Leach's passes by

Sowers all day, but most short lived. Sunny spells also short lived. A strong west wind.

Pete checked the sea from the back of the harbour 

Juvenile skua wheeling into bay 1304hrs. either Arctic or dark Long tailed - didn’t see it for long enough to be sure 

Leach's Petrel 1342hrs past the harbour entrance

Shag 1 juvenile 

A quick scan from Knowlsy Rd saw only a juvenile Sandwich Tern

South shore - Malcolm 13:00 - 16:00

Chiffchaff 1 calling in the Nature Park 

A walk along the sea wall and back plus a spell checking from the lighthouse saw nothing on the sea.

Rock Pipit 1 along the foreshore 

Wheatear 1 on the saltmarsh 

Linnet c60 on the saltmarsh, 

they were eating Samphire seeds

Lapwing 2 on the saltmarsh 

There were no waders along the waterline today, mainly as there was no waterline (I'll explain later). But there was a large group resting high up the shore just to the south of the recording area. I walked out to see what they were. Best estimates are

Knot 1750

Dunlin 250

Bar-Tailed Godwit 30

Grey Plover 80

It was approaching high water, but it was only 8.2m and the waterline 
should have been 50m away from here. But the shore is so flat here the
strong onshore wind blew a thin sheet of water over the whole beach

Fortunately something spooked them and they all flew north well within the recording area. The weather at this point was switching, literally minute by minute. One minute I was hunkered down against the rain with my camera stashed, the next minute I was in bright sunshine!

Not another rainbow shot! But this time with Bar-Tailed Godwits

Grey Plover and Knot

Also Grey Plover and Knot

Bar-Tailed Godwit and Knot

Knot, Grey Plover and Dunlin. This shot shows the water covering the
mud. It made it difficult checking for any colour marked birds

This was as close as I got. This Knot was ringed as part of a UK scheme.
It would have had a coded orange flag above the green ring. Both the rings
and flags are made of a very light thin plastic. They are designed to outlast
the average age of the species, but often don't outlast the longer lived individuals

Then the waders decided to head further south again.

It was nice seeing large flocks of waders again, but the approaching dark
clouds didn't have any gaps in them, so I headed back.

Earlier Kevin had seen c100 Shelduck out from Red Nab.
This was the only one I saw all afternoon!

Today's Tern not common

Heavy morning showers eased after lunch. A few sunny spells. A NW wind

Pete:

Juvenile Black tern seaward end heysham one 1037hrs then disappeared in visibility reducing shower - probably into rather than out of bay

Immature Shag conger rock area north of Heysham Head at low water

Heysham skear - Malcolm 09:15 - 10:45

Grey Heron 1

Little Egret 14

Little Egrets in the Honeycomb worm beds

I walked out with bright sunshine behind me, but very black clouds in front of me. It was obvious that I was in for a soaking, but at least I had a nice, albeit short, light show first.

Not only was there a secondary bow

But there were at least three rainbows overlaid in the primary bow

You can see two additional lines of violet below the first one

This was the last shot I took before stashing my camera away, just in time!

I continued my circuit the heavy rain didn't last too long but it never really stopped raining. I didn't see a great deal, I didn't even see the Shag!

Gulls c250 mainly Herring gulls

Eider c30 (Pete counted 1135 between Heysham and Bare)

Red-breasted Merganser 7

Great Crested Grebe 4

Oystercatcher c2000

Curlew 35

Redshank 40 most high up the shore

Knot 12

Turnstone 50

Ringed Plover 3

I hadn't seen or heard any geese till 10:25. There was still light rain, but between 10:25 and 10:45 there were 4 skeins of Pink-Footed geese south (only two actually seen 34 and 85 the others above the low cloud). Plus 4 Canada geese flying north

South shore this afternoon 

Pink-Footed goose c70 south - Kevin 

Malcolm 13:30 - 14:30

No terns on the outfalls

Grey Seal between the outfalls

Mediterranean gull 1 2nd calendar year on Red Nab

2cy Mediterranean gull (top)

Rock Pipit 2 on Red Nab 1 on the foreshore 

Rock Pipit

Wheatear 2 on Ocean grass

Also on Ocean Edge sign

Linnet c70. Not feeding on the saltmarsh today but on the grass

A backdrop of backlit white clouds makes for an interesting shot

They were feeding around the Sea Stork's-bill. Presumably collecting what
must be tiny seeds.

A large flock of small waders arrived from the south and settled along the waterline some distance out from the saltmarsh.

Grey Plovers and what looks to be mainly Knot

No time, or more honestly, no stamina left today. But I will check
tomorrow, weather permitting 

The Terns today were Common

A showery day with sunny spells. A west wind.

South shore - Malcolm 09:00 - 11:00

I set off in sunshine without my leggings. Mistake. Heavy rain began as I reached the saltmarsh and continued till I got to Red Nab.

Linnet 60+ on saltmarsh 

Wheatear at least 3 at saltmarsh and foreshore 

Meadow Pipit 2 along the foreshore 

Rock Pipit 1 on foreshore, 1 on Red Nab and 1 along the sea wall

Shelduck 20 out from Red Nab

Shelduck 

On the walk out there were lots of Black-Headed gulls on No.2 outfall and
more were arriving all the time. Clearly plenty of food was coming through 

Strangely there were no gulls feeding on No.1 outfall

Mediterranean gull 2 adults, 1 on Red Nab and 1 on the beach by the wooden jetty.

A solitary Mediterranean gull surrounded by Sandmason worm tubes

Between the lighthouse and waterfall there were:

Linnet at least 3

Robin 1

Blackbird 1 male

House Sparrow 1 (not common on this side of the harbour)

Plus lots of feeding Starlings 

Starling and House Sparrow

On the walk back the Black-Headed gulls were now also feeding on No.1 outfall and there were still lots on No.2 outfall. But now they had been joined by an adult with a juvenile Common Tern.

The juvenile calling to be fed.....

......and the adult obliging. This looks to be a Sandeel, a shoal must have 
moved too close to the water intakes

It gets fed twice in this clip. You can just about make out its cries over the noise of the wind and c100 Black-Headed gulls in this clip. In real time its calls were very distinct.

Juvenile Common Tern

Adult Common Tern

The adult didn't always find fish so quickly. It is searching here without any luck. You can see the juvenile waiting on the rail.

I returned towards high water, the adult and juvenile Common Terns had been joined by two more adults. At least the juvenile was flying and looking for food itself now, but you could still hear its calls over everything else, presumably when the, or perhaps any, adult had a fish.

Juvenile Common Tern

Two adult Common Terns plus the juvenile is sat on the water in this shot

One of the new adults was quite worn

Wheatear 5

Wheatear on the foreshore 

In the Nature Park

Common Whitethroat 1 looked to be a juvenile 

Speckled Wood 2

Painted Lady 1

Painted Lady

Curlew - Flying off from the shore below Knowlys road this afternoon - Janet

Yesterday Alison managed to count 27 Small Copper on Heysham Head, that's probably more than are normally reported in a year for the whole recording area! 

Plenty going on

A hazy day, the sun not really breaking through till mid afternoon. A very light early south breeze freshened slightly as it moved to the west. An odd light shower.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Peter and Rosemary also checked it out yesterday 

Seen at the Southern End:

Common Darters at least 7 pairs ovipositing plus several lone males

No Ruddy Darter

Migrant Hawkers 2

Bog Hoverfly 1

Speckled Wood 1

Large White 2

Female Short Winged Conehead

Seen at the Main Pond:

Red Veined Darter 1

Brown Hawkers 2

Migrant Hawker 1

Common Darters several males

Common Blue Damselfly 3

Grey Heron

Mute Swans 2

Mallard 7

Coot 2

Immature Red-Veined Darter

Common Darter

There was a lot of mating going on

Brown Hawker

Common Blue Damselfly 

Bog Hoverfly

Grey Heron

Janet had a quick look today, and despite a light shower managed to find one Red-Veined Darter on the main pond spit.

Red-Veined Darter

Tufted Ducks

Heysham Nature Reserve

Little overhead passage today but a decent ringing session - Report by Jean

The main theme of the ringing today was warblers. 10 of the 22 birds caught were warblers. Most birds were young ones, including the Jay. Unusually there were no Blue Tits!
Chiffchaff 7
Blackcap 2
Willow Warbler 1
Sedge Warbler 1
Goldcrest 1
Grey Wagtail 3
Goldfinch 5 (1 retrap)
Dunnock 1
Jay 1

North shore 

Heysham skear - Malcolm 09:15 - 10:45

I set out 30 minutes after low water, we are on spring tides now and it was a long way out! It was eerily quiet walking out in the haze, almost no air movement and most of the birds were miles away on the outer skear. 

Even those close by were silent.

This Canada goose flew north silently 

As did these three Pink-Footed geese

Later on the way back seven Pink-Footed flew south.

They at least managed a couple of honks

Shag 1  

Immature Shag

As the incoming tide displaced the Oystercatchers many headed to the
mud below Heysham Head to rest, so it was still relatively quiet

When it is flat calm and quiet like this you can actually hear these spring tides coming in. Not the rippling of moving water but the sheer energy of millions of tonnes of water filling the bay. It's a bit like being in a large empty building, but you can just hear the thrum of a large motor somewhere deep in its bowls. I took a video hoping to catch the sound, but it didn't really work. Possibly part of the hearing is more about just "feeling" the power. I'll share it anyway as it gives a sense of conditions out here today.

Eider 26

Red-Breasted Merganser 15

Great Crested grebe 10

The above three species in this shot

These are mainly mergansers, but there is also guest appearances from an Eider and Great Crested Grebe. By this time the tide is well up the shore and things are getting noisier.

Gulls c150. Mainly Herring gulls scratching out a living eating small mussels. But this Lesser Black-Backed has found a recently dead Eel, and it wasn't going to part with it.

Didn't take it ling to eat the Eel..... they are slippery 

Little Egret 16

Little Egret, Black-Headed gulls, Oystercatcher, Redshank and Curlew 
all catching small fish and shrimps as the tide races in

Oystercatcher probably 1500 but most moved directly from the outer skear to the mud shores

Curlew only 8 seen

Redshank 40 but most of those were high up the shore

Knot 6

Turnstone 30

Knot

Barnacle Goose 5 south - David Kaye

South shore 

Kevin had an afternoon walk along the sea wall

Around 80 Pink-footed Geese South as seen from the harbour entrance, flying high.

Dark Sword-grass on the arm.
A reasonably common migrant but the first I've seen here. 

Janet checked Red Nab

Little Egret - it was still very hazy

Oystercatchers about to be moved on by the tide

One of two Rock Pipits

In the Nature Park 

Chiffchaff 1 singing

This Chaffinch looks to have an infection on its foot.

Red Admiral