Distant Osprey best of the day

A mainly dry day with just a couple of light showers. A SW wind.

Heysham skear (Malcolm). 09:00 - 10:15

Osprey 1 - I hadn't reached the inner skear when all the gulls on the outer skear lifted.

Gulls taking flight over the outer skear

For once I managed to locate the distant speck causing the clamour.

 

Highly zoomed and cropped Osprey. It was to the west of the skear heading south,
and must have continued as the gulls quickly settled.

It was heavy going today, the recent westerlies have been depositing mud over the mussels. So the mussels move higher to continue filter feeding. The upshot is thickening unconsolidated mud with a thin crust of mussels.

This is one of the better areas, it wasn't practical to stop at the worse ones.
You can see the mussels just showing through the mud. It isn't dangerous as
the stone surface isn't far below. But it makes for difficult walking.

The last time I was here this vista was black with mussels. They are still
there but partially covered in the mud from the last tide

No Eider seen

Red-breasted Merganser 6 - what seemed to be two pairs plus lone male and a lone female type.

Red-breasted Mergansers

Great Crested grebe 2 together 

Great crested grebes

Little Egret 4

Oystercatcher 300, but there would have been more on the outer skear

Curlew 9 at least

Gulls - at least 500 on the outer skear

Middleton Nature Reserve (Janet)

One of two House Martins

Speckled Wood

Silver Y

Narrow-bordered Five-spot Burnets

There is just a single Mullien caterpillar on the Mullien plant near Tim Butler 

Spotted Orchids sp

There is a Diamond-back moth on the bottom of the right hand bloom

Hare's foot Inkcap

Imperial Rd (Malcolm)

Just a quick evening check as a light shower was ending.

No Buzzard or Stonechat seen

Swift 1 and Swallow 3 adult 

Reed Buntings calling

The only warblers seen or heard were Chiffchaff and Sedge.

Sedge warbler a bit more subtle today

Little Egret 5 flew over together to NE

Little Egret

Singing after the rain

Very heavy overnight thundery showers, followed by a few lighter ones during the morning. The early light wind became quite fresh and ended up SW.

Imperial Rd

Malcolm 09:45 - 10:15 

I checked in the first break in the showers. Two things struck me straight away. One, the water level had risen considerably overnight. Two, it was extremely noisy! You would have thought the heavy rain would have dampened spirits, but so many of the birds were singing! Possibly just pleased that it had stopped.

Swallows 2 adults feeding and 5 young waiting to be fed. This isn't a great clip of the young, but does give a sense of the noise. 

One of the young Swallows

Sedge warblers were singing almost constantly and seemed to be from every direction. This is one of them.

Sedge warbler 

Buzzard at least 2. This one was calling from the central copse.

Buzzard calling

Also contributing to the noise:

Other singing warblers

Cetti's 2

Chiffchaff 3

Common Whitethroat 1

Blackcap 1

Song Thrush, Blackbird, Dunnock and Wren singing

Chattering and twittering 

Carrion Crows, Magpies and Jackdaws

Chaffinch, Greenfinch, Goldfinch.

Four Goldfinch flying across the road.

Family parties

Long-Tailed and Blue Tits

The only bird that seemed silent was the male Stonechat. Doing more waiting than feeding some distance from the road.

Mark Jones had a quick look at lunchtime.

The stonechat was distant and initially looked to be a male and a female, but I think it was just the male, but with a goldfinch and a reed bunting in close attendance.

Distant male Stonechat 

also 2 singing sedge warblers (opposite ends of the area) 

a greater spotted woodpecker (probably in the small wood a the back) 

pair of common whitethroats still feeding young near the road.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Malcolm 10:30 - 11:00. It was 17°C despite there being no sun, warm enough for dragonflies but a check of the west side of the main pond failed to locate any.

Wildfowl as yesterday plus 1 Little grebe provided a brief glimpse.

Cetti's warbler 2-3

Chiffchaff 2

Blackcap 1

Reed warbler 1

Janet checked early afternoon 

Mute Swan female with cygnets moving to the "no swimming" pond

A very light coloured Comma

Ringlet 

Not easily identified from this angle.......

........a Burnet Companion 

Now lots of Narrow-bordered Five-spot Burnets

Blackneck moth

Mullein caterpillars Making short work of the plant.
This is the area near the gate to the industrial site

Red-veined Darter

An early south wind shifted to the west by late morning. Dry with sunny spells.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

I checked first (Malcolm). 11:30. After yesterday's good insect migration weather I checked the main pond to see if it had attracted any Red-veined Darters. It had.

Male Red-veined Darter

It was on the west side of the main pond, these shots 20m north of where the Mute Swans rest (bank covered in feathers and feaces). It was still in the same area when Janet checked at 13:30.

Janet checked again an hour later and Kevin Eaves looked later this afternoon, neither were able to relocate, but it is a small insect in a large area, so hopefully it is still around.

Three female/immature darters were seen, the only one providing a decent view was a Common Darter, they probably all were.

Common Darter

Black-Tailed Skimmer 3

Broad-bodied Chaser 1

Red Admiral 1

Speckled Wood 3

Mute Swan pair plus 7 cygnets

Mallard 6

Coot 2

Swift 3

House Martin 2

The following warblers were all heard from the main pond

Cetti's warbler 2

Blackcap 2

Reed warbler 2

Chiffchaff 1

Janet checked in the early afternoon 

Grasshopper warbler 1 reeling in the southern section of the reserve.

Swalow

Scary Pheasant!

As well as the Red-Veined Darter

Female Black-Tailed Skimmer

Male Black-Tailed Skimmer resting on dried Swan droppings

Lots of Damselflies, this one a male Common Blue

Imperial Rd

Mark Jones checked at 09:30 -  male stonechat very active taking food into brambles to the left of the Elder bush.

Stonechat showing the location of where he is now taking food

Song Thrush taking food in the same vicinity 

Also, common whitethroat pair feeding young near the Rd, numerous Reed buntings, greenfinch, buzzard, swallows and grey heron overhead. 

Male Greenfinch

I checked at lunchtime (Malcolm) The Stonechat was now just resting on the Elder bush.

Plus a couple of yesterday's imports:

Red Admiral 1

Painted Lady 1

Field along the edge of Moss Estate (Janet)

Plenty of Narrow-bordered Five-spot Burnet moths

Narrow-bordered Five-spot Burnets

Heysham skear (Malcolm) 16:00 - 17:30

Eider what looks to be a family of five. At first there were two immatures by themselves then an adult pair plus two that looked like fledged juveniles flew from the north to join them.

All five fed in the shallows

He certainly looks to be a proud Dad

Great Crested grebe 5

Presumably this is the same solitary bird that has been here regularly recently 

Then four more, looking to be two pairs

Little Egret 3

Oystercatchers 100

Curlew 9

Some of the Curlew coming in

Gulls 600, mainly Herring. I must have checked over 300 pairs of legs and never saw a single ring.

Just out of the recording area, Caravan park just south of the recording area - Mark Jones.

It seemed like half of the rookery arrived to feed outside my caravan at first light, at least 5 adults and 5 well developed youngsters being fed from my feeders and extracted earthworms, very vocal!