Not quite good enough

Heysham Obs
Before another tale of a missed opportunity to clinch a decent bird, some interesting stats on Grey Wagtail.  The vis mig total for September was 261 and the ringing total was 132 which gives a decent enough sample to say that you catch half of them!


Instead of being in situ on the chair with optics at the ready, grabbing a cup of coffee saw me 3-4 metres from my optics when what appeared to be a Richard's Pipit was heard calling in the sky to the NNW.  Unfortunately, by the time I had grabbed the bins, the bird was in the 'eastern sky' and silhouetted as well as heading progressively further away.  It was quite vocal with 5 calls heard and the undulating "large Pied Wagtail" silhouette obviously ruled out House Sparrow!  However rare flyovers require at least a little bit of plumage and this was not possible by the time it hit the eastern sky.  So its an 'almost but not quite' as regards a submittable Lancashire record


Vis mig by the office 0830-1000 - not a lot after the wind got up at 0920.
Chaffinch - 80 S
Bullfinch - 3+2 high to south
Tree Sparrow - 2 grounded then S
alba Wagtail - 26 SE
Meadow Pipit - 17 (forgot to enter first time round!)
Jay - one south
presumed Richards Pipit - see above ESE at 0902hrs
Siskin - 4
Carrion Crow - flock of 5 south
Linnet - 6 S
Greenfinch - 3 S
Goldfinch - 18 S
Skylark - 3+H+2 SE
Pink-footed Goose - flock heard to the west


Grounded HNR
Chiffchaff - at least 6
Goldcrest - 4

NH Wall
Linnet - 11 on nyger at the feeding station.


Moths
A blank for the first time since the late winter days