Wednesday 21 May 2008

House Martin passage & Spotted Flycatchers

Heysham Obs
A seawatch between 0930 & 1030 from the NHW was not very productive other than the largest numbers of passage House Martin of the year. At least 2 Spotted Flycatcher around the reserve.

North harbour wall 0930-1030
Arctic Tern - flock of 6 in
Sandwich Tern - 17 out
Swallow - 44NE
House Martin 83NE, including a cluster of 35

Black Guillemot as per Jean's posting of last Saturday!

Further seabirds
Light morph adult Arctic Skua and more distant dark skua spp off Stone Jetty heading in 1310hrs. Plus 5 Arctic tern. Later a dark morph Arctic Skua and pale morph Pomarine Skua were seen heading up the Kent estuary from JBP [the light Arctic had presumably headed unseen from JBP via the Keer flightline, as suggested by being closer inshore (100m) at SJ].

Red Nab/Ocean Edge 1200-1215
One Whimbrel!
Swallow 6NE
Swift 4NE
House Martin 2NE

Nature reserve
Single Spotted Flycatchers by the dipping pond and on the fence just east of the car park

Elsewhere
3 Spoonbill Leighton Moss [Red-spotted Bluethroat Hilbre this morning - keep looking in this area - Scandinavian migrants are not landing on the east coast in any numbers due to clear conditions but a fair number have been seen on the Irish Sea islands/coastal points, presumably including a proportion of the Spot Flys, this last few days - the weather synopsis gets even better Thursday-Saturday (at least)]. Hobby on the pager for 'over Lancaster at 1145hrs'.