Red Nab Therapy.

It was never planned, it just happened to be a couple of hours at Heysham Red Nab on Sunday which proved to have excellent therapeutic value. It was good to sit quietly and watch the gulls slowly pushed closer by the incoming tide....recommended if you want your head clearing out. 

Five Mediterranean Gull, and 4 Whimbrel seen. Over the pool on Heysham NR, a male Emperor Dragonfly chased a female around, which was eventually seen ovipositing, also a male Broad-bodied Chaser, a Painted Lady and Small Skipper. 

On Monday, a check of Conder Pool showed harmony to prevail on the pontoon, though a period of flying around, with screeching gulls and terns, and dive bombing at the pontoon, eventually calmed down.

Common Tern adult with juvenile. Conder Pool 8 July. Pete Woodruff. 

Three young are out of the second Common Tern nest, the two fledged CT's are enjoying their freedom and independence, as are the two fledged Black-headed Gull young. The second BHG now has two chicks out of the nest, and one of the Avocet also has day old chicks out of the nest, whilst the other Avocet continues to be sitting.

Two Little Grebe were seen again, and the Little Ringed Plover put in another brief appearance, with no evidence of breeding seen to date. In the creeks 12 Common Sandpiper, and on a wander, a Whitethroat, a Painted Lady and Cinnabar moth seen.

Swift at Conder Green.

A Swift was seen around Conder Green Farm, and by something of a coincidence was only two days adrift of one seen here on 6 July 2018, when it showed the same behaviour as this 8 July bird, in that it having been flying low around the farm, twice appeared to be going head-on under the guttering of the farm-house before sharply veering away. 

The Swift has never nested here to my knowledge, so it's hard to understand exactly what this behaviour is all about, though I read an interesting comment recently....'now is when patient watching reveals active nests and boxes can attract non-breeders searching for future sites'....perhaps I'd better be more vigilant next year. 

Cabbage Moth. Lynn Woodruff.

Thanks to Lynn for the Cabbage Moth found in her garden recently. A common moth which resembles a few other species, and has the unfortunate distinction of being a serious pest, mainly due to its liking for the cabbage as it's name indicates. 

Plan A....Other Things!

The plan yesterday was for other things to be done, but the pull on the Conder Pool magnate proved to much for me, in any case I needed to keep up to date with the state of play, so I managed to squeeze in a couple of hours there....Plan B.

There was a bit of a scare when I arrived at Conder Green, there was no sign of any Common Tern young, just the two growing well Black-headed Gull young. After around 15 minutes, and still no sign, an adult tern arrived from the estuary carrying a fish, the bird appeared to be going to feed the other adult the tasty fish, but heyup....having been hidden from view in the shadows, the two young terns came out of the depths of the nest box....Phew!!

Six Common Tern seen, which includes a third bird sitting at the backside of the small island left of the viewing screen. As far as I can see, there are two Avocet sitting, and I noted 6 Goldfinch flitting around. A Greenshank and 4 Common Sandpiper were in the creeks.

A walk along the coastal path produced 2 Painted Lady, 2 Speckled Wood, and a Cinnabar moth. An Emperor Dragonfly was patrolling the canal east beyond Christ Church. On the Lune Estuary, a Greenshank, 6 Eider, and 22 Greylag to note.

Painted Lady on Hebe. Pete Woodruff.

In our garden, 2 Painted Lady were nectar'ing on Hebe, and a young Dunnock was a nice surprise, and brought the tally to five species of young seen in the garden, Blackbird, Goldfinch, Great Tit, Blue Tit, and Dunnock.

And The Winner Is....

7 June. Ian Pinkerton. (Clik The Pik)

This image shows the cramped style the birds are enduring on the pontoon at Conder Green, with two pairs of Common Tern and a Black-headed Gull all sitting on eggs. Already the week old Oystercatcher chicks have been dealt with, little doubt by the Common Terns, with two corpses in view as evidence, the Black-headed Gull and whatever it's nest produces will have been marked as the next. All this, and with tolerance tested to the limit between the terns when young are involved. There's only going to be one winner here....watch this space. 

Three breeding pairs of Common Tern seen, with just 2 Avocet and none seen sitting, adds to the negative news from Conder Pool. Up to 140 Black-headed Gull had assembled here again, and 2 Dunlin seemed out of place here. There are a healthy number of Swallow around Conder Green Farm, and I counted six active House Martin nests at River Winds. Elsewhere, the Lesser Whitethroat continues to sing from the coastal path, and a Whitethroat and Sedge Warbler noted.

Common Blue. Pete Woodruff.

On the headland, I saw 6 Common Blue as I walked to Plover Scar where I spent a pleasant 45 minutes to find up to 160 Ringed Plover, the bonus of which was three day old chicks, also 130 Dunlin present, and 2 Linnet dropped in briefly. 

Cinnabar. Pete Woodruff.

A Cinnabar was at Conder Green. A fairly common moth which is usually nocturnal, but easily disturbed from long grass during the day.

Mainly Conder Green....What Again!

I got no further than the Lune Estuary at Glasson Dock after my visit to Conder Green on Monday, where I saw more early returning waders when I found 4 Common Sandpiper and up to 145 Redshank, there was also the first returning Little Grebe in it's fine summer plumage. I was a little surprised to find my record of an even earlier Little Grebe here on 9 June 2017, but it'll be a while yet before the number builds to a double figure on Conder Pool by the autumn.

Seven Common Tern were on Conder Pool, four adult and the three chicks still looking good Tuesday morning according to IP's report, despite savage attacks by the invaders from the island the previous day. The island pair have abandoned their breeding attempt, but an Avocet at the opposite end leads me to suspect they might be nesting on the back side of this island, also noted 19 Tufted Duck. Lone birds were a Tree Sparrow in the hedgerow, a Swift over the pool, and a Black-tailed Godwit and Whooper Swan in the creeks.

Two Common Tern plunge diving on the Lune Estuary at Glasson Dock were probably Conder Pool birds, otherwise six adult in the area, 3 Eider were the only other birds to note here at high tide.

The Cinnabar.

I saw not one butterfly today, but was treated to a beautiful Cinnabar moth in the long roadside grasses at Conder Green.

Cinnabar Larvae Fluke Hall July 2017. Pete Woodruff.

Cinnabar Moth. Ian Kimber 

Except for maybe Burnets, the Cinnabar is not confusable with any other British species, it is a fairly common moth. With yellow and black hoops, the larvae generally feeds on ragwort and other related plants. 

I'm grateful to Ian Kimber@ UK Moths for allowing me the use of his image.

Butterfly Conservation.

Coastal Path. Fluke Hall to Knott End. Pete Woodruff.

Black and White, taken some years ago, and not effective in showing colour to some excellent butterfly habitat, but illustrates the coastal location well.

Cinnabar Moth Caterpillar On Ragwort. Pete Woodruff.

Butterfly Conservation went out the window again on Tuesday, the day after I had found in excess of 200 specimens of butterfly and an abundance of Ragwort, including at least 60 Gatekeeper, large numbers of Cinnabar moth caterpillars, and endless numbers of other insects, all attacked/destroyed at the wrong time in the season on a walk along the coastal path from Fluke Hall to Cockers Dyke on the Fylde coast. I also met Barry who had done the same walk ahead of me and extended the walk towards Knott End to find even more butterflies than I did, he'll be delighted to read this post I'm sure.

Meeting John at Conder Green yesterday, I asked him where he'd been before coming to Conder Green, he said he had walked along the same path as I had done the day before, and told me the bank along the landward side of the path had been mowed down probably all the way to Knott End from Fluke Hall, in which case something like 4 miles at least. 

This isn't the first time this has happened, and it had also been mowed down at Pilling Lane Ends on a previous year I had visited the site, and probably is every year for all I know at all these excellent butterfly locations.

All this is down to some pencil pushing clown in a council office somewhere, signing pieces of paper headed 'Jobs To Do' and either not applying all the qualifications he would have needed to have been engaged to do the job, or maybe not even have to have any qualification at all.

I intend to make enquiries about all this, meanwhile....FUCK! 

12 August 2016.

No different than any other day in August, with nothing particularly glorious about it, and definitely not if you're a Red Grouse, or more tragically if you're a Hen Harrier, and as a birding day for me it was definitely nothing glorious as it was something of a repeat of Tuesday's birding though my list ended even shorter than it did that day. 

It was good to see the juvenile Avocet at rest on Conder Pool, though no sign of the adult. We're heading towards a double figure count with 9 Little Grebe on the pool, otherwise all was quiet, and I note the female Tufted Duck with four chicks on 29 July has never been seen since....Deja vu. 

I found 11 Common Sandpiper in the creeks and down the channel, and noted up to 8 House Martin around Cafe d' Lune with two nests still active. Despite the windy conditions I saw a Painted Lady, a Peacock, and a Speckled Wood along the coastal path.

As Tuesday the Lune Estuary at Glasson Dock was a virtual desert again, but I returned here a couple of hours later as the tide raced in and began to push a few waders into view to see up to 50 Redshank and similar Lapwing, 4 Dunlin and 2 Knot, one in winter plumage, the other retaining some fading summer red. Across the river I found an adult Mediterranean Gull, and was treated to a display by 2 Common Tern fishing over a pool which had obviously trapped small fry from the previous tide, these two birds were dipping into the pool, up and down like they were dangling from elastic bands....brilliant stuff.

Photo. Pete Woodruff.

I found this caterpillar along the coastal path at Glasson Dock....

Photo. Ian Kimber. 

....it's the larvae of the Cinnabar, a fairly common moth resembling no other British species excluding perhaps the Burnets. The Cinnabar has been introduced into New Zealand, Australia and North America to control poisonous ragwort, on which its larvae feed.

Thanks to Ian Kimber @ UK Moths for the image of the Cinnabar.