Invertebrate day

Overnight rain finally cleared by mid morning, but it remained overcast for most of the day. A light NE breeze.

South shore

I had a walk from the saltmarsh to Red Nab before the rain had completely cleared (Malcolm). There wasn't much to see!

Shelduck 6

Wheatear 1 male

No sign of any Rock Pipits

Chiffchaff 2 singing in the Nature Park

Kevin and Alison checked this afternoon.

Now four Wheatears along foreshore. 3 males and a female.

Male Wheatear

Lots of beetles resting along the sea wall.

Aphodius fimetarius

Seven-spot Lady Bird

Rove Beetle - Philonthus sp.

Aphodius sp. 

Oulema sp - cereal leaf beetle

And not just beetles

Chrisylis - looks like it could be either small/green veined white

Dotted Border moth. Not rare, but nice to see. 

Middleton Nature Reserve (Malcolm)

Just a passing check of the two main ponds.

Mute Swan pair

Mallard 4

Gadwall 12

Teal pair

Herring gulls taking a bath plus Teal pair

Coot 10

Cetti's warbler 1 singing

Chiffchaff 2 singing

Heysham skear - low water 11:40 (Malcolm)

I had a look on the rising tide after lunch.

Pale-bellied Brent Geese 4 (2 + 2)

Pale-bellied Brent Geese

Eider 10

Red-breasted Merganser 4

Oystercatcher 1,500

Curlew 10

Curlew

Redshank 200

Knot 8

Turnstone 30

Dunlin 8

Ringed Plover 6

A Dunlin with two Ringed Plover

It's "green jelly blob" time of year again. The difference this year is that they are high definition jelly blobs. These blobs are typically 15mm diameter, and are the egg sacs of ragworms.

Unfortunately, high definition jelly, just looks like jelly.
Although if you look closely you can make out some black specks

In the next three shots, the jelly blobs are in shallow pools

The light offshore winds so far this spring has been good for the ragworms
that produce these egg sacs. Many of the sacs are still secured where the worm
left them. Most of the ones that break free end up in the strand line. Although,
presumably a few will drift to other suitable locations. 

This sac has ruptured, if you open this shot and zoom in you can see the tiny
eggs with dark embryos. They look like microscopic frog spawn. Presumably
the eggs will now be prone to predation, but surely some will mature.

Early Sandwich

It soon cleared up after overnight rain and became warm and sunny. A light east wind.

Heysham skear - low water 10:20 (Malcolm)

We are back to neap tides and not much of the skear was exposed. No sign of any Brent Geese, Mergansers or Grebes.

Eider 25

Sandwich Tern 1 - first one this year

Sandwich Tern

Knot 450 to begin with, but they moved off, not spooked, to the south before low water.

Other waders as recent.

Turnstone

Cormorant in breeding plumage

Meadow Pipits just 5 in/off today

Imperial Road (Malcolm)

Buzzard 1

Buzzard

Wood Pigeon 55

Stock Dove 1

Stock Dove

Little Egret 1

Pheasant 1 male

Cetti's warbler 1 singing by the wooden gate near the roundabout.

Chiffchaff 2

Middleton Nature Reserve (Janet)

Chiffchaff

This male Reed Bunting tried to muscle in on the easy pickings below
the car park feeders.....

.....but the regular male saw it off.

Comma

Peacock, slightly worse for wear after managing to overwinter 

Middleton Rd Rookery (Malcolm)

A passing check saw 9 nests and 12 Rooks.

This Rook was breaking off a suitable nest twig.....

.......before taking it to its nest

Just out of the recording area - just across the road in the horse paddock. Grey Wagtail.

Male Grey Wagtail 

Plenty of movement

A dry but overcast day. A fresh east wind varying between  ESE and ENE

North shore

Heysham skear - low water 09:30 (Malcolm)

07:45 - 10:00

Pied/white Wagtail 1 due north just out from the promenade 

Lesser Redpoll 1 in/off to NE

Meadow Pipit 146 in/off to NE

Goosander 1 female north (quite uncommon here)

Female Goosander

Goosander flying past resting Brent geese and Oystercatcher 

Pintail pair - also not common here 

Pintail 

Pale-bellied Brent goose 16 in 4 distinct groups, 5, 7, 2 and 2

Eider 23

Red-breasted Merganser 6

Great Crested grebe 3

Oystercatcher 1,500

Curlew 10

Redshank 150

Knot there were three small groups totalling 120, one was flagged but a regular one for this winter. I suspected that these represented the subset of Knot that have taken to holding their ground during Peregrine attacks and that earlier attacks had cleared the majority of Knot off the skear - more on this later.

Turnstone 60

Dunlin 8 inshore with 

Ringed Plover 6

Not a Jackson Pollock, but a Dunlin and a Ringed Plover

I was right to suspect that there had been earlier Peregrine attacks. 

This Peregrine lifted everything 

Before coming in to land

An adult Peregrine Falcon. It looked like a large female, but I have never been
this close to one before to judge size. It certainly wasn't undernourished! The blood
on its belly showing that it had just finished eating its latest kill. I wonder how many 
Knot it has taken this winter?

All the waders resettled, but kept a close eye on the Peregrine. Pale-bellied Brent also in this clip.

It hung around a while before flying east, lifting everything in its path.

0820-0900hrs - near public field,horse paddock & prom - Diane Smith

Groups of birds coming in land from the bay.

30 meadow pipits

11 linnets

2 skylarks

There were lots of other groups of birds coming, but too far away to see

South shore

Janet checked the foreshore this morning.

Wheatear 2

Male Wheatear

Female Wheatear

Kevin Eaves checked this afternoon, still two Wheatears along the foreshore 

12 Pale-bellied Brent on Red Nab - likely the 5 and 7 from this morning 

Stonechat and 3 Wheatear this afternoon at Ocean Edge. 

Meadow Pipits still coming over Heysham Nature Reserve at 14:30hrs - Pete

A day of two halves

A warm sunny day with very light variable breezes.

South shore (Malcolm)

A walk from the saltmarsh to Red Nab.

Wheatear 1 male along the foreshore 

Mature male Wheatear looking very smart

He seemed to be finding plenty to eat.

Rock Pipit 3 - one on the foreshore and two on Red Nab. It wasn't clear if the Red Nab bird was chasing another off, or just casing and the other not wishing to be caught.

Rock Pipit on Red Nab

Meadow Pipit 7 over to the north

Pale-bellied Brent 10 on Red Nab

Shelduck 28 

Wigeon 86 on Red Nab

Middleton Nature Reserve (Janet)

Heron coming in to land

Female Mute Swan

Mallard pair on Fence pond

Mallard drake on main pond, celebrating after seeing of another male

Male Reed Bunting 

One of several Chiffchaff seen/heard

Heysham skear (Malcolm)

Two checks again, but not a lot to report.

Pale-bellied Brent goose 2 in the morning 20 this evening 

20 Brent this evening, possibly including this morning's 10, but their
 behaviour was atypical for the regular Brent here. They flew past the 
regular feeding area and settled on the sea to the north. 

Eider 35

Red-breasted Merganser 7

Oystercatcher 1,500

Curlew 15

Redshank 200

Knot 600 this morning were lifted by something (likely a Peregrine) and they headed off south long before I got near. 350 turned up in the fading light this evening a few flagged birds seen, but no new ones. An additional 300 were arriving as I left.

Turnstone 30

Dunlin 10

Sunset on the Spring equinox was behind clouds, nevertheless still spendid!
This is what today's title refers to, half of today was daylight and half darkness.

Just out of the recording area. Mark Jones had a Stonechat past his holiday caravan at Middleton sands. It then flew off into the recording area.

Rooks have begun feeding on Mark's feeders again, probably from the 
nearby Rookery at Middleton 

Mark also pointed out that there is another Rookery on the bypass (Bay Gateway). 200m west of the Overton roundabout on the south side.

I had a drive past, there are at least 11 nests and I saw 7 Rook - Malcolm

This shot is looking west from just past the roundabout, it shows the location of the first tree.
This is a section of bypass where you can't stop in a car, but you can see them as you pass. 

This is only the second year that they have nested here - Pete

Last minute Whoopers

Another sunny day with very light variable breeze.

Middleton Nature Reserve (Janet)

Male Small White - first this year

Comma

North shore 

I went down on the rising tide this morning (Malcolm)

Pale-bellied Brent geese 10 (I saw 2, later David Kaye saw 8, not an overlap as this evening I saw both 2 and 8)

Eider 30

There were 2,000 Knot on the outer skear, they moved closer on to the mid skear when the tide moved them on. But before they were close enough to check for flags a Peregrine lifted everything and the Knot disappeared south. The Peregrine wasn't really bothered about hunting, it had probably already eaten. It was just cruising around and spooking the waders.

Peregrine Falcon and Oystercatcher 

Oystercatcher 2,500 - most ending up along the shore waterline

Curlew 10

Grey Plover 1

Grey Plover, also along the waterline

Turnstone 80

Redshank 70

I returned this evening as the skear was uncovering again.

Red-breasted Merganser 9 - there was some arguing and posing going on.

Great Crested Grebe 3

Great Crested Grebe in the pink light just before sunset

Knot, there were about 250 resting on the Skear amongst the rocks. Another 1,000 arrived, but were very skittish, largely as the RNLI hovercraft was on manoeuvres. Unfortunately making a racket and spooking the Knot.

RNLI hovercraft

Eventually, manoeuvres over, the Knot settled. A few flagged Knot were seen but the setting sun made for a very limited field of view.

Not much good for checking the birds, but really nice to see!

It was nearly dark by the time I got back to my car on Rydal Rd. The street lights were already on. Distant honking alerted me to get my camera out again, just in time to see 34 Whooper Swans arrive from the SE and continue NW across the bay