Caspian tern, Budworth Mere

An adult Caspian tern was at Budworth Mere yesterday but disappeared by midday while I was still at Martin Mere. I wasn't too concerned about missing it because although they're great birds, it is quite a cosmopolitan species which I've seen all over the world on my travels, including Portugal, Spain, Cyprus, USA, India, Kuwait, Australia and New Zealand, plus I've previously seen a few in the UK including in the North West at Leighton Moss. So I was very relaxed about it.... 

Then it reappeared this morning so I just dropped everything and went! Why I can't say, I just felt like going and I had the time available. I left home at 10:55, drove to Budworth Mere, walked to the viewing spot, saw the bird, filmed it, watched it get flushed by walkers and fly off, so I returned to the car, drove home and was home by 12:30. A ninety-five minute return journey!

The photos might be described by some as record shots, by others perhaps less than record shots, but give me a break, the bird was nearly 400m distant in heat haze. As far as I'm concerned, they're awesome photos and I'm still waiting to see better 😆

VisMig on Formby beach

I love a bit of visible migration and it was certainly happening at Formby beach on Saturday. I met up with Josh late morning and we walked down lifeboat road to the beach. The tide was receding so we walked out half a mile to the waters edge and then headed south towards Hightown, gradually getting further away from the shore as the tide retreated. Out this far there was a wonderfully cooling easterly breeze and it was a pleasure to be here. 

Once we got away from the Lifeboat road area the beach was deserted, not another person in sight. There were small groups of birds here and there, mainly gulls but also perhaps about 500 noisy sandwich terns including a few juveniles. Numbers of these terns will gradually build into August, and from ringing recoveries they are known to originate from colonies on Anglesey (Cemlyn Bay), Ireland and Cumbria. Otherwise it was very quiet, just a few common terns and hardly any waders.

The beach wasn't completely deserted though. There were loads of butterflies coming in off the sea and every one that I managed to identify was a red admiral, though there were probably also painted lady's involved as well. We saw a single hawker type dragonfly flying low over the beach a good three quarters of a mile offshore, but frustratingly it was silhouetted and flew into the sun before I could identify it, but it's tempting to think lesser emperor or Norfolk hawker given the numbers that are around at the moment. We also saw at least two moths, smaller than silver y but not as big as a hawk-moth. As expected nothing landed so identifying individuals to species level as never going to be easy, and although they all made good progress inland, they were buffeted by the wind and following them in binoculars was very difficult.

When these migratory insects are blown west over the water by easterly winds such as we are currently experiencing, they compensate by angling their flight into the wind and returning to the mainland. It's a fabulous experience to walk through it as it's happening. 

Lesser emperors and ruddy darter, Bickershaw

It's been a good year so far for migrant dragonflies with lesser emperors and red-veined darters popping up in lots of places here in the North West. So far I've resisted the temptation to twitch lesser emperor, preferring instead to try to find one locally at Bickershaw, so I was made up today to find not one, but two on the stock pond in the north of the site. 

I've seen them before both in the UK and abroad but I'd forgotten how nice they are with that bright blue saddle and green eyes contrasting with the brown abdomen and thorax. A really special find, bringing my site total to 21 species. 

24 common scoter Pennington flash

A flock of 24 drake common scoter were found at the flash at 11:00 this morning and we're said to be very flighty, being frequently moved around the flash by yachts and other boats. I got there at 16:00 and expected them to have been flushed one too many times and be long gone, but remarkably they were still present at the western end. As I watched they were flushed by a canoe and landed in east bay, before being flushed again. The last I saw of them they were in the middle at 16:50 and the yachts were off the water. Hopefully they got some peace for a while before continuing their migration.

July is a classic time of year for flocks of males to appear at the flash on moult migration. This was the largest flock of males that I have seen here. I did see a flock of 36 a few years ago but that was in November and they were all females and 1st winter birds.

Quail, Martin Mere

It's been a great year so far for quail, with many singing males being reported. The Derwent Valley in Derbyshire reported 61 singing males about 10 days ago. Not quite so many in our area but still quite a few, so when one was reported singing distantly on Sunley's Marsh at Martin Mere on Wednesday, it seemed a good opportunity to add the species to my Martin Mere list. 

Of course one of the problems with quail is that they tend to sing mostly at dawn or dusk which is currently a full five hours before Martin Mere opens. However, Wednesdays bird was reported as singing at 13:00 from the Ron Barker hide so it was worth a go. On Thursday I saw plenty of other great birds on Vinson's but failed to hear quail so decided to try again and a bit earlier today. The plan worked and I managed to hear one within a few minutes of arriving. 

Obviously as expected I didn't see the quail, but there were at least two barn owls flying around plus the usual marsh harriers and various egrets, but no sign of any spoonbills. Perhaps most impressive, there were 11 green sandpipers with 9 on Vinson's and another 2 on Sunley's.

Egrets, herons and spoonbills on Vinson's marsh, Martin Mere

When I first visited Martin Mere 51 years ago with my dad, I would never have dreamt that I might one day see five species of heron plus spoonbills on Vinson's marsh, yet that's exactly what happened this morning. I counted four spoonbills, five great white egrets, six cattle egrets, five little egrets, two grey herons and a bittern all on view at the same time on one relatively small patch of open water on Vinson's. What my dad would have made of a scene like this I really can't imagine. More in line with what he would have expected, there were also four green sandpipers on Vinson's.

Meanwhile, on Sunley's, the marsh adjacent to Vinson's, there was another bittern and a hunting barn owl. Then a male marsh harrier appeared carrying food prompting five birds that looked like juveniles to fly up to it. The male dropped the food mid-air to one of the youngsters which caught it and the male headed off presumably to find food for the others.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, Martin Mere is the best reserve in North West England by country mile.

Four spoonbills, two adults and two second calendar year birds.

Little terns, Pennington Flash

I was all set for going to Bickershaw this afternoon but then John Tymon found a couple of little terns on the spit so I ended up going back to the flash.

Another juv. black-necked grebe and a green sandpiper, Pennington Flash

This morning at the flash, a juvenile black-necked grebe was just outside Horrock's hide with a feeding frenzy of coots, mallard and swans. A green sandpiper was on the small scrape right outside the hide and at least five common sandpipers were on the spit or at the sailing club. A minimum of 10 common terns were present with at least one juvenile. It really does feel like autumn now, apart from the fact that the temperatures are due to touch 30'C this afternoon. Meanwhile, taking advantage of the building heat this morning, several small red-eyed damselflies were on the canal and the pond at the side of Ramsdales, along with their cousins red-eyed damselfly, a couple of emperors, brown hawkers and black-tailed skimmers.

 

It's been a good year for black-necked grebes at the flash, being present on at least18 days so far, with a minimum of 10 adults pre-breeding and two adults and five juveniles post breeding.

Pristine cattle egrets on the spit, Pennington Flash

Two cattle egrets were on the end of the spit this morning up until about 8:15 when they flew west. Complete with pink legs and pink bills they were in pristine breeding plumage, I don't think I've ever seen cattle egrets looking so good. Also today at least one common sandpiper still, two Egyptian geese, 11 common terns and a drake pochard.

Cattle egrets are still rare birds at the flash and these were only my fifth record here.

Ruddy darters at Connah's Quay

It was great to see a good number of ruddy darters out at Connah's Quay Nature reserve today, my first for nine years! Also lots of butterflies and at least 48 avocets still on the reserve.

Butterflies and a hummingbird hawk-moth on the Great Orme

It turned out a better day than forecast and by lunchtime it was sunny and warm. By this time I was on the cliffs about 200m north of the old West Shore toll station. South facing, it was alive with butterflies, but it was this hummingbird hawk-moth which stole the show. I watched it flying around for a bit before it landed for a few minutes allowing me to fire off a few photos. I don't think I've ever seen one landed before.

Star of the show for the butterflies was this dark green fritillary, but there were hundreds each of silver-studded blue, grayling, gatekeeper and meadow brown, with a few painted ladies, small tortoiseshells and red admirals. A really impressive display.