Less than average Friday

A few light showers till mid afternoon then more consistent, albeit light, rain. A light east wind.

South shore (Malcolm)

Saltmarsh to harbour and back 09:30 - 11:00

Wheatear 4 - there was one along foreshore as I was walking out, but it quickly moved on. Three feeding together on Ocean Edge grass when I returned. Again, one quickly moved on.

Wheatears

Two feeding in this clip

Linnet 15 around saltmarsh and foreshore plus three near the lighthouse 

Male Linnet

Meadow Pipit 3 around saltmarsh and foreshore

Also on Ocean Edge grass

Pied Wagtail 2

Pied Wagtails

White Wagtail 1

White Wagtail 

Rock Pipit 2 - one feeding along the sea wall plus one feeding on the sloping wall near the lighthouse.

You can see the lighthouse Rock Pipit in the middle of this shot.
The young Herring gull was clearly feeling unwell and never moved

A possibility that it has avian influenza. Take care not to handle any 
dead birds you may find and keep dogs clear of them too.

Meanwhile these young gulls were doing what youngsters do best on a Bank Holiday. Playing games! Like any good game it hasn't really got any rules, it's just about chasing the gull with the ball of Whelk egg cases.

Sandwich Tern 2 on the buoys out from the north wall

Grey Seal 1 quite distant out from the harbour mouth 

There were still grounded Meadow Pipits when Kevin checked at Ocean Edge at lunchtime 

Meadow Pipit

Just out of the recording area. Mark Jones returned to his holiday caravan just south of the recording area. As soon as he restocked his feeders Rooks arrived on the scene.

Rook, plus a nice view of a deserted south shore

Whimbrels arrive

Some overnight rain, but a dry sunny day with a light SW wind

Ocean Edge (Kevin)

Wheatear 3

Heysham skear (Malcolm)

Pale-bellied Brent goose 1

It flew north over the skear. Piel Castle in the background 

Then settled on the north side of the skear
(there is plenty of weed almost anywhere now)

Eider 34

Red-breasted Merganser 3

Mute Swan 1 south

Mute Swan south, low over the skear

Great Crested Grebe 2

Little Egret 4

Sandwich Tern at least 2 fishing

Swallow 2 individuals north

Oystercatcher 1,000

Curlew 5

Whimbrel 3 - first of the year

Whimbrel (not a very diagnostic shot but they were calling)

Bar-Tailed Godwit 1

Bar-Tailed Godwit with Oystercatchers 

Redshank 120

Turnstone just 1 seen

Middleton Nature Reserve (Malcolm)

Just a quick look this afternoon 

Mute Swan pair

Gadwall 5

Mallard 8

Coot 7

Moorhen 3

Little grebe 1

Warblers

Chiffchaff at least 6 singing

Cetti's Warbler 5 singing

Lesser Whitethroat 2 singing

Common Whitethroat 1 seen

Blackcap 1 seen

Female Blackcap

Common Buzzard soaring high over the eastern boundary of the reserve

This is the remains of an Otter spraint by the main pond.
The recent rain has partially fragmented it. No sign of any Crayfish
remains in this one, but there do seem to be plenty of vertebrae 

Wrong side of the Bay........Today

Showers in the morning turning to more steady rain after lunch. A fresh east (offshore) wind in the morning later veering to SE through S ending SW by late evening.

Pete and Jean checked early on

Sandwich Tern 17 out. A scan along the shipping lane saw no Terns resting on the buoys.

A check of Ocean Edge and the Heliport failed to see any Wheatears 

In contrast, when I checked around lunchtime (Malcolm). There were 26 Sandwich Terns resting on the shipping lane buoys (I checked them all today!). They must have come in with the rising tide.

No.5 buoy, looking from Ocean Edge

Three Sandwich Tern, beyond the almost deserted wooden jetty

Wheatears were also now moving through 6 seen, 2 each saltmarsh, foreshore and lighthouse, the lighthouse birds quickly moving on.

One of the foreshore Wheatears

One of the lighthouse Wheatears

Lighthouse Wheatears just about to head off north

Linnet 16 around saltmarsh, 2 on foreshore and 2 near last year's nest site near the lighthouse.

Linnet on the foreshore 

Pale-bellied Brent goose 3 - they were out from Red Nab long before the tide reached it.

Pale-bellied Brent grazing gutweed on the mud out from Red Nab

Just 2 Shelduck

Redshank 15

Curlew 16 south

Little Egret 2 on Red Nab. This one catches what looks to be a small shrimp. Note the footwork to flush its prey out. You can also see how long the gutweed is now, compared to the billiard table over winter.

Not so much beyond the recording area, but beyond practical viewing, this from Lou, whose house is visible from Heysham on the other side of the Bay.

 “Hi Pete …lots of gannets in the bay over my side”

Sloppy bird count.......I blame the seal!

Overcast with light showers. A light west to NW breeze

South shore

I checked mid morning on the rising tide (Malcolm)

Linnet 20 around the saltmarsh plus 5 along the foreshore. There was quite a lot of chattering going on between them.

Wheatear possibly 2 - a female seen on the saltmarsh and it or another along the foreshore.

Wheatear

Meadow Pipit 1 grounded on saltmarsh 

Meadow Pipit

Rock Pipit 4 - one on Red Nab, one along the sea wall and two near the lighthouse 

The Red Nab Rock Pipit came to check me out.

The female near the lighthouse was collecting nest material.

Just about to fly down to the nest hole

Oystercatcher 600 flew south

Curlew 33 flew south

Redshank 23 feeding then resting on No.1 outfall

Turnstone 12 on wooden jetty

Swallow 1 north

Sandwich Tern 45+ - a few had been feeding out from the harbour but as the tide rose they settled on the buoys.

One on the buoy plus one on the sea

Two on this buoy

Most were on the shipping lane marker buoys, I only checked the closest three

At least 11 on No.8 buoy, that's the dump boat for the harbour dredger
 heading for the Lune deeps to discharge its load

15 on No.7 buoy

At least as many on No.5 buoy
I should have checked the others, they were too distant to be able to count
any resting birds, but I would have been able to see if any were present, at
least on No.6 buoy........

........but I was distracted 

This Grey Seal near No.1 outfall looks to be a male. He has a Bass

Seals tend to be messy eaters and attract a cloud of gulls

Having said that they are messy eaters, this clip appears to show it trying to swallow the Bass whole. I have never seen them do this, perhaps it's because it is a bull. Or perhaps it didn't actually swallow it and just enjoyed taunting the gulls with its prize.

Either way I didn't see it surface again, or at least not till later as I was heading back, it or another was swimming along No.2 outfall

Kevin checked on the ebbing tide. Still a female Wheatear on the foreshore. 

Pale-bellied Brent geese 2 arrived at Red Nab

Heysham Nature Reserve 

Janet found this shed Roebuck antler on a section of the reserve where dogs are excluded. They are typically shed after the autumn rut, so it may have been there for a while.

Naturally shed Roebuck antler

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Linda Renshaw located several fresh Otter spraints along the western edge of the main pond. On examination they contained large pieces of shell, most likely crayfish.

Still some Brent around

A SSE wind till mid afternoon when it switched to SW. The odd light shower till late afternoon, then more prolonged rain.

South shore

Pale-bellied Brent geese 6 on Red Nab quite early in the tide when Kevin checked 11:00. They were just getting ready to move on when Janet checked towards high water.

Brent geese in two groups on Red Nab

Also from Janet:

Little Egret on Red Nab

Redshank on Red Nab

Only large gulls feeding on the outfalls

Adult Lesser Black-Backed gull

Immature Lesser Black-Backed gull

There was one Rock Pipit feeding near the lighthouse and another seen going to the nest hole in the harbour wall.

Rock Pipit swallowing a bit of broken mussel shell to act as grit

Although the tiny insects it was eating wouldn't need much grinding up!

In the Nature Park

Male Chaffinch

Carrion Crow with nest lining material

Heysham skear - low water 07:30 (Malcolm)

Very little happening, although the gull numbers continue to grow.

Some of the c150 gulls,,mainly immature Herring 

Eider 18

Red-breasted Merganser 8

Oystercatcher 800

Curlew 4

Bar-Tailed Godwit 12

Some of the Godwits

Redshank 200

No Turnstone, Knot or Ringed Plovers seen

I took these shots a couple of weeks ago after strong winds (I've been saving them for a rainy day). Most of you will know that they are Common Whelk egg cases. But this is the largest clump I have ever seen.

Most of the cases were empty, the creamy coloured ones not. Each individual case hold hundreds of eggs, but the first few to hatch in each case feed on the unhatched ones. Originally it would have been anchored on something on the sea bed, before being broken free by the storm. The Whelk returns each day to add more cases, but dozens of Whelks must have created a mass this size.