Mainly Meds today

Dry for most of the day, although it looked like rain all morning. An afternoon shower, then sunny spells. A light SW wind.

South shore

I checked in the morning (Malcolm)

Rock Pipit 3 on Red Nab

Little Egret 6

Feeding on the outfalls is very patchy at the moment, most of the time there are almost no gulls on them.

No.1 outfall with hardly any gulls

Then a shoal of Whitebait or Sandeels must get drawn in at the intake and suddenly every Black-Headed gull around is feeding. This is the same outfall a few minutes earlier 

Mediterranean gulls 21 at least 13 adults 2 x 2nd calendar year, 6 juveniles. There were 6 juveniles feeding on the seaward end of No.1 outfall. Other sightings could have been the same birds

All but 2 of the adults were on the beach by the wooden jetty, and weren't tempted by the outfall when it was providing.

Of the six Meds in this shot, two have white rings and one just a metal ring.
Both seen earlier this summer, the green ringed German bird was also present.

It isn't often that the ring is so easy to read

Janet check this afternoon and caught the only serious shower of the day!

One of the Red Nab Rock Pipits

Redshank

Oystercatcher 

Curlew

Cormorants on the wooden jetty, no sign of the Shag.
One Cormorant that rests on the jetty has an orange ring. It should
be readable with a good scope

The sun came out on the return leg - in the Nature Park:

Painted Lady

Red Admiral 

Snail sp, giving the blackberries an appetising shine!

Gannet provides a bit of variety

 A dry day with sunny spells. The west wind drifting to SW by evening 

South shore (Malcolm)

Two checks today this morning 09:00 - 10:30

Linnet 5 on the saltmarsh 2 on Red Nab

Rock Pipit 3 (1 + 2 on Red Nab)

Little Egret 3

Mediterranean gulls 2 adults on Red Nab, including the green ringed German bird. At least 2 Juveniles flying around and feeding on the outfalls.

Juvenile Mediterranean gull with a juvenile Herring Gull. The green ringed
Herring gull has been around for a week (N:14P). One of the NW gull project
birds. But this year's ringing data hasn't been added to their database yet

Juvenile Mediterranean gull flying past the wooden jetty

Black-Headed gull with a small fish on No.2 outfall

Turnstone 20

Turnstone 

Gannet 1 adult flew out 09:40

Gannet

This afternoon 14:30 - 16:0

I went along the sea wall to watch the beach by the wooden jetty become exposed. Things were looking promising, there were at least 9 Mediterranean gulls on the sea, also waiting for the beach to show. Then everything lifted!

Osprey 1 - it looked to be just passing through, it flew past the roundhead and headed in a straight line SE, it didn't even look at the feeding area.

Osprey

Mediterranean gulls 16 - 9 adults and a 2nd calendar year returned to feed on the beach, no ringed birds seen. A loose group of 6 adults flew north. So with this morning's 2 juveniles at least 18 Meds today.

This Med looks to have a worm, but it is just part of the Sandmason
worm's tube

This adult didn't take kindly to a 2cy that landed on its patch

Little gull a 2nd calendar year feeding at the seaward end of No.1 outfall briefly 

Peregrine Falcon 1 flying around the Power Stations

In the Nature Park

One of two male Common Darters

Butterflies:

Red Admiral 5

Large White 4

Meadow Brown 2

Gatekeeper 2

Common Blue 8

Speckled Wood 3

Gatekeeper 

Red Admiral 

Storm Floris had more impact than it seemed!

Showers till mid morning, then increasingly bright. The early SE wind switching to SW by lunchtime.

South shore (Malcolm)

A quick morning check from saltmarsh to Red Nab was wet and underwhelming!

Just 3 Linnet on the saltmarsh 

Rock pipit 1

Whimbrel 1

No Mediterranean gulls seen on Red Nab

Later Janet checked the Nature Park 

Southern Hawker

Red Admiral, Carder Bumblebee and an Aphid 

Heysham skear (Malcolm)14:00 -16:00 

Great Crested Grebe 2

Little Egret 7

Gulls 300, mainly Herring  - I had just got to my favourite spot to check the gulls for rings and anything more unusual (hoping for a Caspian!), when everything lifted.

Just a fraction of the lifted birds

I quickly scanned for a raptor, but the culprit was someone kitesurfing. The birds all settled again, just to be spooked by a return pass. After several repeats I was about to call it a day, but the kitesurfer finished before me and tranquility returned.

Two of the gulls were colour coded, but both seen before and both from Walney.

In recent weeks I have been avoiding the skear edges, particularly the south side. As the summer progresses a process called layering occurs as mud is deposited on top of the mussels on one tide and the mussels move higher up to compensate, then the process repeats. The mussels prevent the mud from being washed away and the mussel bed grows in height. This makes for difficult walking as the mud below the mussels is unconsolidated and very soft. This process is most pronounced along the skear edges where some of the beds were 0.5m high - but not any more!

When I said the mussels prevent the mud from washing away, that referred to
normal summer conditions. Storm Floris has flattened them! All these mussels
are alive, but no longer anchored to anything and most will wash away

These are some of the mussels, I have seen the gulls swallow them at
this size, but for some reason they weren't interested in the loose easy pickings 

This is the south side, all this as far as the rock just left of centre in the
background was mussel beds last week

The gulls persisted in prising out individual mussels to eat. Presumably their
instinct or just experience tells them that this is the way to feed on mussels

The north side too has lost a 50m strip of mussel beds

This is one of the ringed birds feeding along the new northern edge 
of the skear

Some of the now loose mussels will aggregate and bind to each other, but most have already been washed out to sea. This short clip shows gentle drainage as the tide ebbs, but even this was moving the smaller remaining mussels.

Oystercatcher 600

Curlew 60

Redshank 140

Turnstone 120

Curlew 

Turnstone

Redshank 

An evening check along the south wall - Anne Stupple

Little Gull 1 2cy near No.1 outfall

Shag 1 juvenile on the wooden jetty

A thorough check of the south side pays some dividends

A dry and largely sunny day. A light west wind.

South shore.

I checked from the saltmarsh to Red Nab (Malcolm) 08:30 - 09:30

Linnet 35 around the saltmarsh 

Rock Pipit 5 

Rock Pipit

Mediterranean gull 6 adult and a 2nd calendar year resting on Red Nab

The Mediterranean gull in the middle is the German ringed bird seen yesterday

Black-Headed, Adult and 2nd calendar year Mediterranean gulls

Pete had a scan from Ocean Edge, 

The only thing to add was 2 Sandwich Terns on the distant tideline.

I had a walk along the sea wall this afternoon to watch the beach by the wooden jetty become exposed (Malcolm)

Whimbrel 1

Shag 1 juvenile on the wooden jetty

Juvenile Shag (to the right of the derelict lighthouse) with Cormorants 
on the wooden jetty.

Mediterranean gulls, eventually 12 adults and a juvenile turned up. So a minimum of 14 meds today.

This was the only ringed bird. The Belgium ringed one seen yesterday.
Unfortunately, it hasn't been seen since it left Heysham last year

Juvenile Mediterranean gull

Little gull 1 x 2nd calendar year - initially resting on the mud near No.2 outfall.

2cy Little Gull, the black specks surrounding it are the tiny snails that
currently cover much of the shore 

It then went on walkabout 

Then feeding on No.2 outfall. Just a hint of underwing shading now

These tiny but pretty flowers are Dune Pansies.
Growing on the driest section of Ocean Edge grass, 

When I got back to my car this Light Brown Apple moth was resting on it

Kevin spotted this Dark Giant Horsefly on the seawall.
It is the heaviest fly found in Europe (and they bite!)

Janet checked Red Nab and the Nature Park

Little Egret keeping its feet dry while fishing 

Newly fledged Blackbird 

Juvenile Long-Tailed Tit

Large White 

Faded male Common Blue

Red Admiral 

Common Darter

Kevin had this lovely moth in his trap last night

Black Arches - Not at all common in Lancashire though,
like other species, they do seem to be moving north.