Gull influx

Heysham Obs
Decent number of gulls on Red Nab/outfalls but no obvious sign of Yellow-legged Gull (but dog running around over the usual large gull roost site)

Outfalls/Red Nab
Little Gull - 2CY, then appeared to fly out to sea as tide covered rocks
Med Gull - unringed 2CY with blackish head & white forehead - unringed
Black-headed Gull - 250
Common Gull - 35
Curlew - 19 Red Nab
Oystercatcher - 52 Red Nab

Middleton
Reed Warbler - singing male central marsh as well as 2+ in usual western marsh reedbed

Offshore 0900-0945hrs
Gannet - 1
Fulmar - 1
Great-crested Grebe - 1

Moths
Light Arches, Small Angle Shades, Shaded Pug and Double Dart highlighted a small catch

Yellow-legged Gull surprise

Heysham Obs
A check of the area near high tide produced a good collection of gulls on Red Nab and the sandflats off Ocean Edge.  No sign of any Med Gulls this morning but a large, probably male adult Yellow-legged Gull showed very well, including instructive comparison with British LBB and HG, off Ocean Edge saltmarsh.

Yellow-legged Gull - adult, probably male off Ocean Edge saltmarsh
Whimbrel - unseasonalish bird Ocean Edge saltmarsh channel, flew south
Black-headed Gull - 68

Nothing offshore in 15 minute seawatch

Intertidal racecourse

Heysham Obs
A quick visit on the still rather neap high tide saw a racehorse being unloaded on to the beach for a bit of exercise.  This followed an earlier dobbin-like-thing creating chaos running about on the Heysham bypass.  Bird-wise between Ocean Edge and Potts Corner, limited to the Ad Med Gull and a handful of Oystercatcher (35) and Curlew (13) along the tideline

Some nice pics from yesterday - thanks Janet - including the first Narrow-bordered 5-spot Burnet Moth of the year:

Another Burnet Companion

Heysham Obs
Birds
Singing male Coal Tit and two juvenile Bullfinch on reserve circuit missing out the reedbed area.

Insects
A fresh Burnet Companion moth along with (?the) Silver Y and a Cinnabar along the reserve entrance slope.  Butterflies comprised Large Skipper, Small Heath, Speckled Wood and plenty of Common Blue in windy conditions

Plants
Quite a few Bee Orchid near the classroom on the flat 'upland' area and Common Spotted Orchid starting to come out

Midnight mothing but little else

Heysham Obs
Sorry about the lack of coverage - there are just a lot of things going on at the moment, not the least nestboxes to check in other areas, holidays in Scandinavia and work!

Moths
A session at Middleton NR produced two of the local speciality Silver Hook, along with the first two Double Dart of the year - this species is still common here (mainly via the hut trap) despite falling by the wayside in most of the rest of the country.  The first Silver Y of the year was photographed on HNR by Janet on 12/6/12.  Thanks for this, Janet:

Ringing recovery

   Lesser Redpoll

   L458922           3                  15.10.11                                              Sandwich Bay (Kent)

   Controlled         5                  02.05.12                                              Heysham 423 km

I wonder how far to the south this bird wintered as it was presumably still on autumn passage at Sandwich.  We await one from France with a genuine 'wild bird ring', but unfortunately the presumed French-ringed cagebird also caught this spring has proved to be untraceable

The young ones

North Harbour Wall
Pied Wagtail - 4 juvs presumably the offspring of the pair from Centrica
Linnet - 3 juvs - presumably the offspring of the pair from Gorse on the Mound
Starling - 1 juv - presumably the offspring of the pair from Heysham Harbour

Fisher's Roof (north facing side) nesting gulls:
Lesser Black-back - 13 still sitting on nests, 3 broods of 2 youngsters and 3 broods of 1 youngster.
Great Black-back - 1 pair with 2 youngsters
Herring Gull - 6 sitting, presumably on nests.  11 immatures on the apex of the roof.

Outfalls/Ocean Edge
Mediterranean Gull - adult or faintly marked 3CY on the seaward end of Heysham 2 outfall
Black-headed Gull - c120
Common Gull - c5
No terns
Anybody any Manx Shearwater (or better!) records from earlier this month, please - plenty on the move - see e.g. Walney Obs site??

Butterflies
A very tatty Common Blue on the mound.


Moths
A small catch this morning after a cool clear night included this attractive micro Tinea semifulvella:

A daytime search revealed Marsh Pug in the Far Marsh fen area:

ajd

Middleton NR Constant Effort Visit

Heysham


Moths:  Only 11 species in the Hut Trap this morning, but did include an early True Lovers Knot, which is not common here.

Middleton
The fourth CES visit here was predictably quiet, although weather conditions were favourable.
Many of the breeding species here are summer visitors so incubation is probably in progress, reducing the amount of movement and hence fewer captures.

ajd

Birds are Quiet but Moths are Waking Up

Heysham
CES visit No 4 completed this morning. The catch was a little disappointing (11 captures only) but about average for this visit over the years.

Hut Moth Trap
After the first relatively warm, calm and muggy night, the moth catch was nearly respectable - 59 moths of 19 species.  Most notable perhaps were two Shaded Pug which are a local speciality here.

ajd

Springwatch at Heysham

No megas at Heysham in recent days but resident birds have been busy producing the goods - see the photo of the Mute Swan family at Middleton NR (thanks, Janet).

Dragonflies have taken advantage of the breaks inthe rain:

And the Gadwall has enjoyed flying around:

Yes that photo really was taken in the Heysham area despite the fact that there isn't a cloud in the sky!

Jean.

Heysham


Moths
The continuing cold spell is resulting in in poor catches still.
The Hut trap this morning revealed only the following from the preceding two nights:
Heart & Dart 10, White Ermine 1, Mottled Pug 1,  Common Pug 1, Silver ground Carpet 1, White-shouldered House Moth 1, Epiblema cynosbatella 1.
ajd