Still RVD at Middleton and Glossy Ibis not far away

A dry and often sunny day. A west breeze

Middleton Nature Reserve 

This from Rosemary and Peter's visit yesterday 

Seen at the Southern Section:

Migrant or Southern Hawker 2 (they were too far away to get a definite ID)

Common Darters Ovipositing 3 pair

Lone Male Common Darter 8

Lone Female Common Darter 2

Speckled Wood 2

Heard at the Southern Section

Long Tailed Tits

Seen at the Main Pond

Red Veined Darter 1

Migrant or Southern Hawker 2 (again, they were too far away for a definite ID)

Common Darters Ovipositing 2 pair

Male Common Darter 6

Speckled Wood 1

Mute Swans 2

Mallard 4

Grey Heron 1

Heard at the Main Pond

Cettis Warbler

Robin

Immature Red-Veined Darter
(What a great, almost surreal, shot!)

Common Darters

Female Common Darter

The main pond Mute Swans

Janet checked today but was exercising a dog, so restricted to where she could go

Two Chiffchaff heard

Swallow 1 south

Pink-Footed geese 82

Pink Footed Geese flying south

Tufted Duck 2 on the main pond, the "no swimming" pond not checked.

Tufted Duck pair

Lots of Common Darters on the south side.
This one allowing a good comparison to the RVD shot above
Migrant Hawker also seen

Common Darter by the main pond

A flock of Long-Tailed Tits passed through 

This young Bullock keeps escaping from his field!!
He is ok and never bothers people or dogs.

Heysham skear - Malcolm 10:45 - 12:00

The tide had already been making for over an hour and was now coming in quickly 

Grey Heron 1

Little Egret 16

Little Egrets

Eider 6

Red-breasted Merganser 6

Red-breasted Mergansers

The bulk of the Oystercatchers had already moved to the waterline.This area is where
the Knot usually move to on the incoming tide, but there was only a handful today

Then c1000 Knot arrived from the north and settled here. But as soon as they did a Peregrine lifted them all again, and they continued south.

The tail end of the Knot flock heading south. You can see the Peregrine top right

There were probably 200 more Knot around the skear in small groups. Then another flock of c500 arrived from the north. So not too far short of 2000 Knot in total. The ones seen were mainly young birds and no flagged birds were seen.

Some of the late arriving Knot with Oystercatchers 

One of the Oystercatchers was colour coded.
This bird was ringed as a chick at Glen Clova Scotland in 2016. It has been
seen at Heysham several times since 2019, but unfortunately nowhere else

Bar-Tailed Godwit 2 

Dunlin 1

Redshank, more than recent at least 180

Other waders similar to recent

Bar-Tailed Godwit and Oystercatcher 

Dunlin

This Carrion Crow took umbrage at me and gave me a good cawing at!

Just out of the recording area  - Heaton Marsh - Malcolm

Pete had advised that there had been three Glossy Ibis seen along the tidal road over the last two days. So I called in while passing around high water this afternoon. I only managed one. These shots were taken about 50m along the road that goes to the Golden Ball, after you turn off the road from the bypass.

Most of the time it's head was down, making it look like a large Lapwing 

Glossy Ibis, although not a very glossy one

It flew off to the east, it will just about be above the Golden Ball in this shot 

Half way along the bypass between the Heaton roundabout and Imperial Rd roundabout, on the south side, there was a field where gulls were feeding.

Not a lot of gulls....

......but three of them were Mediterranean gulls

Another GWE

Heavy morning rain then dry till an evening shower. Sunny spells. A light south(ish) breeze

Heysham Nature Reserve 

A small amount of post rain ringing indicated a few chiffchaffs had arrived with 6 ringed - Pete

South shore - Malcolm

I checked on the rising tide after the morning rain had stopped.

No Linnets seen or heard. This doesn't mean they weren't around, they were probably feeding on the saltmarsh somewhere 

The only birds along the foreshore were a Robin and a Wheatear

Shelduck 27 out from the saltmarsh.

These are the gulls resting on Red Nab. I was going to check them 
for Mediterranean gulls.....

.....then something lifted all the small gulls. There are at least 4 Mediterranean
gulls in this shot, but you will have to open it to have a chance of spotting them.

I looked up and it was a Peregrine quite high and flying purposefully east

Adult Peregrine Falcon

Great White Egret 1 was resting by No.2 outfall. Likely grounded by the heavy rain.

This is a location shot

Great White Egret

This isn't long before it flew off it was looking in all directions 

Then it took flight to the north and I lost sight for a while behind No.2 outfall structure.

When I picked it up again it was past the wooden jetty and heading high to the NW

10 minutes later this one flew past low to the SE. Presumably the same
bird after resetting its bearings 

One of three Little Egret

A solitary Grey Heron flying east

Wigeon 3

Wigeon

In the Nature Park

Red Admiral 4

Speckled Wood 1

Common Darter 2

When Janet checked later there were three Wheatears feeding with the Pied Wagtails on Ocean Edge grass

Great White passes over

A dry day with sunny spells. A SE wind

South shore

Early am at ocean edge - Pete: 

One great white egret flew north quite high over Heysham ocean edge obvious migrant.  

Also flock of 9 meadow pipit in off 

Two Painted Lady, two Small Tortoiseshell, and a Red admiral flying in along the wall on my walk out to the lighthouse - Kevin

Janet:

Wigeon on the salt marsh

Solitary Knot on Red Nab

Rock Pipit and Knot

Painted Lady and a Red Admiral in the Nature Park

Painted Lady

Red Admiral

Janet also saw Common Darters on both sides of Middleton Nature Reserve

Heysham skear - Malcolm

Yesterday's Knot were interesting. The four flagged birds were this year's and last year's youngsters. The bulk of the other 3000 birds seen would have been the same. Three of the flagged birds had only been ringed in the last two weeks, providing useful information for the schemes. So I tried to find some more today. But some days things just don't work out.

I had a look on the rising tide this morning. As the tide moved the Oystercatchers off the skear they settled along the waterline. But when the Knot left the skear, they flew directly to the south.

Oystercatchers lined up along the waterline with one of two flocks of Knot
seen heading south. At least 2500 birds in total

I tried again this evening starting 16:00 in bright sunshine. The Knot began arriving from the south immediately, but in smaller groups (5 - 50) than yesterday. About 1000 had gathered when a Peregrine attacked and scattered them.

 

When the Knot began returning they were in larger groups, as yesterday. Perhaps a Peregrine had attacked before I started yesterday. But if there had been an attack yesterday it must have been successful, today's wasn't and as soon as a group returned it attacked again.

That's the Midland Hotel in the background 

Knot and a Peregrine 

By this time it was almost 17:00 and the light was already fading

It must have eventually managed to catch one as the Knot slowly returned and settled. But by this time the tide was a long way out and the returning groups settled in different areas. At least 1000 Knot and again mainly young birds, but I failed to find any flagged ones today.

Knot

Pink-Footed geese south:

1 skein of 78 10:15

3 skeins in quick succession this evening 13, 18 and 6

Some of this evening's Pinkfoot

Eider 9

Red-breasted Merganser 3

Great Crested Grebe 1

Little Egret 18

Grey Heron 1

Heron and Egrets

Oystercatcher c1500 on the skear this evening more along the waterline this morning 

Curlew 45

Redshank 100+

Turnstone 30

Ringed Plover 5