Dusky Warbler!

Light NE breeze, mainly sunny in the morning, but largely overcast all afternoon.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Report from Alan:

I set nets in the only two accessible rides from 06.30 this morning - the water levels are very high currently. It was chilly with a very heavy dew at first making the guy cords, poles and nets tricky to handle. The sky cleared around 09.00 and a light NE breeze got up.

A modest catch of 20 birds consisted of :

Redwing - 8 (my main target species)

Dusky Warbler 1. (This took some time to confirm, sorry it was missed from original post (MD))

Wren - 4

Robin, Goldcrest, Blue Tit, Tree Sparrow, Lesser Redpoll - 1 of each

Long-tailed Tit, Cetti's Warbler - 1 retrap of each

2 groups of 6 further Redwing appeared from the south and dropped into the northern part of the reserve.

6 Jackdaws south

Little else noted.

Red Nab to saltmarsh area - high water 09:30 (MD)

There were at least 60 birds feeding on the mustard seeds this morning, mainly Greenfinch, but at least 3 House Sparrow and 5 Goldfinch. The Goldfinch must have just been drawn in by the feeding frenzy, I doubt the large seeds would suit them, but they were eating the buds off the adjacent willow, as were some of the Greenfinch and Sparrows.

These are the buds they were eating,
one gone but one remaining - I bet it's gone now.

Wigeon 135

Rock Pipit 2 on Red Nab

Song Thrush 1

Common Snipe 3

Both the above on the saltmarsh, as was the regular Kestrel, today it had caught a small rodent.

Kestrel with small rodent 

Redshank 50+

Some of the Redshank resting on the high rocks on the east side of saltmarsh 

There were a number of walkers just south of here, so the shore/grounded birds that I'd hoped to see were long gone. But a dark distant blob on the sea was intriguing. As it drifted closer I decided it could only be debris or a seal, but closer still revealed a profile, if it was a seal, not a grey one, but perhaps a Common.

By now the tide had turned and the blob drifted back out again, never once changing its profile. But I wasn't happy, it was floating too light in the water for a seal. I then remembered an early clip I'd taken, when it appeared to move. When I zoomed in to that clip it was clearly a bird, that had only so briefly revealed itself. It must have been in my view for over 10 minutes, but apart from these few seconds kept its head tightly tucked in.

 

This is just an enlarged image from the above clip.
Female or immature Common Scoter

Heysham Nature Reserve 

I was thinking of checking Middleton this afternoon, but Pete advised that there were a lot of Siberian Chiffchaff being seen around the country and that Heysham would provide a better chance. It's a shorter walk and my legs were already feeling their age, so Heysham it was. And a very pleasant walk it proved to be.

Chiffchaff 2 - one by itself in the NE corner plus at least one with mobile mixed tit flock near the dipping pond.

Blackcap 1 male - also with the mixed tit flock

Male Blackcap

Jay 1

Thrushes sp 20+ - a flock passed west overhead, unfortunately I was below trees and only managed glimpses between the branches.

Fungi

I was going to start this section by declaring that I am no expert on fungi (MD). Then realised that would have been a woeful exaggeration, I know almost nothing about fungi, other than there were plenty of quite distinctive ones around today. I was going to try and identify them, but thought anyone who might be interested would either know better than me anyway or might want to go and try and identify them for themselves.

There is help, there are several notices around the reserve. This is one of them:

These first four shots were just in the short grass above the office.

All the above were reasonably small fungi, but these in the Alder copse were large.

Kingfisher adds a splash of colour

Calm early on before a west breeze developed. Overcast with a few sunny spells and the odd light shower in the morning. The afternoon was mainly sunny.

South shore - high water 09:00 

I had a morning walk (MD)

Wigeon 102

Rock Pipit 2 on Red Nab

Greenfinch 40+ Yesterday, there were 9 searching for fallen wild mustard seeds in the very strong wind. Today there were over 40, some removing the seeds from the seed pods on the plants others foraging for fallen seeds.

These are the seed pods, it is one of the wild mustards, possibly Black
If you know please let me know (MD)

Kingfisher 1 - it was flying around Red Nab and resting on rocks when I started at high water.

Kingfisher flying around Red Nab at high water

Presumably displaced from its territory by the swollen waters, and so also presumably hungry, I expected it to hang around. There are fish to be found in Red Nab's stream and rock pools, and so it proved to be. On my return, it was fishing in the freshwater stream from the culvert below the sea wall. I only watched it for a few minutes, but it caught one small fish in that time, looked like a Common Goby. Small as its catch was, it was coveted by a Black-Headed gull, which tried to pinch it.

As I was leaving it was back on the same rock, but the tide was leaving Red Nab now and this stream will soon be too fresh for sea fish. It will have to turn its attention to the rock pools, or wait till the tide returns.

Great Crested Grebe 1 flew north

Cormorant - these were fishing in the gap between the wooden jetty and sea wall, just after the tide had turned.

Kevin had his walk at lunchtime, by that time there were only 20 Greenfinch feeding. I suppose there are only so many peppercorns a Greenfinch can eat!

But the Kingfisher was still around and still favouring the same rock by the freshwater stream.

Kingfisher waiting for the tide, and the fish, to come back.

Grey Wagtail 2 along the sea wall.

Heysham skear - low water16:00

No sign of the Brent geese this visit

Great Crested Grebe 7

Red-breasted Merganser none seen, but they tend to favour feeding on the flood tide.

Eider c60

Little Egret 14

Knot 800+

Some of the Knot with Heysham Head in the background 

Oystercatcher, Curlew, Turnstone and Ringed Plover were all, similar to yesterday, but there were hardly any Redshank. The freshwater was still running over the shore, but not a single bird feeding there (see yesterday's post for comparison). I suppose when the freshwater has flushed whatever it was flushing yesterday, it takes a while for things to return.

Similarly with the freshwater coming out of the surface water drain. It obviously wasn't as forceful as yesterday, but there would still have been big volumes going into the sea, but no gulls today, just a couple of feeding Great Crested grebe (not counted in the 7 above). I went for a closer look, not only was there no activity, it looks like there is no hinged end cap either. The shot below is when the tide would have been a similar height to yesterday's clip, although today the tide was still ebbing. There is a grill over the end of the pipe, possibly a cap behind as well, it's hard to imagine yesterday's spashback was just the waves reacting with the emerging fresh. I'll have a proper look at low water on a spring tide, but that will have to wait till next summer now, all the spring tide low waters will be in the dark over winter.

The end of the surface water drain at the same height in the tide as yesterday's turmoil 

Perhaps no "stars" today, but at least some celebrities!

The strong overnight westerlies eased slightly by morning but continued to be strong all day. Heavy overnight rain continued till lunchtime. Only showers in the afternoon with sunny periods.

South Shore

I donned waterproofs for a walk along the wall just after high water (MD)

No Mediterranean gulls seen

Wigeon c90

Lapwing 6

Rock Pipit 1 on Red Nab

Thrush sp 2 over Power Station then south

Greenfinch 9 between Red Nab and foreshore. Fortunately the rain had stopped momentarily and I managed this clip of them feeding. They are finding large seeds, probably mustard, trapped in the crevices of the rough concrete.

Pete checked the lunchtime ferry coming in. He didn't find the "star" he was aiming for, but not bad.

Shag 1 1st calendar year flushed out of the harbour by the dredger.

Kittiwake 1 adult plus 1 juvenile out

Guillemot 1

Heysham skear low water 15:00 (MD)

As I was walking out, I noticed that a few pockets of sea lettuce had grown in the past month. I decided that there was enough to retain any visiting Brent, but probably not enough to entice them back. The picture below is just about as "lush" as it gets, nothing compared to last autumn's crop.

New growth sea lettuce 

14:15. I'd just reached the westernmost exposed section of the skear when 8 Pale Bellied Brent geese arrived from the west.

Pale-bellied Brent geese coming in to land by the skear

They flew directly to the area where the sea lettuce was most abundant last year, they found some there, but soon realised that there was more further up the beach, and they moved to the area in the SE corner of the skear that I had photographed earlier.

They fed here for almost an hour before flying to the NE corner just after high water. There is little natural weed there on this height tide, but today's conditions would have accumulated a lot of broken weed there. This is just a location shot of the NE skear corner, you can see the end of the Stone Jetty behind, but it is much further away than it looks.

Pale-bellied Brent Geese on the water in the NE corner of skear.

All the Brent looked adult and none were ringed. The question is will they return tomorrow? Possibly, the weather is more favourable, but the tide a little higher, I for one will be having a look.

Oystercatcher c750

Curlew 35+

Turnstone 20+

Ringed Plover 14

Knot 130

Redshank 250+ There was an obvious increase in numbers, initially on the receding water line, but flock after flock flew past me to feed further inshore. This is some of them feeding in what is basically just fresh surface water running down to the sea. They are obviously finding lots to eat, I can only think that the fresh water is driving saline dependent invertebrates out from the mud.

I like this next clip, probably because it's something I haven't seen before. The green tower between the skear and the Stone Jetty marks the end of a large surface water drain. There must be a hinged end cap to allow water out, but preventing surges from the sea passing up the pipe. The volume of fresh water coming out today was obviously under great pressure, but the tide must have been crashing waves against the end cap causing the fresh to come out in bursts. In a few minutes it was all over, as the incoming tide will have become higher than the end cap, so no more crashing waves. I was going to inspect this today, but it is a lot further away than it looks and even further to avoid disturbing the Brent. I'll have a look tomorrow, there won't  be the same back pressure effect as today as the wind will be lighter. But there will still be plenty of fresh coming through, and that is why the gulls were there, it must be providing some sort of feeding opportunity, perhaps something interesting will also be taking advantage.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Just a quick check of the two main ponds on my way home

Main pond:

Mute 2 adult plus 9 cygnet 

Coot 1

Moorhen 4

Mallard 1 

No Swimming pond - this is now 50cm above it's normal height (regulated by pumps to draw off excess water - presumably activated by a very basic level sensor).

Gadwall 1 male

Moorhen 2

Little grebe 2

Starlings top a, not so, star studded bill!

A strong SSE wind. This morning's forecast said showers, only technically correct. What we had was steady rain interspersed with some showers of extremely heavy rain. By late morning the showers had become more traditional and continued for the rest of the day with short periods of sunshine.

I got a good soaking twice! (MD)

I had planned to check the south shore this morning, but thought I would look at the two main ponds at Middleton first "while I was still dry".

Nothing on the main pond except.

Mute 2 adult + 9 cygnets

Mallard 5

Coot 1

In the 200m round trip to check the "no swimming" pond, the heavens opened, by the time I'd got back to my car, there was nothing for it but to head home and get dry. Was the trip worth it? Only in the sense of better understanding the vagaries of the wildfowl here, there was nothing on the pond! 

The water level was up about 10cm, perhaps that is enough to prevent the dabbling ducks reaching the weed.

After lunch the sun was shining so I tried the skear as it moved to low water. But by the time I got to the skear there was a big black cloud overhead. The sun was shining all around the bay, but the black cloud followed me around like a pet camel (I say camel as it was constantly spitting at me). 

Starlings c70, you do sometimes get small groups of local Starlings on the skear edge, they come for broken barnacle shells for their crop. But these were at the water's edge on the south side, then flew over to the water's edge on the north side of the skear. So I suspect these were off passage migrants (Pete advises that they were on the move inland today).

Eider 6

Red-Breasted Merganser 8

Little Egret 11

Knot three small groups totalling 95

Dunlin 6

Redshank 100+

Oystercatcher c1,000

Turnstone c30

Curlew c40

Ringed Plover 16

Cormorant - this one was snorkelling, this sort of feeding behaviour I normally associate with Mergansers looking for crabs, but I can't recall ever seeing a cormorant with a crab. More likely looking for Flounders, which can come in very close when the tide is slack. I watched it like this for a few minutes, but didn't see it catch anything.

After this my pet cloud got fed up of playing games, and dropped all of its contents on to me (well, that's what it felt like!). Time for home again. More of the same forecast for tomorrow but with strong westerlies.

It, at least, tried to be a decent day!

Very heavy rain started c05:00 and continued to mid morning. After that just a few showers with sunny spells. The wind mainly WSW and quite fresh.

I only had time for an afternoon stroll around the inner skear (the only part of the skear exposed on these neap tides) this afternoon (MD). It felt like something was going to happen......and it almost did!

There was plenty of stuff heading south, but I only managed relatively common stuff.

A distant flock of 10 large "white" birds turned out to be Shelduck.

There were several low flying lines of small "white" looking waders. I think the whiteness was just an effect of the, then bright, sun, and size is difficult at range. Probably Knot or Dunlin.

This flock of 13 birds arriving quickly from the north initially looked promising.......

.......only to turn out to be Wigeon. Nevertheless, they are not seen regularly on the north side.

At 13:30 something lifted all the waders and gulls that had been just south of the Stone Jetty, I searched the skies, but couldn't see anything, but I was expecting it to come south towards me. But everything settled down, and the gulls and waders near the skear didn't react. So whatever spooked the birds near the jetty must have flown east overland. This is just a sense of the commotion when everything is lifted.

There were more Knot around than of late at least 50. Watch the bird on the right, it is teasing out small seed mussels and swallowing them whole. All of today's Knot were feeding this way.

This is just a still from the above clip, you can see the mussel being swallowed whole.

Other waders included, Oystercatcher, Redshank, Turnstone, Curlew and 1 Dunlin.

Mediterranean gull 1 adult

Great Crested Grebe 1

Red-breasted Merganser 2 (1 male)

Kevin sent this nice shot of a regular juvenile Sparrowhawk in his garden, within the recording area.

My garden Sparrowhawk is getting wise. It has worked out that it can hide in the rose bush next to my feeders. Luckily for the visitors it regularly gets disturbed by passers-by.

A bit of selection, but nothing exciting

South wind alternating from just east to just west. Long dry spells with some sunshine, but showers in between some quite heavy, luckily easy to see them approaching from the south side.

South Shore late morning.

No Mediterranean gulls seen today

Wigeon 75

Shelduck 6 south

Pink-Footed goose 79 south 11:45 - a bit early for returning to roost, but they were quite low.

Some of today's Pinkfoot 

Common Snipe 8 on saltmarsh 

Linnet none seen again, it is almost a week since the last sighting here, the Samphire must be exhausted (as in run out, not worn out!).

Greenfinch 3 seen on saltmarsh, foreshore and Red Nab, possibly all same birds, but suspect at least two lots.

Rock Pipits minimum 4, probably 5, possibly 6 - 2 on foreshore, 1 on Red Nab, 1 near waterfall and 1 near No.1 outflow possibly same bird, another on sea wall near No.2 outflow may have been additional.

Cormorant - there were three feeding at the waterfall, three more at the bottom of the upstand, with at least one looking like it had already fed. Three more at the top of the upstand, looking like they were waiting their turn.

One first calendar year and two adult Cormorant near the harbour waterfall 

Peregrine Falcon 2 hanging on the updraft above the Power Station 

Peregrine Falcons

The sun brought the Common Darters out, I counted 8 between the Nature Park pond and the small anemometer. I think the latest record we have here is 18/11, so they have to hang on for another 3 weeks!

Male Common Darter

Heysham Nature Reserve 

I just did a 20 minute circuit at 16:00 (MD).

Didn't manage to locate the Green Woodpecker, but there was plenty going on, including 

Sparrowhawk hunting 

Goldcrest at least 1

Bullfinch 5 - this morning, I was talking with Kevin about symbiosis in nature, but Bullfinch don't seem to have read the script. Earlier in the year I showed them feeding on unopened Blackthorn flower buds. Today they were feeding on Hawthorn berries. Hawthorn berries have evolved so that the birds eat the fruit, then later deposit the seeds in a potentially new habitat, with a nice dollop of fertiliser. But the Bullfinch were removing the seed from the fruit and just eating the seed, presumably they can digest the seeds, perhaps some get through unscathed.

The rain eases, and actually something to report! (Albeit not much)

South wind all day, some showers, but also plenty of gaps in the rain.

Middleton Nature Reserve mid morning (MD)

The initial objective was to remove a rope that was entangled around one of the cygnet's legs, thanks to Richard, Janet and Phil for turning up. All the mute came quickly to the water's edge to feed, but we couldn't tempt them out. But close up views of 18 cygnet legs eventually confirmed that the rope was no longer entangled. The reluctance of the, normally bold, mute to come out of the water, possibly suggesting that someone had already done this earlier to capture and free the entangled bird. Anyway, all 9 plus the 2 adult were fine.

Gadwall 8

Mallard 6

Little grebe 1 (first sighting for a few visits)

No Coot seen

Moorhen 8

Water Rail 3 at least

Redwing 15 in small groups (3,5,3 & 4) milling around

Cetti's warbler 1 - Tim Butler pond male singing

Goldcrest 1

South shore mid afternoon 

Mediterranean gull 2 adult on Red Nab - both on this clip with Black-Headed gulls plus feeding Wigeon.

Wigeon 83

Rock Pipit 2 - one on Red Nab, one on sea wall near No.1 outflow

Pintail 5 out

Distant Pintail through the rain

Shelduck 5 out, just behind the Pintail 

This Herring gull has a full crop!

Good weather for foxes!

 The wind underwhelmed, it blew hard during the night and pretty hard during the day, but there was only a bit of west in it, SSW at best. The rain on the other had didn't disappoint, it lashed it down all day.

I just managed a couple of short visits to the south shore (MD). Nothing seen on the sea and little inshore.

Just the normal Oystercatcher, Curlew and Redshank. 

Wigeon c40

There were plenty of Black-Headed gulls on No.2 outflow, but none on Red Nab, perhaps related to the following.

Foxes are generally hated by farmers. If one gets into a chicken run, it doesn't kill one and take it off, it tries to kill all the chickens. The commotion generally stirs the farm dogs and the farmer, so the fox is invariably scared off leaving a run full of dead chickens. This seems wanton, but the fox's instinct is to kill as much as it can, while it can, before taking it's kills somewhere to stash,  till it or it's family can eat it. This is the same instinct that drives a pet dog to burry excess food for a later time. In nature chickens aren't corralled, so most would have time to escape. But even in the wild there are sometimes opportunities to make multiple kills, and last night was one of them.

There were two headless Black-Headed gulls in the lee of the foreshore, this is classic fox kill. The severe wind and rain last night must have seen the gulls roosting here. Why they didn't all fly off when one was killed I don't know, perhaps they did and then returned. There were likely more than the two gulls killed, once the spree was over, the fox would have set about taking the gulls away to stash somewhere, only stopping when it felt unsafe, probably when I turned up at first light. It would have returned later or this evening for the remaining two gulls, nothing will be wasted.

A further dead Herring gull on Red Nab might have been coincidental, it was too far out to inspect for injuries.

The only other record I have for today is Pink-Footed goose, decent size low flock south, just after dark.

Not much today, but the SW wind is increasing.

The SW wind freshened all day and is forecast to get very strong overnight, unfortunately easing a bit by morning. The rain isn't looking promising for tomorrow though! More or less dry today after a wet start.

South Shore

Mediterranean gull - just a 2nd calendar year bird seen flying towards Red Nab on the rising tide

Lots of gulls on No.2 outflow, but all Black-Headed

Wigeon 93 were in the channel next to No.2 outflow. Later, these 60 were just out from the saltmarsh.

Heysham Head - high water 15:00

I didn't relocate the Stonechat, but it was very windy by that time.

Rock Pipit 1

There were 6 Greenfinch and 10 Turnstone feeding on the tideline.

Two of the Turnstone with three Greenfinch in the background 

The Greenfinch were a bit flighty, but the Turnstone ignored me!

Finally, the rock balancer has been busy again. These artworks are by nature ephemeral, but the tides are waning at the moment and this one was just beyond this afternoon's high water line. So it should be around for a week, if it holds out against tonight's strong winds. I thought this clip with the rough sea behind it, is a nice way of viewing it (MD).

Today was about dodging the showers.......unsuccessfully!

WSW winds plenty of sunshine, but some very heavy and localised showers. 

Heysham skear - low water 09:00 (MD)

The sun was shining and barely a cloud in the sky when I set off, so didn't bother with my waterproofs (big mistake!).

Little Egret 11

Eider 4

Knot 18 (plus the regular Oystercatcher, Curlew, Redshank and Turnstone)

Great Crested Grebe 2

Red-breasted Merganser 14 - I took a couple of in flight shots for comparison with yesterday's Goosander.

Red-breasted Mergansers

I'd reached the point on the skear furthest from my car, the sun was still shining, but the heavens opened! 

It had stopped when I got back to my car, so I thought I'd check Ocean Edge foreshore to see if the downpour had grounded anything, but when I got there I wasn't sure that it had even rained there.

Anyway:

Rock Pipit 3

Greenfinch 3

Kestrel 1

Mediterranean gulls 2 - 1 adult plus 1 2nd calendar year resting on mud.

Heysham Head - high water 14:30

A shower had just finished when I set off, this time in full waterproofs. This proved to be another mistake, albeit a fortuitous one!

It was a very pleasant walk around the head, the sun shone all the time. Unfortunately I'd seen nothing, and I was getting very hot. I'd just checked the pebble beach below the high cliffs and couldn't even find the normally regular Rock Pipit here. The tide was in, the only way off was up a steep incline, so I decided to strip off my waterproofs and pullover first. Then, just as I was setting off I heard the Rock Pipit, it was agitated, another quick look around revealed why, a Stonechat on its patch. I'd have missed them both if I hadn't stopped to remove excess clothing.

Greenfinch 3

Rock Pipit 1. 

Stonechat 1 male. It was quite mobile feeding at the top, middle and bottom of the cliff face. I don't know if it had just come in or if I'd missed it first check. I might have another look tomorrow to see if it is still around.

Male Stonechat 

This from Kevin:

A Pink-footed Goose on Ocean Edge. I think it must have been sickly or injured because it didn't fly away. It looked like someone may have picked it up later and put it in the boot of their car. Hopefully taking it to a wildlife rescue place.