From storm to flat calm

There was hardly any breeze this morning, and the sea, that just two days ago was a brown and white tempest, was a blue mirror! Later a gentle west breeze picked up and it was quite warm in the afternoon when the sun came out.

Red Nab on late Incoming tide - brief check (PM)
Mediterranean gull - one adult  Darvic ringed with what appeared to be yellow letters on dark blue background - four characters.
Six altogether (4 2cy, one 3cy and the above Ad).

Lighthouse area around 10:00 (MD)
Just a quick check.
Nothing on outflows

Rock Pipits
A bird waiting above nest hole with food in its bill. I assumed it would take the food to the hole when I backed off, but then it was joined by a second bird begging.

It was given one portion of food

The recipient didn't look like a juvenile (to me - I  could be wrong)

It kept begging and was fed two more times

The donator, now on left, went off with an empty bill. The recipient, retained the last portion of food in its bill and flew off towards the nest hole.

My interpretation, for what it's worth, was that this was the male feeding the female, who is either
laying or sitting on a second brood of eggs or small chicks.

Middleton Nature Reserve 
Preliminary ringing report - Juvenile  Cetti’s was caught in western marsh and a reasonable selection of young and adult Warblers

Moth traps (PM)
Western marsh -  Agonopterix conterminella identity confirmed by John Girdley. Really nice catch including four species of Wainscot and 17 Double Dart with a further 6 Double Dart in central marsh trap.

 Silky Wainscot western and central marsh traps 

 Agonopterix conterminella

morning (JP) afternoon (MD)
Mute Swan - pair with 5 cygnets plus 2 adult and 2 2cy on main pond. Pair with 3 cygnets on "no swimming" pond. 1 adult on Tim Butler pond.
Coot 5 adult 2 young
Moorhen 6
Mallard 7 plus 1 with at least 9 well developed young
Tufted duck 1 male in eclipse
Little grebe 1 in summer plumage.


Dragonflies:
Black-Tailed Skimmer c5
Brown Hawker 1
Emperor several

Emerald damselfly

Butterflies:
Plenty of Gatekeeper and Small Skippers. Plus
Comma 2
Ringlet 5

Thanks Janet

Still a few bits of interest about

The wind quickly eased to almost nothing, mainly overcast with just a few light showers.

Harbour and outfalls:  0500-0730. (SC)
Little Gull  1 adult
Mediterranean Gull 1 adult
Kittiwake 6 adult + 1 2nd cy.
Sandwich Tern 4
Common Tern 2.
Gannet 2.
Fulmar 1.

South wall and Harbour (MD)
late morning:
Kittiwake - Still 3 adult and 1 2nd calendar year

 

2cy bird

Rock pipits
1 adult with 2 juveniles on Red Nab - these are not the lighthouse nesting birds.
1 adult each Ocean Edge foreshore and lighthouse area.

One of the juvenile Rock pipits

Early evening
Kittiwake still 1 adult
Mediterranean gull - some roosting with BHGs on Red Nab others in small groups on the mud.
Minimum numbers. Adult 6, 3cy 4, 2cy 2. Earlier, Kevin saw two adult feeding on beach next to wooden jetty - this is good news as this area has previously been their favoured feeding area.

3cy + 2cy on left another 2cy right

Rock pipits - adult with 2 juveniles still on Red Nab. The lone bird near lighthouse was seen taking food to the nest. Presumably feeding the female.

Rock pipit taking food to nest hole in the wall.

Kevin located this Yellow-tail moth caterpillar on his daily circuit

 Not particularly uncommon, but probably a first for this square SD35Z

The storm, reluctantly, delivers a Petrel.

Strong SW wind easing slightly during the day. Heavy showers in the morning, but afternoon onwards largely dry.

Pete(M) managed three hours sea watching early to mid morning from Heysham:
Common Tern 3 No.2 outflow, these were present, at least till mid afternoon.
Fulmar 3 - fairly quickly, then just one other sea bird in the next 2.5hrs
Storm Petrel 1 - moving slowly in before being lost from view.

Stone Jetty  0630-0930 (SC)
Gannet 5,
Fulmar 9 (Nine is more than twice the total records for this species last year!)7
Manx Shearwater 4
Common Tern 5
Arctic Tern 1
All above moving out -  Nothing from 0930-1030.

Lighthouse and outflows mid afternoon (KE and MD)
Kittiwake 2 single adult out
Common Tern 2, probably 3 singles out, plus the three on No2 outflow
Sandwich Tern at least 1 on No.2 outflow

Picture by Kevin, very dificult in today's conditions.

It's still forecast windy tomorrow, but not storm force. Hopefully there will be waifs and strays about

Terns and a turn

As forecast the SW wind blew hard all day, often accompanied with driving rain.

6:15-11:30 everything heading south past the Stone Jetty (NG)
Eider 33 (78 here on 20/6)
Great crested grebe 1
Sandwich tern 1
Arctic tern 3
Common tern 2
Little tern 1
Little gull 1 ad
Gannet 15
Fulmar 3
Manx shearwater 2
Oystercatcher 291
Knot 24
Curlew 9

At least 10 Terns Heysham outfalls, but conditions horrendous - at least two Arctic and three Common and one Little - rest not sure.  The Little and two Arctic were furthest out but the whole lot gave me the impression they didn’t want to be there as opposed to feeding.
LIttle gull 1 x2cy (PM)

Later, some of the Common did come nearer the wall to feed (MD).

Another excellent moth from Kevin's trap yesterday - Marbled White Spot.

It's the first record for Heysham, and is a moth that's been expanding its range northwards and westwards in recent years. It's now starting to appear in North Lancashire/South Cumbria. Usually a moorland species, so may have originated from Heysham Moss.

The "turn" in the heading refers to the Seatruck. It almost reached the harbour, but both the wind and the incoming tide were driving it. It must have been moving too quickly, so the captain turned it round and they sailed back out to deeper water.

It was a lot wilder than these pictures suggest, the waves do not really develop until the tide is moving in the oposite direction to the wind. The Seatruck must have waited until the tide was ebbing, it was safely berthed in the harbour when I returned at 19:00,

Complete change in the weather

Strong SW wind built up during the day. Heavy showers, but some sunshine. The wind is set to strengthen overnight and continue throughout tomorrow and Tuesday.

So far no reports of any seabirds

Middleton Nature Reserve - main pond early afternoon
Just a quick circuit between showers.
Darters - four seen in flight. It wasn't possible to confirm the species of any of them. But one flew to the middle of pond when flushed by a Reed Bunting. Too distant to follow or see colour.
Little Grebe 1 adult

Cetti's Warbler 1 - singing vigorously from a new area. The developing bushes between the SW corner of the main pond and the hedgerow before the footpath. Not heard one singing here before, possibly the "no swimming" bird extending its territory, or perhaps a new bird. Any records of further singing or calls from this area would be appreciated.

Hopefully more later.

First juvenile Med gull arrives

It started of overcast and sticky, rain later in the morning didn't freshen things up much. A fresh westerly in the afternoon plus sunny spells.
As expected in these conditions, there was no in off insect movement near the lighthouse today.

Pete (M) timed his brief visit well:
Middleton Nature Reserve - main pond
Red-Veined Darter - 1 male east centre over the pond when I got there but it moved towards the eastern shore and was chased out of sight into the SE corner.  It was not seen again in the next 30 minutes.
Banded Demoiselle 1 male headed along edge to same corner
By the end of the 30 minutes, even the Common Blue damselfly activity had decreased.

Red Nab
Mediterranean gull -   Just 7 - one was a juvenile , first this year, one adult,  two 3cy and 3 2cy.  Other adults may have anticipated a higher tide and gone straight to the Lune

This splendid moth was in Kevin's overnight trap.

Old Lady

Warmth and east breeze brings in the RVD

Very warm with east breeze all day and constant sunshine.

Middleton Nature Reserve (SR)
Ringlet 10+ seen along the grassy paths. Again, the most abundant butterfly

It was established last year that in these conditions insects fly in off the sea focused on the west facing wall next to the lighthouse. This is especially the case when the tide is out when this wall is the only direct sea to land site for many miles. 

It proved to be so today (MD). The best records being:

Red-Veined Darter 5 males

All records below from strip between waterfall and lighthouse. 

Morning - tide out

Lots of butterflies quickly moving east. Only counted on the first traverse from waterfall to lighthouse. 10:15 - 10:25.

Small White 31

Large White 3

Red Admiral 7

Small Tortoiseshell  8

Meadow Brown  8

Gatekeeper 2

When I got to Lighthouse, butterflies were coming in off at the rate of 5 per minute. Pretty much in line with the above ratio, although later they were joined by Painted Lady, but no more than 5.

I didn't see a dragonfly till 10:45, only a glimpse but it looked to be a Four-spotted Chaser.

In the next 5 minutes two Darters came in but didn't settle just kept flying east. One was red, this only have been a Red-Veined Darter, as male common not red yet. The other was yellowish, and unidentifiable.

By 11:00 the first male Red-Veined Darter started resting before continuing, no chance of duplication, when they took off again they flew inland. Saw three in total.

The last one at 11:33, when I left for lunch.

Afternoon - tide in

Returned at 1:00 - still lots coming through

Only counted for first 10 minutes, same strip as this morning

Red Admiral 38

Meadow Brown 2

Small Tortoiseshell 5

Painted Lady 3

Small White 8

Red-Veined Darter 1 male

 Black- Tailed Skimmer 1 male

At the lighthouse, only Red Admiral were coming in at the rate of 3 per minute

No further dragonflies seen.

Evening - tide out

Still lots of butterflies around but no longer moving through, they were either feeding or looking for a mate, "gangs" of Small Tortoiseshell up to 7.

18:45 10 minute count of same strip

Red Admiral 27

Small Tortoiseshell 17

Small White 6

Large White 1

Painted Lady 1

Meadow Brown 1

Nothing was coming in off and no sign of dragonflies.

Other stuff.

Rock Pipit 1

Grey Seal 1 - dozing by outflow. This was a relief as a dead seal was found earlier in the week, but seemingly not this regular.

Warmth brings out the insects

Light breezes from south then west and sunshine all day, made it very warm.

Mediterranean Gulls - Red Nab was almost covered by the time Pete and Jean got there, but still 4 adult and 2 x 2nd calendar year

Middleton Nature Reserve
Overnight moth trap (JM)
Clouded Border        x7
Drinker                      x3
Mottled Beauty         x2
Double Dart              x14
Bramble Shoot          x3
Map-winged Swift    x3
Common Swift          x1
Common Emerald     x1
Blood-vein                 x1
Barred Straw              x2
Ingrailed Clay            x4
Marbled Minor agg   x1
Obscure Wainscot      x2
Smoky Wainscot        x2
Common Wave          x1
Yellow Shell               x1
Chilo Phragmitella     x1
Eudonia Lacustrata     x1

 Obscure Wainscot

Only the second record of Blood Vein for the Hey/midd LWT 

Late morning (JP and MD)
Butterflies:
Ringlet - An agregate of 7 were seen, very unlikely to be any overlap. This made them the most abundant butterfly species this morning. But they were very active and raely resting. Another check in the afternoon failed to find any, presumably too hot.
Other butterflies: Large White, Red Admiral, Meadow Brown, Gatekeeper, Small and Large Skipper.

Dragonflies:
No sign of Red-Veined Darter today but several Common darter.

Black-Tailed Skimmer

Broad-Bodied Chaser

4-spotted Chaser

Emperor

This young Common Whitethroat was patiently waiting to be fed.

Meds and first RVD

It started off with a brisk southerly, overcast and a few showers, but by mid afternoon the breeze had shifted to the west and the sun came out.

South shore high water 13:30 - tide height 8.9m (MD)
I was a bit late getting to Red Nab (12:30), a number of gulls had already left and more were leaving all the time. Even so, I managed 12 Mediterranean gull
Adult 6
3rd calendar year 2
2nd calendar year 4 (possibly as many as 8)

 3cy on left, adult middle, 2cy on right - this bird has a ring.

2 of the 2cy Meds leaving with BHG

,

This adult was feeding between the outflows, possibly additional to the six seen on RN

Heysham Nature Reserve mid afternoon (JP)
Plenty of insects including

 Ringlet - a total of 3 located - first of the year and, I think highest number ever seen here.

 Silver Y

Six-spot Burnet

Very good pictures, particularly as Janet only had her phone camera!


Middleton Nature Reserve 18:15 (MD)
Just a short, but successful check of the main pond for Red-Veined Darter.

Just this one located. Possibly female or a teneral male. The weak flight suggested teneral. The next two days look promising. It was feared that the combination of fish, crayfish and corvid predation may have been too much for this species. But this one, at least, appears to have thwarted them - hopefully more to come.

Just a few bits and pieces

Overcast and cool for late June, but the rain largely held off.

No records so far from anyone checking the south shore gulls

Middleton Nature Reserve - late am (MD)
The wildfowl pretty much the same, Still 5 + 3 Cygnets with parents and 10 Mallard (large) chicks with mum. Still no sign of any Gadwall.
Little grebe 2 adult plus two young on "no swimming" pond.
Coot and Moorhen with chicks

Warblers:
The following heard - Grasshopper (1 reeling on western marsh - first time heard for some while), Sedge, Willow, Chiffchaff, Lesser and Common Whitethroat.
Not heard - Reed, Blackcap and Cetti's (bizarrely first time I've not heard one since they started singing in early spring)

Stock dove 2
House Martin 7 feeding out of the wind over the "no swimming" pond

Thanks for picture Justine.

A St. John’s wort feeding micro Lathronympha strigana on Middleton NR today - ref Pete(M)

These Cinnabar caterpillars on ragwort near heliport - ref Janet

A check of the beach were the doe deer tracks were on Saturday, revealed a pristine beach. No tracks of any sort, including human and canine.