A welcome influx of Meds

A warm sunny day with a light west wind.

South shore (Malcolm)

A morning check as the rising tide approached Red Nab

Sandwich Tern at least 3 adults

Sandwich Tern with quite a large Whitebait.
Not scavenged from the outflows but caught in open water.

Two Sandwich Terns resting on the mud with the gulls

Things looked promising, there were loads of small gulls around including at least 17 Mediterranean gulls,  but just as they were settling on Red Nab a loud steam blow off from the Power Station spooked them and they resettled on mud out from the foreshore, but unfortunately spooked again by a dog enjoying its holidays. I only managed to spot one green ringed 3rd calendar year and that was the French ringed bird seen earlier this month.

French ringed 3cy Med

Take a close look at this one. The gull behind has just ejected a pellet.
There is a line of spittle defining its trajectory 

This is where the gulls ended up this morning, unfortunately 
I didn't have time to check them out.......

.........so I returned early evening.

There were three groups of gulls resting on the mud, this was the largest

There were at least 30 Mediterranean gulls in the three groups. Unfortunately the tide hasn't reached this far for a week and the mud was dry, so most of the gulls were sitting for most of the time, but eventually I managed to read 5 new birds for this year, although they were all seen here last year too. Hopefully at least some will have been seen elsewhere since.

This is a German ringed bird

Middleton Nature Reserve (Janet)

Female/immature Reed Bunting

Male Reed Bunting 

Swallow

Pair of Black-Tailed Skimmers

Pair of Common Blue Damselflies 

Excellent sequence of a male Emperor

Female Emperor ovipositoring 

It isn't clear what has attracted the male Common Blue damselflies 
Janet though they may have been after her eggs. Perhaps so.

First returning Common Sandpiper

 Mainly overcast with light showers. A light west wind.

South Shore (Malcolm)

I went along the sea wall later in the tide today, but didn't fare much better than yesterday.

Little Egret 3

Little Egret by No.2 outflow

Grey Heron 1

Grey Heron on the other side of No.2 outflow

Common Sandpiper 1 flew from the sea wall to the rocks half way along the outflow.

Mediterranean Gull 3 - 2 adult and 1 3rd calendar year.

These three, recently fledged Lesser Black-Backed gulls have taken to resting above the steps near the lighthouse. This clip is actually from yesterday, but they were in the same place today.

Same gulls, same place, today

Pied Wagtail 5 (1 each Red Nab and sea wall, 3 between lighthouse and waterfall)

Pied Wagtail near the waterfall 

Rock Pipit 1 on Red Nab

Wet Rock Pipit, after a bath in the freshwater runoff

Peregrine Falcon 1

Around the saltmarsh edge

Emperor Dragonfly 1 female

Gatekeeper 4

Large White 3

Small White 2

Red Admiral 1

Red Admiral 

Janet took these shots on Heysham Head

Gatekeeper 

Meadow Brown

Middleton Nature Reserve (Malcolm)

Just the briefest of passing checks of the two main ponds late afternoon.

Wildfowl pretty much the same. Except only one young Gadwall was with the female.

Female and immature Gadwall

Swift 3 feeding high and drifting south

Swifts moving though and waders returning

A warm sunny day with a west breeze.

South shore 

Both myself (Malcolm) and Janet had a walk along the sea wall, but both were a little early on the ebbing tide. The only bird of note was a 2nd calendar year Mediterranean gull feeding on the seaward side of No1 outflow, then it or another resting between the outflows.

Plenty of insects in the Nature Park though.

Large White 4

Small White 3

Red Admiral 1

Comma 1

2 of 7 Gatekeeper 

Ringlet 8

Four-Spotted Chaser 1

North shore (Malcolm)

Swift at least 11 feeding between Half Moon Bay and Knowsly Rd, presumably moving through.

Heysham skear - low water 15:30

Little Egret 2

Eider 3

Red-breasted Merganser 2

Herring gull 350

Oystercatcher c500

Curlew c60

Redshank 68

Some of the Redshank 

Bar-Tailed Godwit 1 in summer plumage

Male Bar-Tailed Godwit

Dunlin 1 in summer plumage

Dunlin with Knot and Oystercatchers

Knot 103 including 3 in summer plumage

This small group was joined by the Dunlin as the tide moves them on.

Knot

First juvenile Med arrives

Mainly overcast till late afternoon sunny spells. A freshening west wind.

First some nice shots from Middleton Nature Reserve yesterday, by Janet.

Young Coots

Six-Spot Burnet

Common Darter

South shore 

Shaun checked first 

Common Scoter 8 out towards Fleetwood (unusual, even more so as a flock of 5 were also seen on this date last year)

Mediterranean gull 16 - 11 adult, 3 x 2nd summer, 1 x 1st summer and 1 juvenile (also coincides with the arrival of the first juvenile to arrive here last year) - later Janet located a returning regular visitor - white ringed LCG - update awaited 

Juvenile Med centre with an adult on either side

Rock Pipit 1 on Red Nab

Peregrine Falcon 1

Grey Seal 2

Grey Seal

Janet checked later in the morning.

Cormorants arguing over ownership of perching rights.

Curlew treading lightly 

In the Nature Park 

Ringlet

Gatekeeper

Silver Y

Common Darter

I had a quick look towards high water in the evening (Malcolm). But these tides are very low and only four Mediterranean gulls were seen. 3 adult and a second summer.

Adult left and second summer Med right. But the Meds are moulting out of summer
plumage now, probably time to start calling the second summer a third calendar year.