Odd absence of Willow Warblers

A hot dry day with sunny spells. A light variable breeze, calm at times.

Middleton Nature Reserve

These moths from overnight Middleton NR actinic trap - Pete

Orange Swift

agapeta hamana

pale prominent 

Kingfisher early am and quite a few migrant warblers but no Willow Warblers at all! 

Ringing report by Jean:

Caught 47 birds, 41 of which were caught before 9am.
Goldfinch 15
Whitethroat 9
Lesser Whitethroat 5
Blackcap 5
Sedge Warbler 2
Reed Warbler 2
Chiffchaff 2
Great Tit 2
Swallow 1
Blackbird 1
Robin 1
Dunnock 1
Wren 1

Common Buzzard 2 over Janet's house mid morning 

Heysham skear (Malcolm) 09:30 - 11:00

I only checked along the northern edge and presumably there were also plenty of birds on the outer skear.

Eider 35, including this raft which includes well grown youngsters 

Eider, with a Honeycomb worm reef in the foreground 

Great Crested grebe 12  - no juveniles seen today

Great Crested grebes 

Little Egret 21

Little Egret

Gulls c200 mainly Herring + 25 Black-Headed

Oystercatcher 300

Curlew 30

Redshank 45

Turnstone 60

Ringed Plover 10

Dunlin 3

South shore (Malcolm) 16:30 - 18:00

I went to see if there were any insects coming in off the sea. There were small black flies everywhere, but particularly along the foreshore. They were constantly getting in my eyes, and you had to keep your moth shut. I would have worn a mask if I had one with me. Fortunately there wasn't so many along the sea wall, even so the spider webs between the fence rails were all full of them.

These black flies were everywhere, probably Kelp flies. They were fortunate 
that today's warm weather allowed them to emerge before the high spring tide
swamped them. Although I doubt these feel particularly fortunate!

By this time the breeze was from the north, not ideal. The only butterflies seen to come in/off were:

Small Tortoiseshell 2

Red Admiral 2

Painted Lady 1

The Painted Lady immediately began feeding on Ragwort in the scrub near
the lighthouse. The Gatekeeper next to it is probably a resident 

Rock Pipit 3

Wheatear 1

Wheatear on Red Nab

Whimbrel 3 individual birds

Whimbrel

Curlew 100+ flew to the north side in small groups

Oystercatchers over a silver sea

Cormorants 30+ most on the wooden jetty

This juvenile Cormorant was checking out the area

Shag 1 juvenile on the wooden jetty.

Juvenile Shag (middle)

In the Nature Park

Large White 5

Red Admiral 3

Small Tortoiseshell 3

Peacock 2

Meadow Brown 2

Speckled Wood 3

Common Blue 5

Common Darter 2

Male Common Darter

Nothing where it "should" be

A mainly sunny day with very light variable breeze. A light shower early evening.

South shore

These shots by Janet from yesterday:

Meadow Brown on the sea wall

Swallow heading south

In the Nature Park 

Chiffchaff 

Large White

Peacock

I checked this morning (Malcolm)

Linnet 35 on the saltmarsh, 5 near the lighthouse 

Rock Pipit - just one seen today by the saltmarsh 

Pied Wagtail 8 on OceanEdge grass, 6 around the scrub near the lighthouse and 2 along the sea wall.

Juvenile Pied Wagtail near the lighthouse 

Adult Pied Wagtail on the railings by No.2 outfall

Whimbrel 1

Mediterranean gull 13 - there were no gulls on the feeding beach today. There were 12 adults resting with the Black-Headed gulls between the outfalls and just 1 juvenile feeding on No.1 outfall.

Mediterranean gull bottom right, with Black-Headed gulls

Juvenile Mediterranean gull 

Grey Seal 1 fishing at the seaward end of No.1 outfall

Robin 1 adult near the lighthouse, there hasn't been one here all summer 

This juvenile Robin was in the Nature Park, nearly in adult plumage now

Heysham skear (Malcolm) 16:00 - 18:00

The fast draining spring tides have shifted much of the loose mud around. It was like walking in a new area. Some places that were relatively barren were covered in mussels, areas that have been firm were soft and some areas that were previously soft ware even softer! The gulls weren't feeding where they had been but still finding plenty to eat in different areas. At least 250 mainly Herring gulls (most of the smaller gulls were busy anting again).

Herring gull with a mussel. The pink blob is an upturned Barrel Jellyfish.
We used to call them Medusa jelly fish. You can see why. It's a much better name.

There were several stranded. The far one is upside down and the nearer one
with its dome on top.

Eider 9 including 2 males coming out of eclipse 

Herring gull and male Eider

Great Crested Grebe 10 minimum, including at least 1 juvenile 

Juvenile Great Crested Grebe 

Grey Heron 1

Little Egret 16 - these are fishing/shrimping. The water flowing in front of them is just the result of the  ebbing tide.

Cormorants several

The young Cormorant has a metal ring

Shag 1 juvenile 

Juvenile Shag

Oystercatcher 400 with many more in the wings

Curlew 30

Redshank 200+ 

Turnstone 40

Ringed Plover 2

Starlings 100+ - I don't think they actually feed when on the skear, I think they just collect broken shells for grit.

Another Light Brown Apple Moth, this time in Janet's 
garden this evening 

Something smells a bit fishy

Calm to begin with then a light SW breeze for the rest of the day, easing again by late evening. Plenty of sunny spells.

Heysham skear (Malcolm) 07:45 - 10:00

We are back to spring tides now so I went out to see how the middle skear fared through storm Floris. 

This is the area between the inner and middle skear that was covered in
loose mussels on Thursday. Some of the mussels have managed to clump
together, but much of the area is just mud, and still surprisingly soft!

Further out on the skear has also been transformed. Here some of the 
mussel beds have been undermined and the mussels washed away. But 
some of the mussel beds have just been covered with the resulting mud

It was heavy going. I am less than half way across to the more consolidated 
north side here. The stench of decay was everywhere, clearly the buried mussels
were covered in mud too deeply for them to escape and were already decomposing.

By the time I reached the north side, the tide was coming in quickly. In these calm conditions it is easy to see the effect of the tide. This is not a particularly high tide at 8.8m.

Eider 9 female type and this crèche of 23 

Red-breasted Merganser 1 female type

Red-breasted Merganser 

Great Crested grebe 11 - all adults moulting from summer plumage 

Great Crested Grebe 

Shag 1 juvenile 

Juvenile Shag looking pale in the low morning sunlight 

Cormorants 7

Cormorants on a honeycomb worm reef on the south side.
Neither the south or north sides reefs were noticeably affected by the storm

Grey Heron 2

Little Egret 12

Six of the Egrets

Oystercatcher 400, but many more on the shore on both sides of the skear 

Curlew 60

Whimbrel 1 heard only

Redshank 150

Turnstone 130

Ringed Plover 17 (12 close inshore plus 5 on the middle skear)

Dunlin 4

Redshank

Ringed Plover and Dunlin

Gulls 250 mainly Herring scattered around the skear. Plus a number had decided to rest on the mud to the north of the skear, perhaps they didn't like the smell of rotting food.

Gulls on the north shore 

I thought when I saw them that they would make a good early warning if anything passed over from the north, and sure enough just as was heading off, they all lifted and in their wake...

Osprey 1 heading south.

Osprey

Swallow 1 south

South shore 

Shaun Coyle 10:30-12:00:

Little Gull 2cy on number 1outfall then roosting on Red Nab. 

Mediterranean Gull 2 adults & 7 juvenile also on number 1.

Little Egret 5.

Turnstone 23 roosting on the Wooden Pier. 

Rock Pipits pair on Red Nab.

Janet checked later

One of the Red Nab Rock Pipits

Cormorants on the wooden jetty

By late evening there were gulls and Swallows anting all over the recording area

Mainly Meds today

Dry for most of the day, although it looked like rain all morning. An afternoon shower, then sunny spells. A light SW wind.

South shore

I checked in the morning (Malcolm)

Rock Pipit 3 on Red Nab

Little Egret 6

Feeding on the outfalls is very patchy at the moment, most of the time there are almost no gulls on them.

No.1 outfall with hardly any gulls

Then a shoal of Whitebait or Sandeels must get drawn in at the intake and suddenly every Black-Headed gull around is feeding. This is the same outfall a few minutes earlier 

Mediterranean gulls 21 at least 13 adults 2 x 2nd calendar year, 6 juveniles. There were 6 juveniles feeding on the seaward end of No.1 outfall. Other sightings could have been the same birds

All but 2 of the adults were on the beach by the wooden jetty, and weren't tempted by the outfall when it was providing.

Of the six Meds in this shot, two have white rings and one just a metal ring.
Both seen earlier this summer, the green ringed German bird was also present.

It isn't often that the ring is so easy to read

Janet check this afternoon and caught the only serious shower of the day!

One of the Red Nab Rock Pipits

Redshank

Oystercatcher 

Curlew

Cormorants on the wooden jetty, no sign of the Shag.
One Cormorant that rests on the jetty has an orange ring. It should
be readable with a good scope

The sun came out on the return leg - in the Nature Park:

Painted Lady

Red Admiral 

Snail sp, giving the blackberries an appetising shine!