Little gull still around, but elusive

Mainly overcast with an odd shower. A light west wind

South shore (Shaun, Malcolm)

A two pronged attack with Shan along the sea wall and me out from Red Nab. 

Little Gull 1 2nd calendar year arrived from in the bay, fed on No.1 outfall for 10 minutes then returned into the bay

Mediterranean gull 9 - 4 adult, 1 2nd calendar year and 4 juvenile 

Adult and a Juvenile Mediterranean gull (on left)

2nd calendar year Mediterranean gull

Sandwich Tern 1 heard briefly 

Curlew 200+ south 

Whimbrel 1 heard heading south

Oystercatcher c500

This Oystercatcher caught a Lugworm and ran from the others before 
eating it

Grey Seal 1 out from No.1 outfall

The entire shore is covered in these tiny snails. They are what the small
waders will be feeding on in a while. These are also what the Shelduck
feed on here

Painted Lady 1 in the Nature Park

Middleton Nature Reserve (Janet)

Kingfisher 1 flew west across the main pond

Speckled Wood

Meadow Brown

Large White

Green- Veined White

Red Admiral

The Coot and Cormorants seemed to have a truce 

Immature Cormorants 

Truce or no truce, the young Coot didn't leave the cover of the reeds
until the Cormorants had gone

Feeding time

Heysham skear (Malcolm) 19:00 - 20:30

Great Crested Grebe 5

Little Egret 4

Gulls 400 large, mainly Herring. Two ringed birds, one seen recently, the other ringed in 2019 at the Ribble estuary, hasn't been seen since before the breeding season.

N:01E - it is a difficult one to read as the 1 and the E are so close together

Black-Headed gull 25

Mediterranean gull 1 adult

Mediterranean (left) with two Black-Headed gulls

Waders

Oystercatcher 300 but more arriving all the time

Curlew 80

Redshank 15

Turnstone 40

Ringed Plover 12

Cormorant switching from scales to feathers

Early morning showers soon eased with just the odd light shower during the morning. A light variable breeze.

Janet took this series of shots of a young Cormorant trying, and possibly succeeding, to eat young Coots on the main pond at Middleton Nature Reserve yesterday.

The Cormorant seems to be swallowing something here

The adults drove it back.....

........and the remaining chicks swam frantically across the pond

Later they adopted a strategy of mingling with the Swans, which itself 
is a bit of a surprise, it isn't long ago that the male Swan was chasing them!

South shore

Mediterranean gulls 12 minimum. This morning there were 7 adults and a juvenile on the feeding beach by the wooden jetty. This evening Shaun Coyle saw 7 adults and 5 juveniles on Red Nab.

This is the metal ringed adult Mediterranean gull that favours feeding
close to the sea wall on the feeding beach

This is where it tends to feed, it is dead centre in this shot

A few other bits on my morning walk (Malcolm)

Rock Pipits 3

Wheatear on the foreshore 

This Pied Wagtail is feeding young

This newly fledged Pied Wagtail was one of the recipients 

Herring Gull taking a Mussel to its favourite spot for dropping them

Janet had a walk along the sea wall this afternoon.

Little Egret 

Redshank

Oystercatchers 

Curlew 

Many more Oystercatchers 

Gulls on No.2 outfall

The warm wet conditions stirred this Garden Snail into "action"

Osprey  - seen by Mark Jones at 14:45 from Potts Corner. It started off in the recording area just south of the harbour, it then headed south with an entourage of gulls!

This Large shield bug was on my house wall this morning (Malcolm)
It is a Hawthorn Shield Bug

Belated Caspian gull!

A dry day with sunny spells. A light west wind

This gull seen on Heysham skear on 17 May 2025 is a 1st summer Caspian Gull with a Dutch ring seen previously at Redcar tarn x 2, Dewsbury and Sheffield.  Second record for the Lancaster and District area following one which just crept in occasionally at Fluke Hall a couple of years or so ago.  

The scheme manager advised that over 80% of the chicks identified as Caspian have Caspian gulls for both parents.

Dutch ringed first summer Caspian Gull

I photographed it on the skear in May (Malcolm). Unfortunately Pete had no internet access at that time, I identified it as a Herring Gull and somehow managed to find a UK scheme that matched the ring configuration. It was only when they never responded and I saw the Dutch scheme did the option for it being a Caspian Gull manifest itself. Fortunately I still had the above shots for Pete to check and confirm the identity......all's well that ends well!

Heysham skear (Malcolm) 09:15 - 10:45

There were c300 gulls on the skear but spread far and wide. We are on spring tides now and there is an awful lot of skear exposed.

Great Crested Grebe 3 (1 + 2)

Red-breasted Merganser 2

Little Egret 7

Two Little Egret, but this shot is really to show the archipelago of Honeycomb 
Worm reefs that currently flank the northern side of the skear.

The waders are likely to be woefully underestimated as they to were spread thinly.

Oystercatcher 600

Curlew 70

Redshank 95

Turnstone - none seen out on the skear but 33 closer to shore

Ringed Plover 3 flew east from the outer skear, probably a different 3 close inshore 

Dunlin 1

Osprey 1 feeding, or at least looking for an opportunity to feed in the channel to the north of the skear. By this time the tide had been coming in for an hour and was rushing through the channel, not ideal for spotting fish.

Osprey

It was scanning the water from a considerable height, they must have superb vision! This clip shows just how high it was, but still clearly scanning the water for an opportunity.

South shore (Malcolm) 11:00 - 12:00

I went to check the gulls on Red Nab on the rising tide.

Mediterranean gulls 9 - 8 adults and a juvenile. Very flighty though, flushed by something unseen once and they relocated just below the sea wall. I was just about to go to the wall to check them, when a dog flushed them again. I gave up, mainly as I was ready for lunch and my rumbling tummy would surely have spooked them again!

Still I managed to read two ringed adults, a white one that has been previously seen and a returning yellow ringed German bird.

Ringed as a chick at Leipzig Germany in 2019.
It was first seen at Heysham the same year, and most years since 

Wheatear on the foreshore 

Middleton Nature Reserve (Janet)

Southern Hawker

Black-Tailed Skimmer

A very mobile red darter looked to be a Red-Veined Darter. But not certain.

Small Skipper and a "weevil"

Comments from Alison - It's one of the Seed weevils. 
Based on the fact  it's on clover and that the legs look to be a different colour
than the body. It's probably a Clover Seed Weevil - Protapion apricans.  
But I can't be 100% sure. 

Common Blue

Gatekeeper

Surprisingly, only two Copper-Tipped Longhorn moths could be found

Shaded Broad-Bar

Cormorant 

Swallow taking a dip