All at sea!

Heysham Obs
North Harbour Wall 8am
Mediterranean Gull - 1 adult and 3 1st summers
1st summer Kittiwake
1st summer Little Gull
summer plumaged Red-throated Diver - very unusual for this time of year
Insects
Red-veined darter - 2 males on the model boat pond at least lunchtime

More to come e.g. Midd IE WeBs from Malcolm

Ragwort isnt just for Cinnabars

Heysham Obs
Outfalls area low tide
Med Gull - Ad summer plus 1 x 2CY

Moths
Dark Arches and Treble Bar new for the year. Also Shaded Pug
Eucosma campolilana, a local ragwort feeder, made its first appearance of the year and can be seen below (thanks John).

Elsewhere

Spoonbill - still in the Sunderland Point area. Same? at Leighton early morning only. Osprey Leighton

Too northwesterly

Heysham Obs
.........but only just, creating false anticipation for seawatching (and continuing the negative headlines)! An early morning seawatch was limited to 'seagulls'. Shag most unusual for June but have been odd recent records from Walney

North harbour wall
Shag - 1st summer on the sea, then flew round the wooden jetty at about 1005hrs
Fulmar - 2 out and across
Black Guillemot - one flew offshore from the harbour entrance

Outfalls area
Med Gull - 2CY
Little Gull - 2CY

Elsewhere
Spoonbill EM Pool early morning at least. 3 skuas, thought to be Poms. but not completely certain, off JBP heading towards Grange at c0945-0950hrs

Missed most of the boat?

Heysham Obs
Jon's Pomarine Skua was just missed (flying out at the Stone Jetty at 0840hrs after circling around for a bit wondering what to do). It was a light morph with broken/half-grown blunt-ended tail projections - typical of late spring passage birds and presumably a "sub-adult". Quite a bit of stuff on the early dropping tide off Heysham but it was mostly rather distant "across the mouth" of the bay.

Seawatch 0900-1010hrs, mostly from Ocean Edge foreshore
Manx Shearwater - 27 out, including a straggling line of 18
Fulmar - 2 out
Gannet - 5 out (one 'flock')

Outfalls/Red Nab
Little Gull - a 3CY was new-in and unusual at this time of year (Leighton Moss bird?) and was accompanied by presumably the long-staying 2CY (but could have been one of the Leighton 2CY?)
Med Gull - few gulls on red nab but included one 2CY Med
Black Guillemot - one offshore from the north harbour wall

Elsewhere
Pom Skua off the Stone Jetty 0840hrs

Nothing seen, nothing heard, nothing caught

Heysham Obs
.............and no moths prior to a concerted effort to find a postable item at 1600hrs. 'Alleluia' in the form of an adult Med Gull on the mudflats off Ocean Edge

Elsewhere
Spotted Flycatcher calling outside the window at High Tatham as I am typing this. No young Long-eared Owls calling on Leck Fell whilst returning from moth trapping at about 0015hrs. Dead elsewhere.

Criticism accepted

Heysham Obs
............re-not enough detail for visiting dragonfly enthusiasts on how to 'connect with' Red-veined Darter.

Here goes on the darters:
Location
The model boat pond is the first on the right after driving into Middleton Industrial Estate/Heysham Business Park. Park in the small car park after going under the height restriction barrier. cSD418590

The western edge of the pond has a small inlet about half way along, just beyond where a line of rushes extends out into the water (rushes, not Reed Mace). Stand on the corner by these rushes and wait and watch the open water and/or check waterside stones for basking individuals. Also check the rippled water in the centre of the pond - these insects can spend quite a lot of time 'in the middle'.

Timing
This is where a lot of people go pear-shaped! The best time is not during the late afternoon high temperatures when the species can be very hard, if not impossible, to locate. Time your visit on a sunny day for about 1130-1330hrs. Avoid wind speeds of more than F2 and beware of sunny but chilly north/north-westerly airstreams which may only lead to a temperature high of about 15 C. This is often not enough and 17-18 C minimum seems to be necessary to guarantee this species' activity at this site. Therefore you have about one hour as the conditions in the next few days are not suitable!

Identification
Obviously the usual pale-centred pterostigma plus red venations (best seen when insect facing in flight - see photos from two days ago taken by Chris Adams) & all the other stuff as per text (eyes etc). However many people may need to sort out the odd Red-veined from a few additional Common and this is where flight/jizz awareness comes in. These are based on many hours of watching this species at this site:

a) They do not gain height whilst hovering (Common usually do)
b) Whilst patrolling the water invariably keep to the same low height (Common vary)
c) Often change direction far more acutely than Common Darter and this again is done at the same low height (Common vary their height regularly, especially when changing direction)
d) Spend longer over the water than Common

Obviously, jizz is not 100% foolproof, but it may help to get on to likely candidates which can then be carefully checked for "plumage features"

Apologies for the sea buckthorn along the western edge - problems with clearance due to Great-crested Newt legislation

Middleton IE 1120-1145
Red-veined Darter - three on the model boat pond, one very active
Black-tailed Skimmer - 4+ on the model boat pond

Elsewhere
Great White Egret still hiding in the main dyke at Leighton Moss. Single Osprey seen at Leighton. ?Returning fsp Spotted Redshank Conder Green. Ad Med Gull Kent Estuary.

More dragonfly weather

Heysham Obs
Quick visit to the model boat pond & short walk by Malcolm on the IE

Middleton IE model boat pond
Red-veined Darter - 2 probably 3 males - one 'on territory' along the western edge, the other 1-2 wide-ranging over the rippled water
Black-tailed Skimmer - 3 males and ovipositing female
Emperor - five on other ponds
Small Heath - 5

Birds
2 singing male Grasshopper Warbler Middleton IE. Stay on the concrete roads, please.

Beasties
Grey Squirrel - one along Moneyclose lane near the traffic lights
Red-eared Terrapin - showing well on the model boat pond

Elsewhere
Couple of Quails in the area - worth trying to find your own I guess in upland hayfields as well as any cereal which still exists in this area

Creepy crawlies start to emerge

Thanks to Colin Adams for these excellent pictures.

Heysham Obs
Middleton IE
Coverage by Colin & Colin revealed a rather belated emergence of Black-tailed Skimmer & Emperor
Black-tailed Skimmer - 4 males, 2 females and 5 tenerals
Red-veined Darter - at least 2 males and one of these attempted to mate with a teneral Common Darter
Common Darter - 2+ teneral, 2 imm males
Emperor - 4-5 males
Large Skipper out

Moths

The first really decent moth night this year included the first Freyer's Pug for here, 2 Shaded Pug and the increasingly local Double Dart. Heart and Dart & Shoulder-striped Wainscot dominated

Harbour
Very unproductive early morning (dropping tide) birding saw just one Black Guillemot in the harbour mouth

Elsewhere
A couple of Quail just south of the recording area this afternoon - a good evening to check any cereal fields in the area - ARE there any?!

Arctic Tern now a "surprise"

Heysham Obs
The demise of the Lune colony has led to a dearth of Common/Arctic Terns after the spring passage has finished

Outfalls area
Arctic Tern 1 S2 outfall
Med Gull 2 adults + 3 2CY but not including the black hood/white forehead & crown bird. All between S1&2 or end S1 outfall.
Black Guillemot 1 harbour mouth

Where are they?

Heysham Obs
Maybe the recent Painted Lady/Clouded Yellow influx has given a false impression of high summer, when in fact we are still in early June, but to visit Middleton in temperatures hovering around 19C and NOT see Black-tailed Skimmer or Emperor dragonfly is very odd. The Black-tailed Skimmer crash is the most dramatic; maybe the Red-eared Terrapin has had a field day with the larvae, maybe the edge has become a bit overgrown, but perhaps more likely has been the "permanent" patrol of the favoured western edge by 12 Jackdaws plus a few Pied Wagtail scoffing emergent/teneral/torpid dragonflies. Emperors might just be a bit late

Ocean Edge/outfalls
Med Gull - adult summer and 2nd CY but very heat-hazy and difficult

Middleton IE assorted insects
Red-veined Darter - one mature male showing very well over the 'rippled' water in the eastern sector of the model boat pond 1115-1130hrs but not again by 1200hrs
Darter spp - a (very) teneral specimen by the fence pond
4-spotted Chaser - 85 counted on the new scrape, fence pond, no swimming pond but forgot to check the favoured central marsh!
Mother Shipton - 2 seen by Brian Hancock
Clouded Yellow - one flew west across the model boat pond at 1145ish hrs

Heysham NR moths
Shaded Pug - one in actinic in SD45E, one in the hut trap

Elsewhere
Hobby - secondhand report of a reliable observer seeing one at close range near Slyne flying in the general direction of Warton Crag mid-morning