ringing - Eight species of warbler caught including two unringed juvenile Grasshopper 

Overnight light trap on Middleton - Best moth was Agonopterix conterminella but unfortunately  picture was  rubbish also very worn Grass Emerald and Eucosma tripoliana wandering from the saltmarsh as they often seem to do. Also:

Southern Wainscot

Agapeta zoegana

6 Lunar Hornet Moth at Heysham NR today4 at SD407 600 and 2 on Landscape strip at the gate SD 407599 and 1 halfway down back fence at SD407594 ref Linda Renshaw

Bit of a mixed bag

The west breeze and sunshine continues 

Heysham skear - low water 11:00

Just a quick check.

Great Crested Grebe 1

Little Egret 8

Grey Heron 1

Redshank 3

Turnstone 2

Curlew c80

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Janet took these Common Darter shots in the morning

Common Darter

I had a quick check of the three main ponds in the evening 

The Mute pair on Tim Butler pond only had one cygnet with them today. The rest of the wildfowl was as yesterday.

Not a lot of dragonflies.

Emperor 6

Black-Tailed Skimmer 3

Brown Hawker 1

Common Darter 1

Still a good variety of butterflies around, but no Ringlet seen today.

It tends to be noisy around the main pond, mainly as there is usually someone feeding the swans and ducks. The gulls call in anticipation and during feeding sessions. This Grey Heron was chilling out, resting on the sloping east bank. Interestingly, it reacted to the gulls falling "silent". Incidentally, this is the same heron that was seen swimming a couple of weeks ago. It seems to have its own ideas as to how a heron should behave.

Probably the best record of the day was on my Beech hedge as I was getting in my car this evening (MD). 

Magpie moth

Good, and not so good, recognition skills

The trend of fresh west breezes and sunshine continues.

Not a great deal today, plenty of butterflies everywhere but little else.

South shore 

A check mid morning at low water.

Rock Pipit 3. One juvenile on Ocean Edge foreshore, a bird flying along the sea wall towards Red Nab and this juvenile near the lighthouse.

This is the good recognition 

Juvenile (I think (MD)) Rock Pipit catches a Ladybird 

Then it remembers just how bad they taste, and lets it go again.

Mediterranean gulls at least 3. There was an adult and a 2nd calendar year on the water's edge near the wooden jetty, later two adult flew south along the sea wall. 

There were lots of butterflies near the newt pond behind Red Nab. 

Red Admiral 3

Meadow Brown 10+

Gatekeeper 10+

Ringlet c6

This is the not so good recognition, or perhaps just extreme optimism.

This Ringlet attracted a male Gatekeeper.
 Perhaps he was trying to chase her away, but he looked very friendly.

Two eye spots on wing........near enough.

Heysham Nature Reserve 

Janet took this shot of a Brown Hawker. Quite an unusual shot and a reminder of how appearances can be deceptive.

Male Brown Hawker - but they have yellow stripes on the thorax,  these
stripes appear blue, presumably an effect of the light through the foliage

Middleton Nature Reserve 

A check mid afternoon 

Not a lot of dragonflies around

Emperor 3

Black-Tailed Skimmer 5

Brown Hawker 1

Plenty of butterflies, in order of abundance:

Gatekeeper 20+

Meadow Brown 20-

Small Skipper 10+

Ringlet c4

Large Skipper 3

Speckled Wood 3

Red Admiral 2

Large White 2

Small White 2

Comma 2

Silver Y moth 1

Silver Y

Mallard - it was nice to see the 10 young birds on Tim Butler pond. This is the first sighting since they were tiny. The Tim Butler pond is becoming increasingly difficult to view more than just a few patches. There were also 10 young birds on the main pond and a further 8 on the "no swimming" pond. So 28 1st calendar year birds!

This is a nice group shot of the Mute family, some of the Mallard and a Moorhen, on the main pond. This is unlike previous behaviour of the aggressive male Mute, who normally chases everything. 

This reminds me of a school photograph (yes we did have cameras when I was at
school, albeit black and white). Smallest at the front please and the tall ones at the back.

This tiny (c4mm) moth, Grapholita compositella, was one of several on the Bird's-Foot Trefoil near the lighthouse. To the naked eye they just look like pieces of dandruff flitting about, but it is actually quite a striking moth. A common species, but this is the first record for the whole of the 10 x 10 kilometres of SD35, although, hardly surprising as about 99 square kilometres of SD35 is sea or mud, with the Fluke Hall area being the only other dry land.

Grapholita compositella

First Wheatear of..........Autumn!

The west breeze becoming fresher, mainly sunny.

Heysham skear - low water 09:30

Shelduck 2 over to the south

Great Crested Grebe 1

Little Egret 14

Redshank 51 in two flocks of 30 and 21

Turnstone 15

Curlew c70

Plus the ever present Oystercatchers

South shore 2 hr before high water

Large Black-Headed gull roost on Red Nab, not checked for Mediterranean gulls 

Rock Pipit 1 on Red Nab

Northern Wheatear 1 juvenile on Ocean Edge foreshore.

Juvenile Northern Wheatear 

Not a plumage often seen at Heysham 

But the tail always helps.
I often tell visitors how the Wheatear came about its name, but perhaps not appropriate 
to post the explanation. If you are interested Google it, and imagine speaking the words 
in a strong north eastern accent (MD)

Heysham Nature Reserve early afternoon 

Kevin did a circuit and reported that there were plenty of butterflies active today, including:

Small Copper

Meadow Brown

A particularly large and bright Comma

Small Skipper

Kevin also had another moth new to Heysham in his light trap a couple of days ago. Suspected 

Suspected 

Another good moth, Lunar Hornet moth was reported from the Tim Butler pond on Middleton Nature Reserve by Linda Renshaw today.

Early in the spring I showed a clip of a Beadlet anemone taking hold of a small piece of barnacle (see post 2/04/21 MD). In the areas around here where I walk, Beadlet are not only abundant, but the only anemone normally seen. This one is different. It was on the middle skear, in a pool where the water was draining off the skear. This area of shore is so dynamic in changes in formation that you do not normally see any anemone. This one was only small, undoubtedly young and has taken advantage of the relatively calm period we have had for a couple of months. I'm not an expert, but believe it to be a young Dahlia anemone, if anyone has other thoughts, please let me know.

This first clip you can see some of the tentacles reacting as suspended particles in the draining water touch them.

Even on the above clip you can see that this species is much more reactive than a Beadlet. In the clip below I provide it a small piece of mussel shell. It was obvious that this species could easily, and almost certainly does, catch shrimps and small fish. The adult Dahlia can grow to 10cm diameter, this one was less than 2cm.

The anemone quickly recognised that the shell was inedible and at the end of this clip you can see it starting to discard it.

Both Meds and wader numbers increasing

Quite a fresh west wind, mainly sunny.

Red Nab

Pete Woodruff spent a pleasant 2 hours in the sunshine, towards high water. Sat on the wall with his scope he managed:

Mediterranean gull 16 - 15 adult one with a green ring, plus one sub adult.

Ocean Edge

Common Sandpiper 1 flew out from foreshore rocks then south.

Dunlin 12 - again, initially on foreshore then south

Redshank 36 - 26 flushed from Red Nab joined another 10 to roost on the saltmarsh 

Some of the Redshank landing on the saltmarsh 

Lapwing 7 on saltmarsh 

Linnet 9 around saltmarsh 

Mediterranean gull at least three adult roosting with the Black-Headed gulls on the saltmarsh, almost certainly some of Pete's earlier birds from Red Nab.

I don't know if it is the correct name for these flies, but I've always called them Seaweed Flies. Most of these are mating and the mud and rocks were covered with them (they must have been breeding like flies!). The returning waders, particularly the plovers, will reset the balance.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Janet checked the east side in the morning and I had a quick look at the west side in the afternoon.

Shaded Broad-bar moth

Two Narrow Bordered Five-spot Burnet moth

There were plenty of Common Darter on the wing 

In contrast, I think for the first time ever during summer walks, I didn't see a single dragonfly in the afternoon and only one Common Blue Damselfly. The only water bodies I checked were the small scrapes on the west side, even so I would have expected some. (MD).

Even though there were plenty of butterfly species, again the numbers were lower than I would expect.

Red Admiral 1

Comma 1

Ringlet 1

Meadow Brown and Gatekeeper - several of each

Large White 1

Small White 2

Speckled Wood 4

Burnet Companion moth 2

Only four warbler species heard: Chiffchaff, Willow warbler, Blackcap and Common Whitethroat 

At least this Wren was finding plenty of invertebrates 

A crayfish twist. Plus, how long does it take to learn to sing?

Light winds W to NW. steady rain eased by mid morning after that mainly overcast with a couple of showers.

Middleton Nature Reserve - late morning

Pictures and report from Janet

A guy I met a few weeks ago said he had watched gulls diving and catching Crayfish and today I managed this long shot of one doing just that. Maybe It's not always an Otter visiting the main pond?

Lesser Black-Backed gull with a crayfish

This is very interesting, and good news too if the gulls start taking the crayfish (these are American signal crayfish, not an indigenous species). But two factors still strongly suggest that the large crayfish remains around the main pond are mainly left by Otter (as well as the spraints sometimes found with the remains).

First, gulls tend to take their food away to eat, otherwise they risk it being pinched. Janet confirmed that this gull flew away with its catch. 

Secondly, large crayfish have formidable claws that would easily reach the gull's face, whichever way it was carried. Most of the remains around the pond are from large crayfish, the one the gull has is only a smallish one, but similar to the size of crab they catch from the shore. I took the picture below this afternoon, this is the typical size crab they take (MD)

Lesser Black-Backed gull on the south sea wall, with a shore crab

The resident Grey Heron continues to "fish" in the main pond.
The fish stocks have dwindled sufficiently for the Cormorants 
not to bother feeding here anymore, perhaps it also takes
small crayfish, one to watch out for. 

Butterflies:

Lots of Skippers and Ringlet

Ringlet 

This is a worn male Meadow Brown, they are smaller than
 the female and can, at distance, be confused with a Ringlet

Common Blue resting on Quaking grass.

South shore (MD)

Rock Pipits 4. 1 adult feeding with 2 juvenile on Red Nab plus 1 adult near the lighthouse.

Mediterranean gull at least 5. There were 4 adult and a 2nd calendar year on the water's edge near the wooden jetty, they flew off as the tide pushed them further up the beach. 

At high water there was a 2nd calendar year on Red Nab plus at least one adult roosting with the Black-Headed gulls on the saltmarsh.

Redshank 7 - it will not be long before these stop being routinely recorded and become, literally, background noise.

Common Sandpiper 1 on Red Nab at high water

Common Sandpiper 

It flew from the rock it had been resting on when flushed by the tide, then had a little scurry around the inner rocks, before flying south.

The morning rain acted like a board rubber on the sand (sorry if you are not of an age to know what a board rubber is), leaving it pristine. These are Roe Deer tracks just south of the saltmarsh this afternoon. So sometime between mid morning and early afternoon today a Roe Deer has walked south along here in clear view for anyone who may have been around.

Roe Deer tracks in sand smoothed by the morning rain.

This downy individual was near the pond behind Red Nab

Not immediately identifiable, but it certainly looked to be newly fledged.

Then it started singing! And was clearly a Chiffchaff 

I was surprised, I hadn't really thought about it before, but I had expected singing not to start till the bird was mature (MD). But I suppose if you have to learn a song early, one with two notes and two "words" is as good as any. What's not obvious on this clip is that there are two birds singing. One was singing from a tree behind me, presumably dad. A lot of the chiffs and chaffs on this clip are from that bird. But this youngster was also keeping in sync and some of the notes are definitely from it.

Finally, this is one of Janet's shots from this morning.

Cinnabar moth caterpillars converting Ragwort into moths and  "compost".
These are another creature that are sometimes referred to as footballers.
Think I should  have stuck to watching nature yesterday...... Much less stressful! 

Mainly insects today

The wind shifted to the south. Some overnight rain and the odd shower during the day, but some sunny spells.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Just my stroll this afternoon so far (MD)

Mute Swan

I was a bit worried when I arrived, there were two Cygnet and an adult on the peninsula of the main pond. I thought the female from Tim Butler had brought her young over.

But later, the adult revealed itself to be the aggressive male from the "no swimming" pond. The female was still there with the other seven cygnets. A check of Tim Butler located the female with her two cygnets, although I didn't see the male. 

Mallard the female with her 10, now full sized young are still around.

Gadwall 1 female with 3 chicks

Female Gadwall with chicks

Little grebe just one adult seen today.

There weren't many warblers singing, but I eventually managed seven species. As a marked change from recents visits, one of the previous most regularly heard species, Common Whitethroat, was today the last species and only one heard.

Cetti's warbler 1 on central marsh

Sedge warbler 1

Reed warbler 1

Blackcap 2

Chiffchaff and Willow warbler 3 or 4 each

Common Whitethroat 1

Dragonflies:

Not many, only Emperors were active all around the reserve.

Black-Tailed Skimmer 3 male on main pond

Broad-Bodied Chaser 1 male on main pond

Brown Hawker at least 2

Butterflies:

Gatekeeper - this is the first I've seen or heard of this year, but suddenly they were everywhere 20+

Male Gatekeeper 

Meadow Brown c10

A female Meadow Brown can look similar to a Gatekeeper,
but the eyes always gives it away.

Ringlet at least 4 in 3 locations

Large Skipper 2

Small Skipper 5+

Red Admiral 1

Comma 1

Speckled Wood 4

Small White 4+

Finally, these Hoverfly were mating. It's not often you get a clear view of a stationary hoverfly (perhaps stationary is a bit harsh, but certainly not vigorous!).  These were handsomely marked, but I had to look them up. I believe them to be Helophilus pendulus. One of their common names is Footballer - not the only ones I be watching today!

Hoverflies