Decent coverage and a decent day

 

The early south breeze gradually swung round to NW by evening. A dry day with plenty of warm sunshine in the afternoon.

First some overnight news.

23:30 last night - Whimbrel "flock" flew over Angela Gillon's house in the NE of the recording area.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Ringing report by John:

Warm again with a light wind. Arrived at 6am and three nets set.

Numbers caught were small, but all were new birds apart from one Chiffchaff.

They comprised ;

Lesser Redpoll           5

Sedge Warbler           4

Tree Pipit                  1

Great Tit                    1

Chiffchaff                    1

Lesser Whitethroat      1

North Harbour wall - Mark Prestwood 6.30 - 8.30 am

3 dark morph Arctic Skua 

26 Gannet 

Flock of 7 red-breasted Merganser in 

25 common scoter

Short seawatch prior to the high water webs survey - Pete (Marks birds additional)

10 gannet 

7 kittiwake 

1 guillemot

3 common scoter

15 sandwich tern, plus 5 on green buoy on the south side.

Whinchat 1 male briefly on Ocean Edge foreshore 

Porpoise 2

Seen from Stone Jetty, by Josh Hedley,  there will be some overlap with Pete's and Mark's records

07:21- 09:30
Red-throated Diver- 1
Gannet- 7
Common Scoter- c.25
Pink-foot- 362
Mute Swan- 3
Eider- 78
Whimbrel- 7
Turnstone- 80
Sandwich Tern- 14
Sand Martin- 5
Swallow- 20

Pete and Jeans webs included:

900 Knot on Heliport

193 Turnstone on heliport at high tide plus 22 on wooden jetty. 

I just checked Red Nab to saltmarsh towards high water (Malcolm)

No sign of the Brent geese today

Shelduck 2

Whimbrel 7

Rock,Pipit 1 on Red Nab

Wheatear 8

Wheatear

Linnet 7 on the saltmarsh 

Swallow 2 in

Lesser Whitethroat still singing from scrub behind Red Nab

Kevin and Alison checked along the sea wall in the warm afternoon sun.

Common Whitethroat 1 in the scrub near the lighthouse 

Lots of invertebrates along the wall again, despite the less than ideal wind.

Heysham skear - low water 16:50 (Malcolm)

Just a very quick check early in the ebbing tide (3 hours before low water)

Eider c70

Red-breasted Merganser 7

3 female Red-breasted Merganser

Oystercatcher c1,000

Knot c1,000

Curlew 5

Curlew

Whimbrel 3

Whimbrel and male Red-breasted Merganser

Whimbrel

Bar-Tailed Godwit 284 feeding along the water line to the south of the skear.

Mainly Godwits along the south waterline

Dunlin 80 (no Sanderling with them today)

Turnstone 30

Not bad, considering the conditions!

A light SW wind all day. Showers till mid morning then just a few spots of rain in the afternoon.

"Seawatch" - Pete 

Sea sampling heysham 0750 -0840: vis fine 0800-0820, otherwise rubbish: 

2 gannet

1 red throated diver

6 common scoter

7 sandwich tern.  

As expected no arctic tern.

I walked along the south sea wall starting 08:30 (Malcolm). Visibility was shocking through the fine rain. The showers were forecast as light, but as I walked out the only way you could describe it as light was that it wasn't dark! Fortunately by the time I had got back to Red Nab it was indeed just light, fine rain. 

The heavier shower had grounded some birds though.

Common Sandpiper 2 - one along the sea wall and one on Red Nab, neither were seen on the way out.

Common Sandpiper

Whimbrel 3 on Red Nab 

Pale-bellied Brent goose 5 (again, not there on the way out, but their arrival more to do with the stage of the tide than the weather I think)

Pale-bellied Brent geese

Wheatear 1 on foreshore 

Linnet 4 on saltmarsh 

Rock Pipit 1 on foreshore 

Heysham skear - low water 15:50 (Malcolm)

Eider c70, Red-breasted Merganser 3 and  Great Crested grebe 1

Eider being watched by Bar-Tailed Godwit

Little Egret 10 - the SW wind bringing the small shrimps close inshore.

Little Egret

Apart from the c1,000 Oystercatcher the waders were very dynamic today and even my normally vague counting proved difficult!

Knot for most of my circuit I could only account for 50, then 1,500 appeared just as I was leaving.

Bar-Tailed Godwit several flocks around at least: 82, 3, 9, 70 and 33 = 197

Just a few of the Bar-Tailed Godwit

Whimbrel 23 at least - they were scattered all around the skear, 13 was the most I could see at any one time, but there were almost certainly more. Then another 10 arrived together from the north.

This is just a short scan around a small section of skear, but it picks up 6 Whimbrel.

10 Whimbrel coming in from the north side as the tide rose.

No Curlew or Redshank seen

Turnstone 20

Dunlin 90 - the dunlin were flying around in small flocks, at lest three of which included....

Sanderling 13 minimum 

Sanderling with Dunnock

Sanderling just beginning to moult to summer plumage

Sanderling, this one's moult more advanced, with Dunlin

This one finds a small invertebrate

This is the largest group of 10 - 11 feeding with Turnstone, Dunlin and Knot. There were at least 2 + 1 with two other groups of Dunlin.

Even better sea passage

A very light NE morning breeze, freshened slightly as it moved to SW from late morning. It threatened to rain all day, but somehow managed to hold off till the evening.

Seawatch report - Pete

Sea from 0638 Heysham from back of harbour.  A bit messy with bits of bad light and poor visibility plus a bit of backtracking challenging accurate tern totals:  

allowing for back trackers going in again 

539 Arctic tern in including straggling flock of 391 and 60 which headed high inland over my head - All arctic tern before 0840.

30-50 Sandwich tern

1 Black tern

2 dark morph Arctic Skua (one in high, the other low and very distant)

Razorbill (on),

1 red throated diver

c73 Common scoter.  

Only wader migration 7 whimbrel in and only 6 swallow seen.  

Distant flock of 6 geese probably pink feet.  

Another 45 mins on sea from 0945 north wall: 

34 Arctic tern in

6 red throated diver on

12 sandwich tern out

I had a walk along the south sea wall (Malcolm). Unfortunately just managed to time it to miss the Arctic Terns!

Sandwich Terns

The only records that I can add to Pete's are:

Shelduck 4 of 6

One of four Whimbrel that remained on the south side

48 Bar-Tailed Godwit flew to the north side with Knot and Dunlin
Later 18 Bar-Tailed Godwit flew back to the south side

Rock Pipit 2 - one over the lighthouse nesting site and another above the waterfall.

Waterfall Rock Pipit

Linnet 11 - 6 between lighthouse and waterfall plus 5 on saltmarsh 

Wheatear 3

Middleton Nature Reserve

Ringing report by Alan:

A rather better session at Middleton this morning with three nets set, although the majority of the catch was from the centre net on the west side.  28 Lesser Redpolls were caught in two flocks of 12 & 15 plus a singleton.

No overhead movement was detected except for two distant Corvids flying NW high and fast -  No Hirundines were seen at all.

Trapped were:

Cetti's Warbler  1 retrap

Sedge Warbler  2  + 3 retraps

Reed Warbler  1

Lesser Whitethroat   1 retrap

Common Whitethroat  1

Willow Warbler  1

Long-tailed Tit  1 retrap

Great Tit   1 retrap

Lesser Redpoll   28

Solidarity male Gadwall on the main pond - Janet

Heysham skear low water 14:40 (Malcolm)

Not a lot different to yesterday really.

Eider 75

Red-breasted Merganser 4

Great Crested grebe 1

Sandwich Tern 4

Sandwich Tern resting on conger rock

Oystercatcher 1,000

Whimbrel 6 - possibly some of this morning's birds. This one makes short work of a small crab.

Bar-Tailed Godwit 8

Knot 600 - no rings or flags seen, and most if not all legs checked. These are just a few.

Dunlin 35

Redshank 9

Turnstone 80

Just out of the recording area

Short-Eared Owl 1 seen flying towards the recording area across Middleton Sands - Ian Hartley

Decent sea passage and huge insect migration

A fresh NE wind, plenty of sunshine, temperatures peaking at 21°C by lunchtime.

First a couple of updates from yesterday 

Sparrowhawk high over Janet's house

Middleton Nature Reserve - ringing report by John

Nets set from 6.30am to 11.00am. Much warmer with light winds.

No significant overhead movement observed and catch comprised;

Lesser Redpoll            x 10

Chiffchaff                    x   3

Willow Warbler            x  2

Sedge Warbler             x  2

Garden Warbler            x  1 (1st of the year, plus a male was singing)

Wren                             x  1

Goldfinch                      x  1

Blackbird                      x  1

Heysham Nature Reserve - ringing report by Alan

three nets but the catch was rather poor:

Wren  1 retrap

Dunnock  1

Blackbird  1

Lesser Whitethroat  1

Whitethroat  2

Blackcap  3

Chiffchaff  1 retrap

Blue Tit  3 retraps

Great Tit  2 retraps

Seawatch today - Pete:

from back of harbour 0650-0850 in unless stated : 

3 ad summer little gull

38 kittiwake

7 gannet

15 sandwich tern

180 common scoter

female scaup

59 arctic tern (7 small flocks)

2 common tern

3 Teal

1 red throated diver (out) 

two pink feet (on)

2 dark morph Arctic skua

295 swallow/swallowish bombing through bottom of scope

flock 30 grey plover

120 Dunlin

8 bar tailed godwit seemingly migrating

3,500 Knot

Additional after Pete left - Mark Prestwood

1st S little gull

4 sand tern

1 red-throated diver

1 gannet

20 common scoter

34 arctic tern

This male Whinchat was spotted by Martin Jordon on Heysham Head early afternoon, with at least 6 Wheatear.

Male Whinchat

Also from Martin 17:00 fromOcean Edge

Wheatear 10 (so at least 16 today)

Whimbrel 4 

Whimbrel 

Rock Pipit

Heysham skear - low water 13:15 (Malcolm)

Eider 54 - quite a hotchpotch of plumages.

Red-breasted Merganser 1

Oystercatcher 1500

Knot 1500

Redshank only 2 seen

Turnstone 120 - more than of late

Dunlin 35

Curlew none seen or heard

Whimbrel 3

Bar-Tailed Godwit 128 resting till moved on by the tide. Not one showing any sign of breeding plumage.

These are just some of them, you might just be able to pick out one with a yellow flag, barely above the water

(Just a glimpse of the yellow flag 14 seconds into the clip)

Bar-Tailed Godwit

South shore

Kevin had a walk along the sea wall this afternoon. It was classic conditions here for insects coming in off the sea and resting along the wall. NE wind, warm and sunny and the tide out. Not all the insects have been identified yet. These are just a selection of what Kevin saw.

a smart ichneumon fly but it was distant and is heavily cropped.

10-spot Ladybird 

Just a few of several hundred Seven Spot Ladybirds 

"Ladybird" with a Groundhopper 

It was amazing! Quite overwhelming really.

Just out of the recording area - horse paddock behind Middleton Parish Hall. The Glossy Ibis was checked for several time today, starting at 07:30. No sightings.

Early morning skuas top the bill.

The morning SE wind switched to NW by lunchtime. Another warm sunny day, again topping 19°C mid afternoon.

Sea from back of harbour 0659-0850: slow but some stuff - Pete

3 - 2+1 dark morph arctic skua

flock 12 arctic tern

1 summer plumage red-throated diver

4 common scoter

150 plus 9 pink feet, 

15 whimbrel

 c20 sandwich tern 

4 Canada geese

Middleton Nature Reserve

I only checked the eastern side, not the marshes today (Malcolm)

Mute Swan pairs on main and "no swimming" pond. At least 1 adult on Tim Butler pond, but viewing is difficult there.

The "no swimming" pond female back on her wooden nest

Coot 8

Moorhen 4

Mallard 5

Gadwall 4

Tufted Duck male and female

Tufted duck, despite the female having no discernible tuft

Buzzard 1 being harassed by crows on the eastern boundary 

Jay 1

Pheasant 1 male calling (unlikely to be the same bird seen yesterday)

Singing warblers.

Cetti's warbler 3

Grasshopper warbler 1

Common Whitethroat 2

Lesser Whitethroat 3

Willow warbler 3

Chiffchaff 2

Blackcap 1

Janet checked the same area a little later and heard the same birds, but also managed a couple of shots.

Male Common Whitethroat 

Male Reed Bunting 

South shore

I walked out to the waterline out from Ocean Edge towards evening high water (Malcolm)

Whimbrel 8 - 2 on saltmarsh, 2 high from SE and 3 north along waterline. All different to Pete's earlier birds, so 23 in total today.

Curlew 6 - 3 on the saltmarsh plus 3 on the waterline 

Oystercatcher 37 only along waterline.

The other waders were just south of me, still well within the recording area, but it made viewing difficult as the light was behind them.

Grey Plover 55 most in at least partial summer plumage.

Bar-Tailed Godwit 90

Knot 1,000

Dunlin 400

I had to wade out a little to get a half decent angle.

There was a small group of Bar-Tailed Godwits nearer the sea wall, but this clip isn't about them. The young Great Black-backed gull was in a playful mood. It had a waterlogged stick that it kept dropping, it eventually taunted a second gull to chase it. Unfortunately I only managed to capture the taunter.

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

Glossy Ibis - as yesterday, it was seen early morning (last seen 08:25). But not present at 10:00 or 11:45.