Common Sandpiper seems to be hanging around

Very heavy morning showers till just after lunch, it then remained dry with sunny periods. A fresh west wind.

These shots by Kevin Singleton yesterday at the Heliport

Lapwing 

Little Egret and Oystercatcher 

South shore

08:45 - 10:00 (Malcolm)

A walk from the saltmarsh to the wooden jetty, mostly in heavy rain!

Linnet 12 on saltmarsh 

Wheatear 2 along foreshore 

Pied Wagtail 14 on Ocean Edge grass

Rock Pipits 6 - 4  at Red Nab plus 2 singles along the sea wall

Little Egret 3

Shelduck 2

There were lots of gulls feeding on the beach by the wooden jetty, but mainly Black-Headed. Just four adult Mediterranean gulls.

Mediterranean gull, you can see the Sandmason worm tubes where
the soft mud has been stripped away

Pete checked at lunchtime:

1/2 hr Seawatch including ferry arrival: two Juvenile Shag heading for wooden jetty, sandwich tern out.  

Zero of interest on outfalls

At least 12 Mediterranean gull on Red nab 1235.  

13:15 - 14:15 (Malcolm)

A check of the shore out from the saltmarsh towards high water

Common Sandpiper 1 - as I was walking out I saw it fly from the creek in the south of the rocky outcrop back towards the outcrop. When I was walking back and the tide had covered the creek it was resting on the rocks.

Common Sandpiper and an Oystercatcher 
This is the third time I have seen the Sandpiper here in just three visits.
Presumably the same bird has taken a liking to this improving habitat 

The only other waders were a group on the mud at the southern edge of the recording area.

Grey Plover 52

Knot 39

Dunlin 18

Grey Plover, Knot and Dunlin
It had rained so hard this morning that this section of shore was covered in water.

Middleton Nature Reserve (Malcolm)

Just a passing check, but I did manage to look at the "no swimming" pond as well as the main pond. The "no swimming" pond is 1.5m above its normal level, making it difficult to get a clear view.

The wildfowl was almost as yesterday.

10 Gadwall today, 2 on the "no swimming" pond.

Tufted 22 again, 6 on the "no swimming" pond

Mallard

Little grebe

All the Tufted Ducks seemed to be preening 

This female was particularly vigorous 

Cetti's warbler 1 singing

Long-Tailed Tits 6

Black Tern, briefly

A fresh west-SW wind. Heavy showers throughout the day, but sunny spells in between.

South Shore

Pete had a scan from Ocean Edge c11:20:

Juvenile Black tern Heysham two outfall, first seen near outer end then worked its way up the outfall then swept high into the air on the inner end and disappeared!

(Two also seen at Leighton Moss at 10:30, moulting adult and juvenile, relocated in Cumbria on the Bela est and three at Conder pool - looks like they just whizzed through)

A qucik check of the gulls on Red Nab located 4 Mediterranean gulls - 2 adults, a 2nd and a 1st calendar year 

I checked twice (Malcolm)

10:45 - 12:15 

Linnet 30+ on the saltmarsh 

Wheatear 1 along the foreshore 

Wheatear keeping its head down out of the wind

Rock Pipit 6 - 5 at Red Nab and 1 near the waterfall 

As I reached the beach near the wooden jetty the tide was covering it quickly. But I had time to see that much of the soft mud had been scoured off and the Sandmason worms tubes were showing well again.

Plenty of gulls were feeding on the worms, but most were Black-Headed. There were three Mediterranean gulls, an adult and one each 1st and 2nd calendar year. They flew towards Red Nab when the tide flushed them, probably included in Pete's count.

Adult and 1cy Mediterranean gulls (centre)
You can see some of the Sandmason worm tubes, not exactly a forrest,
but much better than it had been.

In this clip the gulls are waiting for the worms to show, before trying to grab them. You can see islands of the soft mud covering some areas, I don't know how much mud has been removed further up the beach, but I'll have a look tomorrow.

By the time I got to the Nature Park, the sun was shining and it was quite busy.

Swallow 1 feeding

Migrant Hawker 1

Common Darter 3

Red Admiral 2

Comma 1

Large White 3

Green-Veined White 1

Comma

I returned late afternoon on the ebbing tide.

Guillemot 1

Guillemot battling the waves along the sea wall

Adult and 1st calendar year Mediterranean gull heading towards the 
feeding beach, an hour before it will be exposed.

So far this afternoon it had been fine, but I checked my weather "app"

Looking into the wind it was chucking it down! 
A 98% probability of getting wet before reaching my car......wet I got!

Middleton Nature Reserve (Malcolm)

Just a quick passing check of the main pond. The wildfowl is flourishing with the reduced disturbance (new fencing and no aggressive male Mute Swan). Some of the Gadwall and Tufted seemed to be commuting to and back from the "no swimming" pond. I didn't have time to check it today.

Mute Swan 1 adult plus 7 well grown cygnets 

Mallard 37

Tufted Duck 22 at least

Gadwall 8 at least

Coot 12

Moorhen 2

Little Grebe 1

Little Grebe

This clip starts on feeding Gadwall and pans through some of the resting Tufted Duck

Relaxed Tufted Duck. The above shots taken from the bottom car park

Swallow 3 feeding

A change in the weather begins

A mainly overcast day, fortunately the rain managed to hold off till after lunch. A SE wind.

Heysham skear (Malcolm) 09:30-10:30

I walked the tide in, but these high spring tides come in very quickly, so it didn't take long.

Eider 45

Male Eider, moulting out of eclipse 

Eider

Red-Breasted Merganser 8 female/immature, When one dives they all dive.

Great Crested grebe 7

Shag 3 juveniles at least

This juvenile Shag was resting amongst the north side honeycomb worm reefs

Later three were resting on conger rock on the south side of the skear

Little Egret 5

Gulls c100 mainly Herring

Oystercatcher 700

Curlew 35

Redshank 80

Turnstone 60

Ringed Plover 2

Swallow 5 singles south

On 5th September I posted this shot showing a 50m strip of mud right
across the skear. Which was unusual.

This is the same strip today, the power of the spring tides has removed all
the mud leaving a 50m wide strip of skear bottom. Which is even more unusual!

South shore (Malcolm) 14:00 - 16:00

I started on the shingles between the saltmarsh and the faux castle just after high water, then checked the saltmarsh and foreshore.

There were just four Ringed Plover on the shingles

Two Ringed Plovers in this shot

Juvenile Ringed Plover

Carrion Crows 28

19 Carrion Crows in the foreground of this shot

By this time the rain was quite heavy and I switched to my old pocket camera, which still produces adequate record shots.

Common Sandpiper 1 - it flew across the saltmarsh east to west then returned later

Rear view of a Common Sandpiper 

Wheatear 3 along the foreshore 

Linnet 33 on Ocean Edge grass

Some of the Linnet and a Pied Wagtail

Rock Pipit 3 on Red Nab

By late evening the rain was torrential, the wind freshening quickly and shifting to SW. Hopefully, we'll get something interesting blown in over the coming days.

Shelduck numbers growing quickly

A dry and largely sunny day with a freshening SE breeze.

Middleton Nature Reserve (Janet)

Unfortunately the treatment on the injured Swan's wing didn't fix it. He is not deemed fit to defend himself in the wild, so no release after all (see yesterday's post). 

Nine Tufted Duck on the main pond

Female Common Darter

Male Common Blue

Rush Veneer moth (it is in this shot!)

South shore (Malcolm)

Three visits today. The first 08:40-09:30, from saltmarsh to wooden jetty at low water.

Mute Swan 1 originally out from the saltmarsh, later just past Red Nab

Mute Swan

Shelduck 56 filtering the tiny snails from the mud, then flying over to the freshwater runoffs for a drink.

Shelduck having a drink

Wheatear 3 on the foreshore 

Wheatear

Meadow Pipit 12 south in just over an hour

This Meadow Pipit stopped off on the foreshore briefly

Rock Pipits 5 feeding on the sea wall, not so much bickering today

Rock pipits on the sloping wall at Red Nab, unfortunately the strong light
behind them

Little Egret 5

Plenty of gulls on No.1 outfall, but all Black-Headed

I walked out here at this time to check the feeding beach at low water.
This should have been an ideal tide for the Mediterranean gulls to feast
on Sandmason worms. But the whole beach has been smothered in fresh
mud, and there wasn't a single Sandmason worm tube to be seen.
No Mediterranean gulls were seen today

A second check out from the saltmarsh 11:00-12:30

Swallow 9 south in ones and twos.

Linnet 30+ on the the saltmarsh 

Wheatear 1

This Wheatear wasn't easy to see amongst the pebbles

Little Egret 2

Little Egret and Redshank waiting for the incoming tide in the saltmarsh creek

Shelduck now 75

There were no waders along the waterline and just 3 Ringed Plover closer in. There were waders further to the south beyond the recording area. I could see them from the recording area, but not well enough to identify all of them, so I walked further. A couple of shots at the end of the post.

A third check along the seawall 15:45-16:45. By this time it was warm, a fresh SE breeze and the tide was ebbing. Often this means insects coming in off the sea, but there wasn't any at all along the seawall.

Shag 3 juveniles on the wooden jetty

This Redshank was taking a particularly vigorous bath!

Redshank

Two Linnet and a young Pied Wagtail on the sea wall

There were quite a lot of insects in the Nature Park 

Common Darter 6

Migrant Hawker 3

Migrant Hawker

Red Admiral 2

Painted Lady 1

Small Tortoiseshell 1

Large White 8

Green-Veined White 1

Speckled Wood 5

Common Blue 2

Painted Lady

Heliport wall (Malcolm) - just a quick look on my way home towards high water at lunchtime 

24 Lapwings, 1 Redshank, 1 Turnstone and a "lot" of Oystercatchers!

Just out of the recording area - these are some of the waders just south of the faux castle which marks the southern limit of the recording area.

Grey Plover, Knot and Dunlin

Four Sanderling