Heysham Obs
An early morning wader count, a tiny bit of seawatching and a bit of net-ride maintenance all suggested things were happening............as did the surprisingly good moth catch
Ocean Edge/outfalls area
Med Gull - 5 2CY, 3 ad and one juv at high tide, but many gulls too far away to the south
Little Gull - ad
Knot - increase to 3,600
Dunlin - seemingly as yesterday - about 2,500 but distant and some may have been e.g. Sanderling as they were the other day!
Bar-tailed Godwit - 270
Grey Plover - 230
Shelduck - increase to 52
Offshore
Arctic Skua - juv blogging quite distantly but enough to rule out Long-tailed
Late on yesterday during the last sample count, 4 Common Scoter flew out of the Bay
Office area 1050-1120
Goldcrest - 2
Chiffchaff - 2
Lesser Whitethroat - one
Meadow Pipit - 11 SE
alba Wagtail - 5 SE
Pink-footed Goose - flock heard to the west of the power station
Moths
A reasonable catch was maybe partly a function of the new 160watt blended bulb after the old one gave up the ghost yesterday. Apparently these lose their ultra-violet potency over time and certainly go 'yellower', suggesting this. What appeared to be a less than mind-boggling night actually produced 19 Treble Bar, 9 Silver Y and a late (for here) Diamond-back Moth amongst small numbers of the usual Square Spot/Flounced Rustic dross and the likes of Eudonia angustea and what we record as 'com/lat' - two Acleris which need genitalia determination but, as they have both been proven for here, we don't bother any more. Incidentally, along the same lines, I have just received the latest MapMate synch comprising highly experienced Lancashire moth-ers results for the last few weeks and all have been recording Copper Underwings as aggregates. Are we really back to square one without gen det?
