Mainly insects & gulls

..........unless more materialises

Red Nab/Ocean Edge 1215hrs
Med Gull: 2 x adult, 1 x 2CY
Little Gull: 1 x moth-eaten 2CY

Heysham NR dragonflies
Common Hawker - one male
Brown Hawker - 2
Common Darter - 5

Butterfly census HNR (rather windy)
32 Meadow Brown, 4 Speckled Wood, 24 Small Skipper, 3 Large Skipper, 2 Small White, 1 Red Admiral, 4 Gatekeeper

Dragonfly group

Thanks to John Rayner for these Red-veined Darter pictures

Heysham Obs
Efforts today were concentrated at Middleton IE with ringing in the central and western marsh and a very well-attended dragonfly workshop organised by Graham Jones from the wildlife trust. What a change to get an excellent day for dragonflies i.e. could be found & studied, not whizzing all over the place in sweltering conditions, especially as it was forecasted to be cloudy. Thanks Graham.

Ringing at Middleton
Promising number of Willow Warblers for this site this early in the "autumn" and another three Grasshopper Warblers ringed [16 so far this year including 4 adult males]. The following were ringed: Grasshopper Warbler (3, an adult female and two juveniles), Willow Warbler (8), Whitethroat (3), Lesser Whitethroat (1), Sedge Warbler (5), Reed Bunting (3), Dunnock (3). A Reed Warbler was caught bearing a ring from elsewhere.

Vis mig at Middleton

One Sand Martin flew south along with c25 Swift

Middleton insects
At least 6 male Red-veined Darter including one male showing signs of immaturity. One tandem pair with the female ovipositing. Other dragonflies included 4 Black-tailed Skimmer, 3 Four-spotted Chaser, 3 Emperor, 20+ Common Darter (majority tenerals), 1 Emerald Damselfly and abundant Common Blue and Blue-tailed Damselfly.

Elsewhere
3rd summer Yellow-legged Gull still at Glasson

More Meds and reluctant dragonflies

Heysham Obs
Red Nab
Awful heat haze & just 2 ad Meds noticed

Moths
Toadflax Pug the pick - a quite common moth here

Middleton IE
Nothing (temperature marginally too low & wind too strong) until two female dog 'walkers' threw a long rubber thing, like a refugee from Ann Summers, into the pond which the dogs enthusiastically retrieved:
Red-veined Darter - one shot off the edge to the opposite side of the pond
Black-tailed Skimmer - 2 shot off the edge to the opposite side of the pond

Elsewhere
Nothing as yet

Med gull rear ends

Heysham Obs
Red Nab high tide
Med Gull - 3 x adult summer, 1 x 2CY (black-headed bird), mostly facing away in the WWNW wind

No obvious sea passage in the 5-10 minutes!

Moths
Lychnis notable for here plus another Dingy Footman

Elsewhere
3rd summer Yellow-legged Gull still Glasson/Lighthouse cottage area yesterday evening

Middleton ringing and moths

Heysham Obs
Moths
A reasonable catch in the hut trap, although no large numbers of any one species. Another, or the same(!), Dingy Footman, also V Pug, Lime speck Pug and Toadflax Pug.

Middleton IE
An early ringing session cut short by increasing wind. Only 14 birds, including one unringed Grasshopper Warbler and 3 young Willow Warblers, 2 Lesser Whitethroats, one Common Whitethroat and 2 Sedge Warblers.

Elsewhere
3rd summer Yellow-legged Gull off Lighthouse Cottage, Cockersands

Ringed Meds

** some late items entered for last three days, mainly insects
Heysham Obs
Red Nab/outfalls/Ocean Edge foreshore
Med Gull - 5 close together on Red Nab near high tide: 3 adult summer, one with metal ring on tarsus, the other with metal above knee (returning Czech-ringed bird?). 2 x 2CY
Whimbrel - 3
Common Sandpiper - 2

Moths
Dingy Footman new for the year (at northern edge of its current range)

A portable trap set in the wetland area produced a perhaps predictable ratio of 11 Southern Wainscot to one Smoky Wainscot (& 6 Drinker). The hut trap held 8 Smoky and no Southern Wainscot

Elsewhere
Hobby Leighton Moss early morning

An undisturbed Red Nab

Heysham Obs
Red Nab high tide
Med Gull - 2 x Ad S, 2 x 2CY
Common Sandpiper - 2
Whimbrel - 1

Middleton IE
Red-veined Darter - 8 males
Black-tailed Skimmer - c20
Gatekeeper - 3

Elsewhere
Wood Sandpiper Allen/EM Pools

More and more insects!

Links
Heysham Obs
Red Nab/outfalls
Med Gull - the only worthwhile sighting inshore at high tide was a summer adult on Red Nab

Middleton IE (taken from Colin Whittle census)
Red-veined Darter - 8+ males on the model boat pond,
Common Darter - 33, nearly all teneral
Brown Hawker - 1
Black-tailed Skimmer - 17 on model boat pond (4 female), 7 central/western
marshes
4-spotted Chaser - 78 throughout (rare on model boat pond)

Heysham NR
Gatekeeper - 3
Common Hawker - one male

Elsewhere
Hobby Leighton Moss. Two Ruddy Shelduck Aldcliffe, then flew south

Large numbers of Red-veined Darters

Heysham Obs
In the absence of further apparent influxes so far to the north, I am assuming that the current increase in Red-veined Darters is due to the emergence of locally-born examples. This is backed up by two teneral males two days ago. A small number of teneral darters last weekend were presumed to be Common Darter, but there has been no indication of any increase in mature/maturing darters other than Red-veined! This does not mean that some of the individuals are not remaining from a presumed migratory influx at the beginning of June (a good week before any local emergence, on the evidence of previous years). The absence at the excellent and well-recorded (e.g. current 2 x Lesser Emperor) habitat at Brockholes Quarry does support the case for no further migrants after the initial influx, as do the lack of RVD sightings from the northern half of Britain on the BDS site. Whats happening at Fleetwood Marsh Nature reserve, which received early migrants, including an ovipositing female? However, recent news concerning two individuals at Brockholes Quarry and 3 at Walney Island (first records) does suggest some continued migration

Middleton IE model boat pond
Red-veined Darter - at least 10 males at 1050ish in 22C, scattered all round the edge of the pond and flying towards the middle on a regular basis. No obvious 'cross-overs' from one side of the pond to the other; all seemed to be spread around on territory with quite a bit of conflict at the boundaries.
Black-tailed Skimmer - 10+

Middleton IE
Ringed Plover - 1+ chick with previously unrecorded pair
Grasshopper Warbler - 3 singing males
Reed Warbler - at least 4 singing males present this last week

Red Nab
Med Gull - adult summer plus 2CY with significant amount of black on head
Whimbrel - one (plus 16 moulting adult Curlew)

Elsewhere
Spoonbill - two on the Allen Pool this morning

Some pre-weather front morning birding

** See yesterdays late posting re-dragonflies
Heysham Obs
SHW/Harbour
Common Sandpiper - harbour mouth
Med Gull - adult over harbour and NHW
Sandwich Tern - 2 'out'
Sand Martin - 5 SW high over end of wooden jetty
Redshank - 8 inc 2 juv & 1 Turnstone wooden jetty

Red Nab
Med Gull - adult summer without any rings Red Nab, then flew towards Sunderland Point after being pursued by a rottweiler and smaller dog spp.
Whimbrel - singleton as above but about twice the speed (first of autumn?)

Elsewhere
Nothing yet