Gannets, more Terns and another start

Another, just about, dry day. Sunny periods in the morning, but cool in the fresh SW wind

Report from Pete Crooks:

Heysham South Harbour Wall – 50-minute sea-watch from the lighthouse (8.45 – 9.35 am)
Gannet – 4 flew into the Bay, then back out about 15 minutes later
Red-throated Diver – 1 on sea off North Harbour Wall
Common Tern – 2 lingering off North Harbour Wall
Great Crested Grebe – 3 offshore
Rock Pipit – 4 between Heysham Harbour and Stage One outfall

Knowlys Road, Heysham
Common Redstart – 1 male on the leeward side of the hawthorn hedge extending down from Knowlys Road to the promenade
Pale-bellied Brent Geese – 11 roosting on the shoreline at low tide (plus a distant Malcolm)

And I was that "distant Malcolm", having a stroll around the skear at low water. These are some of the Brent geese, they were totally ignoring me.

First winter Pale-bellied Brent goose, Knot and Oystercatcher 

Eider 50+

Red-Breasted Merganser 13 - just one adult male in this group of five.

Great Crested grebe 3

Little Egret 14

Shag 1 adult feeding briefly on the south side (later seen on the wooden jetty at high water)

Waders:

Oystercatcher c1,000

Curlew 2

Redshank 60

Knot c1,000 (managed to read a ringed bird, details awaited).

Turnstone 40

Bar-Tailed godwit 18 (13 and 5 came from south before continuing north after a rest)

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Janet had a look this Morning

Male Pheasant

Gadwall pair on the main pond......

........before flying to the "no swimming" pond

Peacock butterfly taking advantage of the morning sun

Swallow 1 over the main pond late afternoon - Angela

Just out of the recording area - horse paddock behind Middleton Parish Hall

Glossy Ibis still present mid morning at least

A nice Common day

A slightly fresher SW wind. Dry with occasional short sunny spells.

First a couple of shots from Thursday, take by Kevin Singleton on Heysham Head.

Little Egret

Goldfinch 

South shore

I managed two checks today (Malcolm)

Morning - low water

Shelduck 2 individuals. 1 female flew south and this male was looking dejected (rejected?) on the shore.

Solitary Sheldrake 

Wheatear 13

Linnet 16 - 8 on the saltmarsh and now 8 between the lighthouse and the waterfall.

Rock Pipit 5 - 1 each saltmarsh and Red Nab, 3 between lighthouse and waterfall. This is a female above the lighthouse nest site.

Only females build a Rock Pipits nest

She will never fly to the chosen hole when she knows someone is watching. I'll have to be more surreptitious to find out which hole she has chosen this year.

Even though the tide was out, there were a lot more gulls feeding on the seaward ends of the outflows than of late, mainly Common Gulls. There must have been plenty of food coming through them, so I decided to have another look a couple of hours before high water in the afternoon.

Pale-bellied Brent goose 11 on Red Nab.

Common Tern 1 - feeding between No.1 outflow and the wooden jetty.

Grey seal 1 was feeding in the same area, it took a while, but I eventually managed this shot.

Grey seal and Common Tern

Common Redstart 1 male feeding among the brambles between the lighthouse and the waterfall. It wasn't there in the morning. Another tricky one to photograph, but I eventually got some decent shots.

There were at least as many Wheatears in the afternoon as there were this morning, probably including some new birds replacing ones that have moved on.

The cormorants roosting on the wooden jetty were all hunkered down and it wasn't possible to tell if the Shag was amongst them

Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler and Blackcap singing in the Nature Park 

Just out of the recording area - horse paddock behind Middleton Parish Hall

Glossy Ibis still present early morning at least

First Common Tern

It, more or less, managed to stay dry today, just the occasional spot of rain. A light SW wind.

South shore

I checked on the rising tide late morning (Malcolm)

Mute Swan 1 immature, possibly one of the displaced birds from Middleton Nature Reserve 

2nd calendar year Mute Swan

Pale-bellied Brent goose 11 flew to Red Nab from the north side.

Pale-bellied Brent geese, even in flight the groups of 7 and 4 are still maintained 

Geese sp (likely Pink-footed) 41 in a line, distant and heading NW so only rear views.

Shelduck 2

Little Egret 3

Shag 1 adult on wooden jetty.

Wheatear 7 on saltmarsh and foreshore

Rock Pipit 3 - 2 on foreshore and 1 above nest site at the lighthouse 

Lighthouse Rock Pipit

White wagtail 1 male along the sea wall.

Linnet 4 between the lighthouse and waterfall, where at least two pairs raised young last year.

Peregrine Falcon 1

Peregrine Falcon, it had something dangling from its leg, possibly jesses.

Common Tern 1 - it wasn't around when I walked out, but on the way back I could see it resting on the sea wall by No.2 outflow. Then it began feeding on the outflow.

Common Tern

It was seen feeding here till early afternoon, but had disappeared towards high water. It was back feeding again at 15:00 and seen by Kevin at 17:30.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Janet checked in the morning

Greylag geese - they keep looking like wanting to breed here, but
the disturbance has always been too much. 

Willow Warbler

Grey Squirrel, "hiding" behind a twig

I covered the same small area this evening as I did yesterday evening (Malcolm).

Mute Swan, just the adult pair on the main pond now, two immature on the fence pond.

Other wildfowl as yesterday, including the Mallard chicks as mum ushers them into cover.

Pheasant 1 male calling

Common Snipe 1

Warblers:

Cetti's warbler 5 - same areas as yesterday

Willow warbler and Chiffchaff c4 each

Blackcap 2 (male and female)

Reed warbler 2

Swallow 5 at least. 3 were feeding over the main pond and others feeding along the roadway to the water treatment plant. These two were having an off passage preen (the awful whine is a sub station).

Male Swallow

Just out of the recording area - horse paddock behind Middleton Parish Hall

Glossy Ibis still present 

Distant Osprey and five warbler species

A light SW wind, dry with sunny spells, till evening rain started.

Pete had an early morning seawatch:

Adult Shag flew into harbour to waterfall area; 

Osprey very distant inbound/attempting to fish in Kent channel, 

Kittiwake c50 -  a tightly packed flock of 35 on low tide channel plus c15 floating in and then flying out - Kent channel range 

Sandwich Tern 2 out

Willow warbler 3 along the track to the back of the harbour 

South shore (MD, JP)

Brent geese 7 flew to the Lune estuary quite early in the tide. Presumed to be the group of 7 pale-bellied from yesterday.

Eider 10 - 4 + 6 out

Wheatear 8 - some feeding on the saltmarsh but others feeding on Ocean Edge grass, where they seemed to be easily finding grubs (look like Crane fly larvae (leather jackets)). Janet managed some nice shots of them feeding.

Feeding Wheatears

Rock Pipit 3  - 2 above the nest site near the lighthouse, 1 on Red Nab

Linnet 5 - 4 on the saltmarsh plus a male singing above the nest area near the lighthouse used for the last two years.

Linnet

Chiffchaff in the Nature Park

North shore (TW)

Pale-bellied Brent goose 11 - close to the seawall from Knowlys Rd at 12:00. (Tim Woodward)

Pale-bellied Brent geese, almost certainly including the 
group of 7 seen this morning

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Just a stroll around the two main ponds and a look at the central marsh, proved quite productive (Malcolm).

First some bad news, the water level on the "no swimming" pond has risen half a metre and has swamped the Mute Swan's nest. The adults were back on the main pond and had cleared it of all but one of the immature birds.

Better news is the arrival of our first Mallard Ducklings. Chiffchaff and Cetti's warbler singing on this clip.

Mallard 6 (excluding chicks) - 1 female

Gadwall 4 - 1 female

Stock Dove 1

Warblers:

Chiffchaff and Willow warblers several each

Cetti's Warbler 5 - western marsh 1, central marsh 2, SE and NE corners of "no swimming" pond.

Blackcap 4 at least but silent. 1 female and at least 3 males.

Female Blackcap

The white fluffy thing towards the end of this clip is a reedmace seed head.

Male Blackcap 

Reed Warbler 1 - it was so bursting with song that I originally mistook it for a Sedge Warbler (Malcolm). Unfortunately it was singing from the middle of a stand of reeds and never showed itself. This clip of a male Blackcap has the Reed Warbler singing in the background.

Just out of the recording area - horse paddock behind Middleton Parish Hall

Glossy Ibis still present 

Wet.......but not as bad as forecasted

The rain held off till 09:30 then rained all morning. Showers in the afternoon. A fresh SE to south wind.

Heysham skear - low water 07:40

An early start to avoid the rain (Malcolm)

Little Egret 6 feeding

Grey Heron 2 high to the north appeared to be movement.

Heron heading north ahead of the oncoming rain

The clouds were rolling to the NE in waves

Pale-bellied Brent goose 11 - 4 drifting on the sea close to the beach. 7 resting on the skear.

More accurately there were 5 plus 2 close by on the skear. These are the 5, 2 adult with 3 x 2nd calendar year.

Eider c60

Red-breasted Merganser 11

Great Crested Grebe 6

In this clip three merganser and two grebes are waiting to go through the first channel to the north side. The tide has been coming in for 20 minutes at this point, but water is still rushing out through the channel. People mistakenly think this means that the tide is still going out, but it isn't. The skear acts like a huge dam with only two channels to let the water out. The water level on the north side is therefore several centimetres higher than the south and water continues to flow out until the rising tide has removed the differential. At that point the tide has been making a while and is coming in quickly! You can see the water in the middle of the channel is still running out quickly, the clip ends on the other two resting Brent geese (adults).

There were much few waders today, partly as a Peregrine was patrolling early on, but also, much more skear is exposed on these high spring tide, and many waders would be on the outer skear and beyond.

Oystercatcher less than 100

Curlew 2

Knot 250 (although larger flocks were seen at distance heading south as the tide displaced them)

Redshank 30

No Turnstone seen which is unusual 

Ringed Plover 1 close to shore 

South shore 

I had a look an hour after high water in the afternoon (Malcolm)

The recent storms have both brought in new flotsam to the saltmarsh but also stirred up the existing flotsam, providing plenty of feeding opportunities for the passerines.

Wheatear 13 (9 on saltmarsh)

Quite a rufous male Wheatear

Rock Pipit 6 (3 on saltmarsh, plus 2 on foreshore and 1 on Red Nab)

White Wagtail 1 male on saltmarsh 

You can see the extent of the flotsam here. Pleasingly, it contains much more organic detritus than man made (although the gales blew the plastic bottles etc onto the shore itself, where, equally pleasingly, Ocean Edge staff collect and recycle)

All 11 Pale-bellied Brent were on Red Nab, still in two groups of 4 and 7.

Shag 1 adult on wooden jetty

Peregrine Falcon pair - the female was just hanging on the wind, but she kept being buzzed by the smaller male. At the end of this clip, she sets off in a stoop, much to quick for me to follow with my camera.

The Cowslips in the Nature Park are looking nice

Just out of the recording area - horse paddock behind Middleton Parish Hall

Glossy Ibis was checked in the middle of the morning rain, looking decidedly grey, not purple!

Today was about keeping out of the wind!

A very strong NW wind all day. Heavy showers in the morning.

Pete had a check at high water (12:30)

Kittiwake 8 adult lifted off then landed again in same place on sea off heysham north wall - possibly part of bigger group staying on sea from past experience 

The Heliport was washed clean of Knot!

This set of spring tides has been far from a washout though, with several ringed birds read. These are a couple of Howards shots from earlier in the set.

I didn't venture out till mid afternoon, a shower was just easing (Malcolm). A battle along the south wall but blown back in double quick time. I needn't have bothered most of the birds were hunkered down out of the wind.

Herring, Lesser and Great Black-backed gulls, plus Oystercatcher hunkered down behind the foreshore

Willow warbler 1 had been grounded on Red Nab, but it managed to blunder its way through the Power Station perimeter fence.

Red-breasted Merganser 1 male was trying to fly high to the west, but couldn't make it and had to land.

It managed a little later by flying low close to the waves.

The slow laboured flight of this Little Egret against the wind, gave the impression of a Great White, particularly as its feet were dark with mud.

Little Egret

These Turnstone had moved from the saltmarsh shingles, where they normally feed, to feed in the lee of the saltmarsh slipway.

Rock Pipit 3 - 1 braving Red Nab, 2 sheltering behind the west bank of the saltmarsh, even so the wind was still quite strong, and they needed rocks and plants for added protection.

Wheatear 10 - 1 struggling on the foreshore the rest sheltering around the saltmarsh north and west banks.

Four Wheatears below the north bank of the saltmarsh 

This clip by Angela Gillon from the Nature Park a couple of days ago. The Grey Squirrels are quick to take advantage of any food left for the wildlife here by visitors.

Just out of the recording area - horse paddock behind Middleton Parish Hall

Glossy Ibis still in horse paddock feeding around sheds and manure heap at south end so sometimes out of sight from the village hall car park

Great Northern Diver tops the bill

Showers throughout the day, often prolonged. A variable SE to east wind.

Pete and Howard have been managing to read more Knot rings on this set of spring tides. Yesterday Howard spotted this Sanderling amongst the Knot

Winter plumage Sanderling with winter plumage Knot

Pete managed a seawatch from the back of the harbour:

Great Northern Diver 1 in non breeding plumage flew into the bay

Red-throated Diver 5

Harbour Porpoise 1 in the harbour mouth

South wall

Both me (Malcolm) and Janet were exercising dogs along the sea wall towards high water this morning.

Pale-bellied Brent goose 4 flew out from Potts at high water, circled then headed for the Lune Estuary.

Pale-bellied Brent geese

One of several 2nd calendar year Common gulls

This Cormorant was feeding close to the sea wall

Shag 1 adult (albeit slightly crestfallen) on one of the platforms in the harbour.

I can't match the quality of Janet's shots, but I did manage a nice clip of it scratching its chin.

Wheatear 2

Rock Pipit 2 - Red Nab and lighthouse area. No obvious activity at the back of the harbour this year.

Heysham Head - mid afternoon - Angela Gillon

Rock Pipits 2 below cliffs

Linnet c12

Siskin 2 female

Just out of the recording area - horse paddock behind Middleton Parish Hall

Glossy Ibis seen in the morning. It was totally oblivious to the lady in the paddock tending the horses.