Lesser Whitethroat and Reed Warbler singing, plus the insects start to get interesting

Light NW breeze mainly sunny.

Early morning from Pete:

Sandwich Tern 35 shipping lane south of harbour mainly on distant buoys

Lesser Whitethroat 2 ringed plus another singing at Heysham Nature Reserve 

Later

Reed Warbler also singing in Heysham Nature Reserve - ref Reuben 

Reports today suggesting that the Ring Ouzel was still around was the result of a report from yesterday ending up on on the local group WhatsApp today. 

I had a walk along the rising waterline out from the north sea wall (MD).

Only 4 Sandwich Terns around the inshore buoys.

Whimbrel 1 - this clip shows most of the defining features of a Whimbrel, including its distinctive call.

Middleton Nature Reserve (MD)

A very pleasant afternoon stroll around the eastern half of the reserve.

Greylag goose 3

Greylag geese

Mute Swan 2 breeding pair plus a single adult (possibly with a mate on hidden nest).

Coot 5

Moorhen 2

Gadwall 2

Mallard 3

Little grebe 2 feeding birds. They look particularly smart at this time of year.

Warblers:

Several of each, Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff and Blackcap.

Cetti's Warbler 2 (no swimming pond and central marsh)

Common Whitethroat 1

Lesser Whitethroat 3

Insects

Plenty of butterflies this afternoon, mainly 

Orange Tip 31 (4 female)

Plenty of males to go round, but "go around" was all this male did!

Speckled Wood 7

Peacock 7

Comma 2

Common Blue 1

First Damselfly of the year - Large Red
Ignore the name it was diminutive and very difficult to get a decent shot

Ring Ouzel

Very heavy overnight rain stopped quite early and the sun came out after lunch. Mainly light west winds.

Seawatch report from Pete:

Light morph skua in gaining height at quite a range this am but could only have been Arctic on size and structure.  

Four summer plumage  Red throated Diver out soon afterwards then nothing at all for next hour or so except a Golden Plover flying out 

Tim had a walk along the south wall

Sandwich Tern 3 together flew past the roundhead 

Goldcrest 2 near the newt pond 

Ring Ouzel 1 female in the horse paddocks at Knowlys Rd. It was just opposite the children's play area. located at 12:30 by Pete Crooks.

I was busy today (MD), and so had been Alan Physick. Coincidentally it was almost 17:00 before we both turned up to try and relocate. Alan spotted it first, still in line with the play area, but it kept disappearing below dips and behind bushes. It eventually showed well enough for me to manage this clip. Sorry about the background noise, but we were on the busy track and the play area was full.

Female Ring Ouzel

It was still in the same area at 20:00 ref Angela

Six warbler species singing

Light early east breeze freshened slightly and moved more SE. High cloud and hazy sun. At 18:30 the wind suddenly turned round to the SW bringing in heavy cloud for the anticipated overnight rain.

Heysham Nature Reserve 

Ringing report from Alan:

Ringing this morning:

We set four nets at Heysham NR by 06.30 this morning. Although the wind was much lighter than forecast the sky was open and grounded night migrants were not expected in numbers. However, this favoured passage Redpolls and a decent total of 22 was caught, including another one ringed elsewhere.

A Chiffchaff wearing a French ring was trapped and processed. 

Birds trapped and ringed were:

Robin 2

Blackcap 3

Chiffchaff 2 plus one retrap plus one ringed elsewhere 

Blue Tit 1 plus one retrap

Chaffinch 1 retrap

Greenfinch 1 retrap

Goldfinch 1

Lesser Redpoll 21 plus one ringed elsewhere 

Pete Crooks paid a visit this morning, this is his report posted on the Lancaster & District BW Site (see side bar for links to the site):

Six species of singing warbler: Cetti’s, Willow, Sedge, Common Whitethroat, Chiffchaff and Blackcap, but no Lesser Whitethroat or Grasshopper Warbler
4 Gadwall

Heysham North Harbour Wall (7.25 – 10.10 am)

The ‘highlights’ of a sea-watch on the early rising tide comprised

1 Razorbill

1 Guillemot

2 distant unidentified auks

6 Sandwich Tern

1 Whimbrel

A very distant possible dark morph Arctic Skua was mobbed by an immature gull, but disappeared into the offshore haze.

A trickle of passerine ‘vis mig’ included 

3 Tree Pipit (a single group at 7.30 am)

17 Linnet

8 Pied Wagtail

5 Meadow Pipit

3 Goldfinch

2 Redpoll

2 Swallow

3 Carrion Crow.

2 Rock Pipit at Near Naze

I walked the waterline at the same time as Pete was checking from the wall, but I only managed the Sandwich Terns. The only overhead passage was a single Pied Wagtail . I did manage this clip of a grey seal, it is just finishing off a reasonable sized Bass (MD)

Kevin also checked a bit later and took this shot of an Eider pair, you don't often see the female plumage as clearly as this.

Pair of Eider out from the north sea wall

There were two geese species using the main pond at Middleton, before it became too busy. Janet took these shots.

Canada goose

Greylag geese

Also from Janet, 

2 Buzzard soaring high above Kingsway

Finally, this splendid moth from Kevin's overnight moth trap

a lovely Purple Thorn in the moth trap. Not particularly rare, but very attractive.

First Whitethroat singing

The very light breeze and high cloud continues. Plenty of sunshine.

Seawatch report from Pete:

Totally dead under this decaying weather front

2 Sandwich Tern 

316 Eider

8 Red-breasted Merganser

4 Great Crested Grebe 

2 Canada geese on sandbank

small flock Pink-Footed goose north  

South shore towards high water (MD)

Linnet were moving through 18 in several small groups, plus 2 regulars near lighthouse 

Willow Warbler on Ocean Edge foreshore rocks - likely just arrived

Rock Pipit 3

Shag 1 immature sleeping on the wooden jetty

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Common Whitethroat singing (first of year) was one of the records from a visiting LDBWS party.

Heysham skear - low water 18:50

Eider, Great Crested Grebe and Red-breasted Merganser - no more than Pete's report earlier

Oystercatcher c500 but probably more on outer skear

Curlew 2

Redshank 100+

Turnstone 100+

Knot small flock of c60. Many now turning to summer plumage.

Knot 

I managed to "rescue" another fish. This one was just caught out by the tide quickly draining the skear pools. Not quite as impressive size wise as yesterday's dogfish but probably not species commonly known. 

Sea Scorpion (probably long spined)

I returned it, still alive, to a stable pool.

Woodlark

Very light breeze sometimes difficult to discern directions, but mainly southerly and definitely ended up a little  fresher from the west. High cloud with occasional sunshine 

Morning report from Pete:

Low tide channel 0650:  

326 Eider

16 Red-breasted Merganser 

3 Great Crested Grebe  

19 pale bellied Brent reappeared on the routine of feeding in Heysham village bay at 0700 then moving to Red Nab about 0900.  

Quiet on the sea 0700-0900 with just an:

Arctic Skua at 0813 

14 RTDiver (flocks of 7:3:4)

32 Common scoter

Razorbill/Guillemot 1 distant

1 Whimbrel (first record this year)

Jean had

WOODLARK flying high to the north calling over Heysham Nature Reserve  0800hrs (only the second record for the observatory)

little else on vis other than a single Tree pipit  - Meadow Pipit trickle and the odd Lesser Redpoll

Ringing report from Jean:

Not too many new birds ringed today:

Greenfinch 4 

Chaffinch 1

Lesser Redpoll 1

Dunnock 1

But a couple of retraps were of interest:

An "ancient" (in bird terms) male Chaffinch that was 6 years old. Most only live for 3 years but the longevity record is 13. 

A Greenfinch that was ringed as an adult on Middleton NR last year also in April. Is it a passage bird? Or a breeding bird? We'll have to see if it is caught again later in the year.

The only other retrap was a Chiffchaff which is probably breeding on the reserve.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Angela reported that the Mallard now has only the two ducklings.

This conspicuous loss of young birds always seems sad, but it's not
inevitable, last year a female mallard on this pond, managed to
guide all 12 of her ducklings to adulthood.

This shot is actually from yesterday, Phoebe Russell managed to spot this common frog. There is always something to see if you look closely.

Common Frog, hiding in the grass.

Red Nab at high water (MD)

Just a very brief look, Red Nab was completely covered by the tide. No ducks or geese, then

Pale-bellied Brent c40 appeared from the south. 19 (this morning's birds) settled on the sea just out from Red Nab, but the rest continued north into the bay. After a minute the 19 took flight and followed them. There was no sign of any Brent in the evening check of the skear.

Wheatear 3

Heysham skear - low water 18:20 (MD)

Eider, Great Crested Grebe and Red-breasted Merganser see Pete's report

Little Egret 10

Sandwich Tern 2 feeding together

No Knot seen

Oystercatcher c500

Turnstone c100

Dunlin 1

Curlew 4 feeding, plus this flock of 60 that flew from the south side over the skear and continued north into the bay

Finally, how lucky is this fish? It's a Lesser Spotted Dogfish, a type of small shark. It's day didn't start well, it was hooked on this angler's rig, unfortunately the second hook was snagged resulting in the rig snapping from the reel line. It would have been a dinghy angler and they would have returned this fish if the line hadn't snapped. The first bit of luck was that the small pool that it could reach was just deep enough to keep it alive while the tide was out.

Lesser Spotted Dogfish caught on a broken rig, survived in a pool just deep enough

The tide was coming in quickly, if I'd had passed a couple of minutes later I would have missed it. Even so  it was lucky that I found it. They have skin like tough leather and it was "cleanly" hooked at the edge of its mouth. I unhooked it (took the hooks and line home) and placed it in the next pool that was already filling with the tide.

It was going to be fine, a very lucky fish. But the crab that it will probably have for supper, not so lucky!

Glaucous Gull

Very light breeze, variable at times but mainly westish. High cloud with sunny spells.

Seawatch report from Pete:

Sea 0715 to 0950:

2cy Glaucous Gull NNW 0742

2 dark morph Arctic Skua in at 0753

30ish blogging Sandwich Tern

17 Common Scoter out

8 Red throated diver out (7 in summer plumage)

Pink-Footed goose 300 NW 07:30

Heysham Nature Reserve 

Janet had a walk around:

Green Woodpecker 1 yaffling from the wooded area just south of the bottom car park

First Speckled Woods this year

Janet could only locate three Mallard ducklings today

Kevin Singleton also visited today, his pictures may explain what happened to the other three ducklings.

Duckling.........

........Great Black-Backed Gull. In Kevin's words "a huge brute"

South Shore (MD, KE)

Wheatear 8 (6 on foreshore plus 2 near lighthouse)

Wheatear on the sea wall near lighthouse 

Linnet 2 near lighthouse, they bred here last year.

Rock Pipit 4 (1 on Red Nab, breeding pair plus what appeared to be the one legged bird near lighthouse)

Kevin Eaves took this shot of one of the pair.

Rock Pipit

Nature Park

Chiffchaff 2 singing 

Blackcap 3 singing

Kevin went all Beatrix Potter!
Still, nice to see no sign of myxomatosis 

Heysham skear - low water 17:40 (MD)

Eider 150

Red-breasted Merganser 10

Great Crested Grebe 1

Little Egret 11

Sandwich Tern 2 started feeding at low water, the sea was flat calm, unfortunately the sky was white, making them difficult to spot, best against a dark background, this is the Power Station.

Sandwich Terns

I managed a clip of one feeding dive, this time unsuccessful.

Eventually they both must have caught as they settled on a small island for a rest.

Willow Warbler fall

A misty start with occasional light rain. The sun came out in the afternoon and another patch of evening mist. Light west to WSW wind.

Middleton Nature Reserve (MD)

I just had a short walk around (dog walking duties)

The ponds not closely checked but still 2 pair plus 1 Mute. 4+ Coot, 4 Moorhen, 2+ Little Grebe

Pete advised that this morning's conditions were ideal for a Willow Warbler fall, and so it proved.

Willow Warbler 6 singing males plus at least 4 others

Chiffchaff 7 singing males

Blackcap 1 singing male plus anoth male and female seen

Cetti's Warbler 2 singing (no swimming pond and central marsh males)

Wheatear 4 together - I'm so used to seeing them on the shore rocks, they always look strange when perching in a tree.

Four Wheatear

Jay 3

Tim checked out Heysham Head:

Took the binoculars down to the Head late morning-lunchtime. 

3 Rock Pipit on the cobbles at the Throbshaw end of Half Moon Bay. Could hear another 150m towards HMB, but did not see it. Later on the way back saw a RP parachute in front of the cliffs. 

5-6 linnets 

Similar greenfinch 

A pair of RB mergansers fishing just off the HMB rocks. 

1 little Egret

 

In the wood -

3 very quarrelsome Jays

2 Chiffchaff

Heysham skear low water 17:00 (MD)

Very infuriatingly, the mist rolled in just as I reached the water's edge, so stuff on the sea was largely obscured.

Pale-bellied Brent goose 4 on north side of skear - seen before the mist arrived, there were no others.

Red-breasted Merganser 5

Great Crested Grebe 2

Eider c100

The above three records affected by poor visibility.

Little Egret 12 - here are five of them shrimping

Purple Sandpiper 1 - the Turnstone that roost on the wooden jetty feed on the skear. It stood to reason that the Purple Sandpiper, that has been in association with them, will feed here too. But their plumage is ideally camouflaged for the skear, making them very difficult to see and today's mist made it even harder. I eventually managed this misty clip.

First Common Tern plus plenty of passing passerines

NNE light breeze moved to SE by the afternoon. A fair start then steady rain till mid afternoon.

Heysham Nature Reserve 

Jean managed a ringing session:

Just a few retraps plus a Jay.

In contrast to yesterday's long distance Robin, we received news of a Dunnock ringed here in 2018. Found dead at Heysham!

Report from Pete:

Seawatching from Heysham north wall to 0920 - most of birds past just offshore with no overhead vis:  Common tern new for year 

1 Gannet

1 Common Scoter

1 Razorbill

1 Arctic Skua

6 Sandwich Tern

506 Meadow pipit

83 Swallow

26 linnet

23 Sand Martin 

(but no pied wag!) 

Undoubtedly missed stuff going under and possibly over the scope, esp hirundines which were mainly closer in.  Most of meadow pipit at or just inside yellow buoy range heading NNE

South shore 09:45 - 10:30(MD)

The wind had shifted slightly and the passage flight line changed. In a few minutes at the saltmarsh c12 Meadow Pipit and 5 Swallow went over. No other overhead movement seen along the wall or out from the roundhead.

Wheatear 6 (2 moved through on the way out and 4 more on the return - it was raining by then)

Rock Pipit 3

Linnet 5 flew from south to north side of the harbour

Kevin took this shot of a male Blackcap in his garden today

Angela Gillion took this shot of the first Mallard chicks on the main pond Middleton Nature Reserve 

Mallard with at least 6 ducklings swimming 

about much to the annoyance of the swan! 

Egyptian Goose adds some glamour

The ESE wind freshened during the day. Mainly high cloud with occasional sun and a couple of light showers.

First an update from Pete of a long distance Robin:

There is always a small spring passage of Robin at Heysham and one was caught with someone else’s ring on 2/4/22.  We’ve just found out It was ringed on autumn passage last year at Nanjidzal, Lands End.  Maybe Scottish or maybe Scandinavian bird?

Jean and Pete managed some vis this morning. Report from Jean:

Vis 0720-0920:

Meadow Pipit 181

Linnet 23

Goldfinch 12

Pied Wagtail 7

Lesser Redpoll 6

Swallow 6

Sand Martin 2

Chaffinch 1

Kestrel 1

Carrion Crow 9

Woodpigeon 6

Greylag Goose 1

Over the sea:

Egyptian Goose 1 (technically a MEGA)

Common Scoter 3

Red-throated Diver 1

Great Crested Grebe 1

Shore out from Half Moon Bay (MD)

10:00 - 11:00

Sandwich Tern 7 around the buoys. Unfortunately, these neap tides go out so slowly that the buoys were still beyond my camera range. This was about as good a clip as I could get. The birds flying north are just Oystercatcher.

Meadow Pipit a steady trickle north 18 in the hour

These Knot were on the shore in front of the old heliport wall. Like me, they were impatiently waiting for the tide to go out. This clip shows two things: a few are now moving towards summer plumage and one of them was colour ringed/flagged. Unfortunately not clear enough to read, and it immediately moved behind the group when I spotted it.

A second check in the afternoon 14:00 -15:00. The east wind was much fresher, there was no sign of any Sandwich Tern, but still a few:

Meadow Pipit 5

Swallow 4

This is something that I've never really understood and seems to becoming more common. This picture is cockles just below the mud surface. They are so tightly packed that they can't burrow any deeper.

A tightly packed clump of Cockles just below the mud surface

This one was about 0.5m diameter and there were probably 30 such clumps around the area. I understand why the cockles in the middle can't get deeper, but you'd imagine the ones around the edge would move out. The following is my best theory, but if anyone knows differently or has other ideas please let me know (MD).

These clumps tend to form where the mud is soft, perhaps too soft to allow Cockles to burrow up once they have gone below the surface. If there are small patches of firmer mud, the small cockles could occupy it normally, but as they grow, they would fill the area, as above, and presumably some around the edge drop into the abyss. Fortunately for the cockles, they have reached a size larger than the Oystercatcher can open, and the surrounding soft mud deters any sensible human walkers. Not sure if this type of clumping is becoming more common because cockle numbers are increasing or the extent of soft mud is increasing ( or both).

Heysham Nature Reserve 

Willow Warbler 2+ could be heard from the car park. This is a rubbish clip, the wind is howling and the bushes swaying. But it's so nice to hear Willow Warbler again, I thought I would share it anyway.

Janet took these lovely shots of two different male Orange Tip Butterflies. There was a small white and grey butterfly around as well, it could have been a female Orange Tip, or a Small White.

Male Orange Tip

Things are starting to move......

Light breezes today mainly SSE. Plenty of sunshine in the morning, but mainly high cloud cover after lunch.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Report from Alan:

The weather this morning was not what was originally forecast. We had expected the sky to cloud over in the early hours and possibly drop some migrants.  In the event it was clear and frosty first thing and clouds were forming only from mid morning.

The catch at Middleton was predictably low for the five nets set:

Single retraps of Wren, Reed Bunting, Dunnock and Cetti's Warbler. This Cetti's was ringed  in 2017 and has been caught regularly since then.

Blackcap  2

Dunnock  2

Lesser Redpoll   4

Two Meadow Pipits only were seen passing over.

The moth trap set overnight captured one Early Thorn and one Clouded Drab.

Pete Crooks paid an early morning visit:

Heysham North Harbour Wall (7.30 – 8.05 am)
2 Red-throated Diver – 1 in winter plumage & 1 in summer plumage together on sea, drifted out on ebbing tide
7 Common Scoter (4 male, 3 female) flew out of the Bay

Knowlys Road, Heysham (8.15 – 8.30 am)
1 Red-throated Diver – winter plumage, different to previous bird
130 Eider
4 Red-breasted Merganser

Pete (M) also checked some key areas.

Redpoll 3 over Middleton/Heysham 

Willow Warbler c4 early on at Heysham Nature Reserve (first records this year)

2cy Shag fishing just north of Heysham head

3 Twite old heliport then flew towards Heysham Head 

2 Sandwich tern

6 Common scoter flying out (different to Pete C birds)

Alan Physick checked the north wall on the afternoon rising tide:

Sandwich tern 10+ on buoys by North wall, singles passing and fishing,

I had a look at 18:30. The terns were still blogging around the two buoys, but too far from
the north wall for my camera to discern any detail, so this shot is just to show location (MD)

Shag 1 2nd calendar year roosting on wooden jetty, probably the one seen feeding earlier out from the Head.

Wigeon pair + Shelduck 18 on Red Nab

No Brents seen or reported today

Linnet 9 (2, 4 and 3) along the Power Station perimeter fence

Rock Pipit 4