Kittiwake surge and a feeding Osprey

A warm and mainly sunny day. The light NE early morning breeze switched to NW mid morning then became variable by the afternoon.

Seawatch report - Pete:

Sea Heysham (MP, JR, PM).  Headwind today with no easterly element.  Large chunks of watching paint dry but this all changed 20 mins before HT with massive Kittiwake movement.  606 were counted heading in and up and judging by all the calls two significant north-east bound flocks couldn’t be picked up overhead in the blue sky.  Amazing how far the sound carried from these flocks.  All but handful passed through in a 35 minute period up to and over HT

Another 83 kitts on the sea to the south of the outfalls which hadn’t made a move before we left so different birds (MD). So minimum total 689

Others:

Fulmar 1

Gannet - 12

Common scoter 10 plus 7

Guillemot - 10

Sandwich Tern - 33 in, 16 out - no blogging today 

(Probable v distant little tern) 

I would suspect any skuas or arctic terns today would have been way up out of sight before reaching heysham based on the behaviour of the usually more reluctant to overland Kitts

Also on south side (Malcolm)

Osprey 1 - it tried fishing but failed to catch anything.

It has a blue ring on its right leg, unfortunately characters not legible 

It rested on the post at the seaward end of No.2 outflow for a while

Before heading off, empty taloned, to the east.

An influx of Herring gulls, there were c170 on the wooden jetty - more on this later

Linnet 3 between lighthouse and waterfall 

No sign of the Rock Pipits

Willow Warbler 1 in scrub near lighthouse 

Silver Y all along the foreshore grass.

Heysham skear - low water (Malcolm)

Eider 128

Red-breasted Merganser 5

Little Egret 3

Just three wader species today

Oystercatcher 400

Knot 35

Turnstone 1

There is always a gull presence here, up until today roughly split 20 each Herring and Lesser Black-backed. But today the influx of Herring gulls seen earlier on the wooden jetty was feeding here. I estimated 160 Herring gulls. The seed mussels are not showing yet, but they were clearly finding something to eat. Presumably there is more food to go around now that the bulk of waders have left. These are just some of them.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Broad-bodied Chaser by Janet this morning

I just had a quick look at the main pond this evening (Malcolm). The only other dragonflies seen were 3 four-spotted Chaser.

This Little grebe has caught quite a sizeable (relative to its size) fish, but makes short work of it!

But less than three minutes later it had caught an even larger one. This was a struggle to swallow. It took over two minutes and it had three goes before finally managing to swallow it. This clip shows the initial preparation, then skips to the final, successful attempt to swallow it.

And then it went back fishing again!

Kittiwake still moving through in numbers

A light east morning wind switched to NW in the afternoon. A dry day with some late sunshine.

Seawatch report by Pete:

0600-0930 (MP, JR, TW, PM). 

All about second day of late adult Kittiwake passage - are these high Arctic eg Svalbard-bound? Just half a dozen or so 2cy.  A bit murky for overlanding though:

Kittiwake - 312 in (85 largest flock), 92 out - not necessarily same based on flock sizes

Common scoter - 153 in, 40 out

Red throated diver - 5 in, 4 out

Sandwich tern - 16 in, c25 blogging 

Manx Shearwater - 3 plus 7 in - first of year for heysham and year tick

Gannet - just 2

Common Tern - one out

Arctic Skua - lm and dm together with another dm trailing 300m behind - in at c0910

One swift and about 5 swallow

Just a grey seal mammal wise

Also singing male whitethroat north harbour wall 

Common Whitethroat on Heysham Head - Tim Woodward 

Heyshan Skear - low water 14:40 (Malcolm)

Eider 127

Red-Breasted Merganser 4 - these three females are having, what can only be described as, "an exchange".

Great Crested Grebe 2

There were only Oystercatchers (500) as I was walking out, but eventually 6 wader species were seen.

Turnstone just one

Bar-Tailed Godwit 27 - 20 along the western edge of the skear plus 7 along the shoreline 

Knot 18 - 14 along the western edge of the skear, plus 4 along the north edge.

These are some of the Godwit and Knot along the western edge.

Ringed Plover 19 in single flock

Most of the Ringed Plover

Whimbrel 2

Whimbrel on sandbar just north of the skear

Middleton Nature Reserve (Malcolm)

Just a quick afternoon check on the way home.

Mute 1 nesting pair

Gadwall 3 male

Mallard 10 (1 female)

Coot 4

Moorhen 4

Little Grebe 2 on "no swimming" pond.

Singing warblers

Cetti's, Sedge, Reed, Willow, Common Whitethroat, Blackcap and Chiffchaff 

Pheasant 2 calling males

House Martin 8 stopped off briefly at the main pond, before continuing north.

House Martins

Butterflies:

Orange Tip several

Large White 2

Small White 1

Brimstone 2 - this short clip shows a male and female mating. They seldom rest with their wings open, so this is a nice opportunity to see just how pale the female's upper wings are, compared to the yellow of the male and her underwing.

Female and male Brimstone 

Silver Y - 10+

Common Blue, Azure Blue and Common Bluetail damselflies now abundant.

Four-Spotted Chaser 5

Four-spotted Chaser

Broad-bodied Chaser 1 each male and female.

Male Broad-bodied Chaser

Impressive seabird list

A light early east wind freshened during the day as it mover more to the north.

Seawatch report - Pete

0525-1130 with Mark Prestwood; in unless stated: 

Kittiwake - 147 in 15 flocks- many high flying and some could have been missed

Red throated Diver - perhaps the same three sp seen close inshore on three occasions

Arctic skua 1, 2, 1 then one got off sea and chased terns (2LM, 3 DM)

Sandwich tern at least 50

Arctic Tern - single and flock of 30

Little Tern - one

Black Tern - one 

Gannet - c35

Aythya spp prob Tufted distant flock of three

Common Scoter - just 40

Fulmar - 2 (first record since May 2022)

Little Gull - 1st summer

Bottle-nosed Dolphin - 4-5 chasing ?tuna

Middleton Nature Reserve (Janet)

Grasshopper warbler reeling in central marsh 

Lots of Silver Y

A bugs eye view of a Silver Y

Male Small White

Common Buzzard

Grey Heron

First Orchids flowering

Heysham Head (Edward Wilkinson)

Linnet

Goldfinch feeding newly fledged young

Greenfinch 

Wren

Common Whitethroat 

Lesser Whitethroat 

Little Egret

Eider

Not the same fresh faced fox photographed by Janet yesterday

Heysham skear - low water 13:40 (Malcolm)

Just a quick check, it doesn't take long on these neap tides.

Eider 109 - this female surrounded by 13 males, you can just about hear them calling.

Red-breasted Merganser 1

Great Crested Grebe 5

Little Egret 2

Oystercatcher 800

Bar-Tailed Godwit 12

Bar-Tailed Godwit

Knot - there were only 2 on the skear as I walked around. Then as the tide was coming in a flock of 44 arrived, gained hight and headed off to the NW.

Lesser Black-Backed gull with one of the original solitary Knot

Knot gaining height before flying off

Just a nice shot looking north from the skear.
Cormorant and Eider in the foreground with the South Lakes in the background.
Can't imagine why I like being out here!

That’s more like it!!!

The early light NE wind switched to SE later in the morning. A basically dry day with just the odd spot of rain.

Seawatch Report - Pete:

Heysham north wall Sea 0535-0800: in unless stated: 

1433 Common Scoter. I’m sure 30 mins earlier start would have added a lot more scoter as over 1000 were 0535-0555!

2 light morph Pomarine Skua

6 Arctic Skua (one out very close; 4 light morph,  2 dark morph)

70 Sandwich tern

8 Arctic tern

1  Little Tern

9 Gannet

1 summer plumage Red-throated diver

27 Kittiwake (3 flocks out)

26 Guillemot

14 razorbill/guillemot

flock of 3 drake Goosander

29 swallow

3 house Martin 

2 Mute swan in

Spotted flycatcher came in off and landed on railing before quickly heading in over the road. 

Most of the scoter before 0600 and only two distant flocks seen coming out.  

In addition three very distant outbound probable skuas together with the rear one looking smaller but too far for any id

Heysham Head

I just did a quick check of the wooded area to see if there were any more Spotted Flycatcher (Malcolm).

Plenty of flies but the only things seen catching them were....

Swift 15 minimum, two constantly feeding over the wood kept chasing any newcomers away.

Jay 1

Some shots of the regulars from Janet:

Dunnock

Goldfinch 

Male Linnet

Fox - taking it easy

Heysham skear - low water 12:20 (Malcolm)

Eider 84

Red-breasted Merganser 3

Great Crested Grebe 5

Little Egret 3

Peregrine Falcon 1

Oystercatcher 300

Curlew 1

Knot 1500

Turnstone 6

Bar-Tailed Godwit 42 - there were 41 resting on the skear, none showing signs of breeding plumage.

A solitary bird in at least partial breeding plumage was feeding with the Oystercatchers. Here an Oystercatcher finds a small crab, but can't find a suitable spot to eat it. It was still carrying it around over a minute later.

Short, but reasonably sweet.

It rained all day till mid afternoon. A light SE breeze.

It wasn't the weather but other commitments today that prevented me getting out till 19:30 (Malcolm). The ebbing tide was just beginning to expose the rocks of the inner skear so I'd planned to check there, and it proved worthwhile.

Eider 51

Common Scoter 3

This clip shows some of the Eider, the 3 smaller ducks at the end of the clip are Common Scoter.

Great Crested Grebe 6 - these two are reaffirming their bond.

Sandwich Tern 3 north together.

Sandwich Terns against the low evening light

Little Egret 3

Little Egret, similarly silhouetted 

Swift 1 north

Oystercatcher 150

Knot 280

Turnstone 9

Sanderling 88 - there was a flock of 77 already on the rocks as I arrived. Most making no attempt to feed, just preening and resting. This is only c200m from the sea wall, you can hear laughter from the promenade.

After a while they started grouping together and were clearly getting ready to move on.

Sanderling

I had expected them to land on some of the newly exposed skear, but they just continued north. A little later another flock of 11 flew past me and also continued north.

Plenty of.........Mallard!

A fresher SE wind. Some weak sunshine in the morning then showers from early evening.

Heysham skear, low water 10:20 (Malcolm)

Eider 67

Red-breasted Merganser 4

Great Crested Grebe 6

Little Egret 2

We have quickly moved back to neap tides and it didn't fully expose the middle skear today. It should have produced a higher concentration of waders, if there had been a higher number of waders to concentrate. There wasn't!

Oystercatcher 350

Knot 220

Dunlin 1

Middleton Nature Reserve (Janet)

Mallard

Moorhen in the bushes 

Silver Y

South shore (Malcolm)

Just a quick look from saltmarsh to Red Nab towards high water,  just as the rain was starting.

Knot 13 - 6 on saltmarsh, 7 on Red Nab

Bar-Tailed Godwit 92 - 77 on saltmarsh, 15 on Red Nab.

Bar-Tailed Godwit and Knot coming in to the saltmarsh 

Godwits and Knot resting by the saltmarsh 

Some of the Knot and Godwits with Oystercatchers on Red Nab

And finally, another Mallard! Slightly unusually on Red Nab. It was raining quite hard now, and he had just climbed out of the freshwater runoff. But he quickly slewed off the excess water.