Little change

The weather remained hot and sultry. With light variable breezes from SW to N.

Ocean Edge/Red Nab - a bit late in tide due to hold ups resulting from chemical spill (on road not sea) PM
Mediterranean gull 14 including 3 juvenile

Middleton Nature Reserve 
The water level on the "no swimming " pond has risen 1m since yesterday's early morning deluge.
Today no Little Grebes could be found on this pond, but an adult and a juvenile were feeding on the much shallower main pond.

Juvenile Little Grebe

Adult in summer plumage
The birds were feeding themselves,
but close  together in the shallow area near the peninsula.

Common Sandpiper 1 - did a circuit of the "no swimming" pond.
Water Rail 1 calling from central marsh
Remaining wildfowl as yesterday.

Dragonflies as yesterday too, except add 1 Black-Tailed Skimmer.

Lighthouse area
Just a quick check as the tide was starting to cover the beach next to wooden jetty, found almost nothing - no gulls on beach, no sign of any Rock Pipits and no insect movement (none was expected with the westerly breeze).
The only sign of life were a couple of Willow Warblers near the waterfall, plus the resident Linnets.

Deluge of Biblical proportions!

Overnight produced the longest thunderstorm that I have ever experienced. Sheet lightening and the almost constant rumble of thunder started 11:45. The rain didn't start till after midnight, but then both continued till 04:00, with additional bursts till 05:00. After that it cleared, the sun came out and the day was very humid, not helped by the almost negligible breeze.

Middleton Nature Reserve early am (JR. PM)
Two tree pipit, small influx whitethroat (8 ringed), five more Snipe - one flock, c35 swallow SE

Ocean Edge/Red Nab 10:00 (MD)
Just 2 Wheatear.

Middleton Nature Reserve - mid morning 
It seemed strange walking around with the constant background noise of running water, as the overnight rainwater sought out the ponds and culverts.
Mute:
Main pond - 5 adult, 1  x 2nd calendar year, 2 x 1st calendar year
No swimming pond - 2 adult, 3 x 1st calendar year
Tim Butler pond - 1 adult
Coot 5
Moorhen 6
Mallard 14 (Most comprising 10, now mature, chicks)
Gadwall 2 - first since spring, no breeding success this year
Little grebe 2

Little grebe, starting to moult to winter plumage

Butterflies included: Comma, Peacock, Red Admiral, Meadow Brown, Gatekeeper, Common Blue, Speckled Wood, Small Skipper, Small White.

Dragonflies: Common Darter, Emperor, Brown Hawker, Migrant Hawker 4, Southern Hawker 1.

Southern Hawker

Emperor ovipositoring

The floodwater made for some unusual, but attractive pictures. These are Spotted Orchids.

These were in the horse field on the road to the recycling centre

Ooops! The receding water the next day revealed the leaf pattern of these flowers - clearly not Spotted Orchid - sorry about the fake news (MD).

Best "guess" now is Purple Loosestrife (MD)

Lighthouse area - just a brief look at high water.
Rock Pipit - the juvenile bird is still around and was, at least trying, to feed itself.

Better

Brisk northerly breeze swinging both from east and later west. A few light showers and sunny spells.

Middleton Nature Reserve early morning (PM. JM)

vis mig: 

Yellow wagtail 1

Grey Wagtail 1

Tree Pipit 3

Snipe 14 plus 4 - amazing early, eventually heading SW
Swallow - 26.  

Redstart 1 female/immature seen 

Best ringing record was a Garden Warbler

Ocean Edge early morning (PM)

Mediterranean gull 32 minimum - off Ocean Edge 

Greenshank 1 in saltmarsh creek 

Lighthouse area early evening (MD)

Willow Warbler 2 in scrub near waterfall 

Rock Pipit 1 juvenile being fed near lighthouse, there is nothing to suggest that it is from the earlier nest site near lighthouse.

These 18 Cormorant came t roost on wooden jetty from north.

By 19:30 there were at least 104 on the last section of the jetty.

Clear skies continue

 Breeze still largely from the east. Clear and sunny for most of the day.

Middleton Nature Reserve early morning (PM. JR) 
Bit too clear this am- tomorrow looks better especially if early morning shower materialises.
Low double figures new birds ringed - mainly willow warbler plus a juvenile Male Sparrowhawk and two out of the three tree pipit.

Green Sandpiper best of casual sightings/hearings - prob flushed from model boat pond 06:10ish

South shore (MD)
Started 10:30 - low water. The breeze at that time was from NE
There were a few gulls on the beach next to wooden jetty, including 1 adult Mediterranean gull 
There were plenty of butterflies coming in off the sea, but the north in the breeze brought them ashore mainly along the south facing south wall and Ocean Edge foreshore. Almost all small white, the highest rate counted was 4 per minute along the foreshore at 11:00.
By 12:00 - tide still out - the breeze was ENE, resulting in more butterflies along the north side of the Power Station. There were 22 Small White between the lighthouse and the waterfall.
Another quick check on ebbing tide at 18:00 - tide out as far as No.1 outflow, found only a handful of butterflies remaining.
Other butterflies seen today, presumably after coming in off:
Red Admiral 4
Small Tortoiseshell 1
Common Blue 3

I'm not sure if this female Common Blue is faded
or just half way between the brown and blue variant (MD)

No Dragonflies seen

Rock Pipit 1 Red Nab
Ringed Plover 8 out from salt marsh
Willow Warbler 2 in brambles near lighthouse
There are large numbers of recently fledged Herring and Lesser Black-Backed gulls around. This group photographed yesterday by Kevin.

Juvenile Herring gull

Enough to maintain interest

 Early morning cloud cover quickly cleared, leaving clear skies till evening. Breeze started from east, then strengthened and shifted to the north - hot.

Middleton Nature Reserve early to mid morning (AD, MD)
A steady ringing session included:
Cetti's Warbler 1 plus one singing in central marsh
Garden Warbler 1
Common Whitethroat 9
Willow Warbler 13
Sedge Warbler 5
Reed Bunting 1

Water Rail calling from central marsh
Grey Heron 2 + 1 flying around, noisily, early on.

Dragonfly activity started early with first Common Darter at 08:10. Also, Brown Hawker and Emperor. An increase in Migrant Hawker numbers was reported later in the day.

Lighthouse area checked twice to check for insects coming in. Tide out both times (MD)
11:00 - unfortunately the breeze had shifted to north by this time. No sign of any current  or earlier movement.
19:00 wind now NE. Still no sign of any insects coming in off the sea.
Rock Pipit 1
Wheatear - at least 2 (2 seen both visits but none when Kevin checked in between)

One of this evening's Wheatears

Some pictures from Kevin:

From the overnight trap - a rather lovely Bordered Beauty.

I reckon it could give many butterflies a run for their money

a lovely pristine Brimstone feeding on Buddleia near the old anemometer.

Just an aside from this morning's visit to Middleton (MD)

Grey squirrels are regularly seen here, you normally get a glimpse of one feeding in the perimeter trees. So this one was unusual, to say the least!
It approached me along the road and I had to "shoo" it away, but it wasn't for going.

When I sat on a low wall it sat itself opposite me, no more than 3m away. It was as if it was a lost pet. But then I realised that.......he........."was, just pleased to see me"!

My wife suggested that he must need glasses!

I made my excuses, and left.

Better insect variety

 The second warmish day in a row - what a summer! Light west breeze, overcast till the evening, then sunny spells.

Middleton Nature Reserve (MD)
Water Rail 3 squealing - first since early summer

There where hardly any small birds around, until I encountered the mixed feeding flock, which is now larger than ever. Led by at least 30 Long-Tailed Tits and followed by Great, Blue and Coal Tits, plus several Willow Warbler, and probably Chiffchaff- 40 to 50 birds in total.

It would be nice to think that this Pheasant with a pink leg ring, obviously reared as a game bird, had decided the safest place to play the "game" is inside a Nature Reserve!

Butterflies included:
Small and Large White, Gatekeeper, Meadow Brown, Speckled Wood, Small Skipper, Peacock and the first of the second generation Common Blue

Common Blue

Dragonflies:
Common Darter, Brown Hawker, Emperor.

Emperor 

And the first two Migrant Hawker of the year.

Another nice moth from Kevin's trap - Four-spotted Footman

They are quite scarce in Lancashire.
This one was probably a migrant. 

Finally, Janet spotted this Lime Hawk Moth caterpillar on Heysham Nature Reserve this morning. Presumably, the blue appendage evolved to make it look intimidating.

It works!

Not quite happening

Gentle and variable breeze. Overcast all day, but still very warm.

Middleton Nature Reserve early am (from PM)

Vis mig

Tree pipit 1

Grey Wagtail 2

Pied Wagtail 4

Tree Sparrow 1

Swift 3. NO Swallows seen or heard in five hours and not a lot of grounded stuff 

Best ringing records were two Lesser whitethroat 

Lighthouse area (MD)

10:30- tide out. The breeze at this time was very slight, but from the east, there were just a few butterflies drifting in.

Small White 3

Gatekeeper 1

Meadow Brown 1

There wasn't a single gull or wader on the beach next to jetty. They obviously "know" when the sand mason worms are not accessible. I'm plotting Meds numbers against moon phases on a spreadsheet, and I still can't work it out!

Another quIck check at 13:00, breeze now from south and tide in - no insect movement

Rock Pipit 1

Middleton Nature Reserve mid afternoon (MD)

It was 22C without any sun. 

There were lots of darters, many ovipositoring. I didn't see any dragonflies settle, but pretty sure all the darters were Common. 

Male Common Darter

The humid weather inevitably brought out the flying ants and the gulls amassed. 

There were Swallows and Swifts feeding above them.

The overcast and warm weather also seemed to make the moths active, there were several Shaded Broad-bar and Common Wave seen on Middleton. And this Large Yellow Underwing on Moneyclose Lane - from Janet

Antisocial Rock Pipits

The strong overnight southerly winds quickly eased. Heavy and prolonged showers.

Again, just my check of the south shore, so far (MD)

11:15 Two hours before high water

Mediterranean gull - just one juvenile feeding on No.2 outflow. No sign of any on Red Nab.

Common Tern 1 adult on No1 outflow.

Rock pipits

They appeared to be everywhere today, but what was happening was that two birds must have moved from their breeding area and were not being tolerated in the regular bird's territories. First there were three squabbling between the outflows, two (presumably the intruders) moved towards Red Nab and the other returned towards the jetty area.

Unfortunately they were not greeted kindly at Red Nab, at one point there were five birds bickering.

This one was being driven....

.......up the wall.......

and round the bend!

The two were moved on to Ocean Edge foreshore, there were then three birds. The two eventually left for the east side of the saltmarsh, possibly where they came from.

So an absolute minimum of six birds involved, almost certainly seven.

Not much so far

Winds building all day starting SSE and ending warmer from SW. rain showers all day.

So far the only records are from my look at the south shore in the morning on flooding tide (MD)

Mediterranean gull - just one on the beach near jetty. There seemed to be plenty on Red Nab, but I could only confirm 10 through the rain.

Rock pipit 4 - 1 near waterfall, 1 on Red Nab, 2 on sea wall may have been movement.

Wheatear 1 - flew straight through along foreshore

Whimbrel 1

Ringing endorsement

Mainly sunny in the morning, but the WNW breeze was quite cool. 

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Early morning ringing (JM, AD)

A productive 4 1/2 hour ringing session this morning produced a varied mixture of migrant and some local species. Over 50 captures included a good selection of warblers including Sedge, Willow, Reed and Garden, plus Common Whitethroat, Lesser Whitethroat and Blackcap.

The only overhead movement noted were two Swifts flying south at around 09.30. No Swallows were seen.

Moth traps set overnight on the east and west sides also produced decent catches.

More detail to follow.

Some nice cumulus clouds were forming early this morning. Their tops were being blown off as they rose into a faster moving airstream 

Mid morning (MD)

It was warm in the sun, so the plan was to check for dragonflies, unfortunately cloud cover arrived and the cool breeze reduced insect activity. Only Emperor 3 and Common Darter 2 seen.

I came across a large mixed feeding flock of tits and warblers. At least 40+ made up of adult and immature Long-tailed Tit and Blue Tit, adult Coal Tit plus Willow Warbler and Chiffchaff. A flock like this is not uncommon on the Reserve, but what made it interesting was that all three birds photographed with legs visible were ringed. Most legs, indeed birds, are obscured by the foliage at this time of year but the implication is that a large proportion of this flock were probably ringed (hence the ringing endorsement).

Juvenile LTT with ring. Other ringed birds were juvenile Blue Tit and a Chiffchaff

Lighthouse area - 15:30 as tide was exposing beach next to wooden jetty (MD)

Mediterranean gull- none turned up to feed on the beach. But this ringed bird was flying out from harbour mouth.

Wheatear 1