More Kittiwakes through

Another warm sunny day. The light breeze was from SE early on switching to NW later.

Heysham skear (Malcolm) 08:30 - 10:00

Timed to coincide with the skear becoming exposed by the ebbing tide.

Eider 11

Little Egret 5

Grey Heron 1

Grey Heron

Oystercatcher 500, but more were arriving all the time.

Curlew 2

Curlew

Bar-Tailed Godwit 3

Bar-Tailed Godwit

And that was it for waders. There was hardly any breeze and the tide was ebbing very slowly (we're back to neap tides now). The water around the skear was gin clear. But the absence of Redshank and Knot has emboldened the shrimps and other invertebrates, you can see several milling around in this clip. It is these easy pickings that hold the late moving small waders. Sanderlings in particular sometimes feed here in large numbers over the next few weeks. This water is only 2cm deep. 

Gulls - c600 feeding on the seed mussels, mainly Herring Gulls with a few Lesser Black-Backed.

Kittiwake 25 heading north, again they were only c300m from the promenade.

24 adult and 1 2nd calendar year

You can just about hear them in this clip.

South shore (Kevin)

several newly emerged Six-spot Burnet moths on the wall near the lighthouse scrub.

A long first trek!

It looked like rain several times today, but it stayed dry. Sunny spells. A light variable breeze.

Heysham skear (Malcolm) 09:30 - 11:00

Eider 23 including a pair with 18-19 very young chicks. Possibly their first outing. 

They arrived from the south swimming against the still ebbing tide.
Nesting has been suspected somewhere around the north harbour wall.

Mum took them to a shallow island to the north of the skear, this would
be an ideal place for the chicks to find food. The presence of chicks attracted 
other females, which wasn't unwelcome.

But the females attracted the males who were definitely not welcomed 

So Mum moved them on again.

But now they were being followed

They headed for the mud bank, the other females helping shepherd the flock.

This area of shore is relatively sterile and would not provide feeding opportunities for adult and chicks alike, and most of the Eider decided not to follow.

They eventually saw of the last persistent male

Alone again, but they will have to find somewhere quiet to feed.
Hopefully not spotted by a Great Black-Backed gull......good luck!

Little Egret 3

Oystercatcher less than 500 seen

Curlew 2

Whimbrel at least 1 calling

Ringed Plover 5 (3 + 2)

3 Ringed Plover

Gulls - again only c500 seen and most were on the sea beyond the skear. This clip begins on a pair of Eider, watch the gulls on the right towards the end of the clip. One arrives with a newly broken open mussel, meanwhile others tug at gutweed to expose the seed mussels on it.

I couldn't resist another look this evening 19:15 - 21:00 (Malcolm)

About 500 gulls, I just managed to glimpse 1 ring but was unable to read it.

Not unusual to see Eider amongst the gulls

It is unusual to see Mallard amongst the gulls!

Turnstone 3

Turnstone

Sanderling 3 zipped past to the north

Sanderling 

It was a very pleasant evening 

Gutweed action and some old Knot shots.....what could be better!

The warm sunny weather continues. A NE to NW breeze.

Heysham skear (Malcolm) 09:00 - 11:00

Low water was at 10:00.

Eider 23 - it would seem that only one eligible female remains.

Great Crested Grebe 1

Grey Heron 1

Little Egret 6

Swallow 1

Very few waders today

Oystercatcher 1,000

Curlew 1 

It was strange not hearing any Whimbrel today, they have been an almost constant background noise over the last few weeks.

Knot 1 in non breeding plumage

Ringed Plover 3 (2 + 1)

Gulls 1,200 mainly Herring, but there was a 2nd calendar year Kittiwake resting amongst them.

Kittiwake top centre

The majority of the gulls were on the water beyond the skear, but I did see two ringed birds, one was new for here.

I was a bit puzzled yesterday as to why the gulls feeding in the shallow water were quite so frantic, after all a mussel isn't going to try and dodge. Is it? So I had a look at the area where they were feeding yesterday.

The latest seed mussels are attaching to the gutweed. The dark specks are seed
mussels, presumably most of the crop already harvested by the gulls.

The gutweed out here is up to 2m long now, and as it sways in the ebbing tide (and in the flood tide of course), the seed mussels sway with it. So, the mussels were dodging after all. The water was deeper and moving much more quickly here when I took the clip of the gulls feeding yesterday.

These are some of Howard's Knot shots from earlier this year. I have been saving them for a rainy day, but I doubt there will be much rain before the Knot have completely left us. Knot here live in permanent risk of death from raptor attacks, but their day to day life also is far from trauma free!

Oystercatcher regularly unceremoniously move Knot out of their way.
So much so, that the neighbouring Knot don't take any notice.

This is the second time that Howard has photographed a cockle firmly clamped
onto a Knot's foot. This will really hurt, in this case it has drawn blood. The Knot
has stood on the cockle while it was partly opened, they immediately clamp shut.
It will not release its hold until it feels safely underwater again. Presumably a 
regular hazard in the life of a Knot.

Gulls, picking and choosing, and a splendid evening session

Another dry sunny day with the morning light NE breeze freshening and shifting to NW by the afternoon and West by this evening.

Heysham skear (Malcolm) 07:20:10:00

Low water was at 09:20.

Eider 6

Female Eider

Grey Heron 1

Little Egret 3

Swallow 2

Oystercatcher 1,000

Curlew 2

Whimbrel 2

Bar-Tailed Godwit 24 - these are 13 coming in to land.

Bar-Tailed Godwit and Oystercatchers 

Knot 3

Knot, one in advanced summer plumage 

Not sure if they were feeding on the seed mussels or finding invertebrates between them.

Ringed Plover 7 in one flock

Ringed Plover, although this shot is to show the size of the smaller seed mussels.

Seed mussels are arriving all the time and cover much of the skear, but the earlier ones to arrive are now quite large and require breaking before the gulls can eat them. The ones in the above shot are the lower size and there are a full range of sizes in between. Some of the gulls have changed their feeding habits and are swallowing several of what must be the optimum size mussels. That is, small enough to swallow whole but providing much more protein for minimum effort. They then just rest a while before eating more.

Gulls 1,500 mainly Herring.

Many of the gulls were standing openly and at first I couldn't find any ringed ones amongst them. This is a typical group of the ones selecting larger mussels.

Other groups were feeding more franticly on smaller mussels. But these chose to do so in shallow water.

But as the tide ebbed, the birds were left on the skear, and after two hours I managed to locate and read 7 ringed birds. 3 new for here this year.

This one from a new scheme, just two characters J|R
This gull was eventually identified as a 2nd summer Caspian gull
See post 28/07/25 for details and more shots.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Janet just managed a 30 minute check around the main pond.

The adult Mute Swans were lifting weed to the surface for the cygnets to feed on.

Two of four feeding Swifts

Broad-bodied Chaser

Common Blue

Green-Veined White

I couldn't resist another look this evening as the tide was uncovering the skear (Malcolm). 17:40 - 19:40

The wind was now due west and quite fresh. It was a lovely evening, but the low sun made looking out to sea difficult. Which was a shame as soon as I got on the beach I could hear.......

Kittiwakes calling directly between me and the sun! 

They were milling around, only 300m out from the promenade, but very difficult to see. After a while they decided to head off north and gained height. I just managed to count them as they left. 56 at least.

There were c300 gulls around, but I couldn't see any ringed ones. Then soft calls alerted me that there was something else of interest out there and moving quickly. This time heading south, but again I couldn't find them till they had moved out of the light.

Avocets 2

Avocets

Avocets circled in this location shot

Sanderlings 4 - this is the species I had been hoping to see on the skear, and I think these four had been, but I only saw them flying off low to the north.

Black-Tailed Godwit 2 - they fed for a while on the skear before continuing north.

Black-Tailed Godwit

Unfortunately, I am busy tomorrow evening, but will check again in the morning 

Just out of the recording area. Janet also got a shot of a male Common Heath moth on Heysham Moss Nature Reserve yesterday 

Common Heath moth

A bit of gull ring variety

Another warm sunny day. The freshening breeze switching from NE to NW in the afternoon.

Heysham Skear (Malcolm)

Two visits today 08:30:10:30 and 17:00:18:30 (numbers are highest total unless stated)

Eider 5

Great Crested Grebe 1

Little Egret 4

Grey Heron 1

Grey Heron and Little Egret

The Heron's style of fishing is much more sedate than yesterday's Little Egret.

Swallow 2 this morning 1 this evening 

Oystercatcher 1,000

Curlew 2

Whimbrel 1 this morning 4 this evening

Bar-Tailed Godwit 1 this morning 2 this evening

Whimbrel (left) with 2 Bar-Tailed Godwit

Turnstone 5 were flying around this evening.

Turnstone 

Dunlin 4 with Ringed Plover

Ringed Plover 10 (3 + 7)

Gulls - this morning there were 1,100. Many too distant to check for rings, nevertheless I still checked a few hundred and couldn't locate a single ringed bird. 

Some of this morning's gulls after the tide had lifted them of their feeding grounds

I returned this evening to try to understand why the birds I can see in the morning do not include any ringed birds.  l still don't really know although I have some thoughts. Only 500 gulls returned to feed this evening, but they did include two new ringed birds. One from the North West England Gull Project and another ringed as part of a NE Scotland ringing scheme.

Ringed in the NE of Scotland, details awaited

Just out of the recording area

Heysham Moss Nature Reserve (Janet)

Four-spotted Chaser

Broad-bodied Chaser

Large Red Damselfly 

Common Heath moth

Sundew

These shots by Mark Jones at his caravan at Potts Corner

Lesser Whitethroat 

Rook