Friday 28 March 2008

Another good Kittiwake passage

Heysham Obs
Most of these were recorded by Jenny Brown's Point observers whilst we were at work, knowing the bay was being 'covered'! 321 off JBP during mid-afternoon - best to include the Heysham birds mentioned below amongst them to be on the safe side. A 15 min seawatch & extensive scan was made as the JBP observers were just about to give up & there appeared to be no more Kittiwake on the move [but a flock of 7 Red-throated Diver]

North harbour wall 1200-1300 (immediately post-rain)
Kittiwake 1+2+14 in
Red-throated Diver 1+1 in 1200-1300 plus s.p. flock of 7 in, then landed at 1530hrs
Meadow Pipit - 4 in & no movement of any significance noted at Heysham today
Twite - 12 at the feeder (4 ringed), increasing to 15 (4 ringed) at 1530hrs

Ocean Edge
Wheatear - one male

Stage 2 outfall
Little Gull - one, later two adults

Moths
2 Hebrew Character & a Brown House Moth

Elsewhere
Ross's Goose, Barnacle Goose and two Whooper Swans Aldcliffe, visible from both sides of the Lune. JBP had c321 Kittiwake during the afternoon tide period when there was no equivalent (i.e. up to 20 mins or so before JBP sighting) coverage at Heysham, plus 4 RTD. 4 Scaup still at Conder. Chough still in Warton Crag quarry at 1715hrs & 873 Common Gull flew through Pine Lake 1730-1800 hours & about 1/3 of that number of BH Gull but no Meds!

Sorry its late 'cos quite a bit of stuff

Heysham Obs
Just checked site at 0130hrs having just been out on the town - misunderstanding, thought someone else was updating today. Apologies!

Vis mig intermittent 0700-1000, then 1045-1115
Meadow Pipit - just 134 recorded during first period, then 69 in 30 minutes passing 'through' a wide-angle 30x scope trained half-horizon at Piel Castle i.e. a seawatch! Casual glances away from this scope saw several birds flying above and, in conjunction with JBP observations, a lot of birds were missed late morning. However, an afternoon visit indicated the movement had finished
Goldfinch - 1 north!
Sand Martin - 1 north
Pied Wagtail - 4 north
Pink-footed Goose 80 north

Seawatching
Kittiwake - 62 were blogging, having arrived in 5 groups during the early low-tide period, before disppearing up the Bay. Two flocks at the same time during the later 30 minutes - about a mile apart (one close inshore, the other in Cumbria!) 32+61, giving a day total of 155. Unlike Meadow Pipit, the movement ceased thereafter with NONE seen off JBP when observation started about midday.
Sandwich Tern - the first of the year making its way slowly and distantly out of the Bay at 0955hrs
Red-throated Diver - 6+1+1 in during 0700-1000, 2 in sp in together at 1100hrs = 10 in total

Sandworks feeder
14 Twite (2 ringed), 2 Linnet and an inquisitve Meadow Pipit

Seaduck
100 Eider, 4 GC Grebe and a flock of 27 RB Merganser off the NHW at low tide.

Elsewhere
Ross's Goose still Aldcliffe. 4 Scaup Conder area.