Twitchable Burnet Companion attracts the hordes

Heysham Obs
In the absence of any redirected Hartlepool warblers (this fortunately turned up on my only 'work-free' day, in contrast to the bad miss with the Cream-coloured Courser), the highlight was yesterday's Burnet Companion moth in exactly the same place and being 'nailed' by photographers and moth twitchers.  On the same theme, an overnight sheet/light plus Robinson trap run below/from the classroom produced two new species, an unexpected Small Elephant Hawk-Moth and a range-extension for the spreading White Pinion-spotted.  

Burnet Companion Heysham NR.  Thanks Janet..  Tried also to upload its congenor, Mother Shipton, but problems!

Local Breeding birds

Heysham
The third CES visit carried out this morning suggested plenty of breeding pairs of various species around the Obs Tower area this year.  Also young Long-tailed tits, Robins and Dunnocks captured.

Middleton NR - 06.00 - 07.40hrs.

Mute Swan - 14 (2 pairs, 1 with 10 cygnets)

Shelduck - 2

Mallard - 3 (2m/1f)

Tufted Duck (1m/1f)

Pheasant - 1

Grey Heron - 1

Kestrel - 1

Moorhen - 1

Coot - 6 (inc. 2 juv)

Lesser Black-backed Gull - 20+

Herring Gull - 5+

Woodpigeon - 4+

Swift - 3

Magpie - 6+

Carrion Crow - 4+

Swallow - 5

Chiffchaff - 1

Lesser Whitethroat - 2

Whitethroat - 6+

Grasshopper Warbler - 3

Sedge Warbler - 3+

Reed Warbler - 4+

Wren - 5+

Starling - 1

Blackbird - 8+

Song Thrush - 1

Mistle Thrush - 1

Dunnock - 3

Chaffinch - 10+

Greenfinch - 5+

Goldfinch - 4+

Linnet - 30+

Reed Bunting - 3+

(No Willow Warblers or Blackcap seen or heard)

Moths
Burnet Companion - 1 seen during butterfly transect near reserve entrance road - a very scarce species here.  What may have been a Poplar Kitten in the office trap this morning, also the first Eyed Hawk of the year and another Shaded Pug.  A worn highflyer spp awaits a check (both Ruddy and May occur here) .

Shaded by the pugs

North harbour wall 0445-0645

1 ad. Little Gull flying in.

3 Gannets across toward Walney & 1 out.

2 Mute Swans flew west half way across the bay then landed on the water to drift out on the ebb.

North harbour wall 0805-0835

Razorbill - 2 in close inshore, 5 in a bit further out

Arctic Tern - flock of 31 in, gaining height but not dramatically so at 0822

Black Tern - 2 with the above - would have missed them had they been on their own - really hard to see against the background of the Furness peninsula

Canada Goose - 2 in

Swallow - 23 in

Swift - 3 in together

Dunlin - 14 out (flock)

Amazingly, no heathaze, which was a real pain in the cold weather earlier in the month!

Middleton NR

Greylag - 7 on the model boat pond

Gadwall - pair, but no apparent chicks, in the central marsh

Reed Warbler - 3+ singing

Insects

A decentish moth catch by recent standards included the first three Shaded Pug of the year - a local speciality

24 Four-spotted Chaser seen Middleton during check from concrete central road also male Broad-bodied Chaser, a scarce insct at Middleton.  "A few" <10 Common Blue Damselfly over the water at the model boar pond but no sign of any larger dragonflies on there 

Distant terns and the traditional peak time for wandering Canadas and Greylags!

Heysham Obs
Thanks to Pete for this morning's coverage which indicates that what were presumably (but safely 'spp'd' due to distance) Arctic Terns are still on the move in easterlies.  Unlucky not to have a Black Tern with them.  Canadas and Greylags like wandering around this time of year!

Heysham Harbour North Wall - 05.35 - 08.10hrs.

Canada Geese - 13 flying in

Greylag Geese - 5 flying in

Shelduck - 5 in

Gannet - 2 (1imm. in/1ad. out)

Whimbrel - 3 in

Commic Tern - 146 in but well out (flocks of 7/26/46/10/40/17) between 06.47 & 07.15

Swift - 7 (2 E from across bay / 5 NE)

Sand Martin - 2 NE

Swallow - 20 NE

House Martin - 1 NE

Bits and bobs still on the sea from the last two days

North harbour wall

Yesterday – 06.30 – 07.35

3 Sandwich Terns

3 Swallow NE

2 Shelduck (looked like the pair from my previous visit – the female had distinctive white markings on head – but no sign of any of the ducklings. The pair flew off and I saw them again I think when i moved up to Middleton.

 

Today – 10.45 – 11.05 ish

1 adult Little Gull flew in and landed on oil-jetty skear

19 Commic Terns flew out to gather around stage 1 outfall. I went round to see if any were Common but by the time I got through gate 38 and onto the south wall they had moved on.

[Pom Skua and c17 Arctic and one Black tern entered the bay early morning at Rossall]

Thanks for the info, Pete

Common Tern at last!

Heysham Obs
Three of the team who have been covering the place pretty conscientiously this spring are largely unavailable for the next two weeks, so any help keeping a daily log going gratefully received - we don't mind missing the odd Red-backed Shrike on Middleton or the long-overdue Subalpine warbler on the next CES - perhaps more likely, looking at the forecast, a singing Rosefinch.  Given the forecasted 'perfect' easterly weather, it would be great if they were recorded as our track record for these late spring oddities (because there is too much cover to search for just one lost late migrant) is dreadful compared to the likes of nearby Walney, despite the rest of the year comparing favourably with these less-vegetated coastal sites

Perhaps more realistically, any moth trap records or dragonflies would help to keep the daily postings going

Sea 1000-1030
Common Tern - at last!!!! one in the channel feeding
Small White butterfly - 3 north
Flies - several unknown species in-off

Moths
Highlighted by a Lychnis.  Late news for yesterday - a Heart and Dart in the trap - the first of many one assumes

Perfect CES weather and a few micros and vis

Heysham Obs
Nice calm murky weather again knocked the sea on the head, but allowed what, at this time of year, is usually a very quiet Middleton CES visit to be undertaken in near-perfect conditions

Middleton CES
The ringing included a couple of presumed breeding Grasshopper Warblers - again both unringed, despite 40+ being ringed there last year.  There has only ever seemingly been one ringed bird returning as a breeding adult, assuming we do ring and retrap most of the breeding birds and offspring.  This contrasts with a majority of the Sedge and Reed Warblers being returning ringed birds

Vis mig 0630-0930
Swallow - 34 NE
Sand Martin - 2 NE
Swift - 2 NE

Moths
Ancylis badiana and Timothy Tortrix were disturbed during the ringing activities on Middleton.  The hut trap was also micro-dominated with Cochylis atricapitana and both White-shouldered and Brown House Moths

Moths and unexpected retraps

Heysham Obs
A strange morning with a 'fret' knocking any seabird visibility on the head & encouraging a session with mist nets by the office interspersed with report writing.  The moths were good by recent standards and surely not all due to the recent revelations that moth trap bulbs lose their efficiency after a few months and should be replaced.  Certainly the hut trap blended bulb was looking a bit yellow and its replacement was a lot "whiter" but surely the upturn in moths was mainly due to temperatures/wind direction the last couple of nights?

Office ringing
A major surprise comprised three seemingly all male retrap Lesser Whitethroat caught in the same net in quick succession and all being ringed either as juveniles in autumn 2010 or 2CY in spring 2011.  None of these were breeding immediately locally but were surely not new arrivals??  Very odd.  In a similar vein was a retrap adult male Common Whitethroat from 2010 in the same net, again neither of the two noisy immediately-local males which still seem to be unpaired

Moths
Common Swift, Scalloped Hazel, Flame Carpet, Common Pug all kicked their year off whilst Hebrew Character and Clouded Drab were drawing their year to a close

Moths, baby shelduck and a trickle of migrants

Heysham Obs
By recent standards a phenomenal moth catch this morning of 10 moths of 7 species including year-ticks Muslin Moth (not annual here), Cinnabar and Rustic Shoulder Knot

Seawatch for 1.5hrs north wall
Wheatear - 4 in sandworks
Common Sandpiper - 1 along wall
Whimbrel - 1
Arctic Tern - flock of 7 in
Swallow - 16 NE
Goldfinch - 2 NE
Gannet - one out
Shelduck - pair brought 10 young from direction of Heysham Head and they were last seen feeding under the wooden jetty.  No idea where these came from with a Heysham head rabbit burrow perhaps being unlikely?

Red Nab high tide
Oystercatcher - 221
Bar-tailed Godwit - 20
Whimbrel - 1

Poms slip under the radar and a missing parrot

Heysham Obs
First the excuse (other than having a lot of work to do).  It is really difficult to know what seabirds, if any, move in the kind of weather we had this morning - it is often quite promising, but have you really got two hours to spare watching paint dry for the sake of a single skua sighting?  This is where Jenny Brown's Point comes in as it is decision-time for skuas and they can hang about wondering what to do, instead of being a one minute easy-to-miss wonder entering the Bay as seen from Heysham

Missed on the sea, but picked up at JBP
Pomarine Skua - At around midday, a flock of four light-morph watched approaching JBP from the outer bay (i.e. off here!) and headed up the Kent channel, then returned a few minutes later before landing distantly on the sea off the Keer mouth.  They were then joined by two other skuas of similar size, but they were too far away to be identified either to species or morph (thanks to Tom Wheeler for info)
Arctic Tern - flock of 9 off JBP

Heysham NR
Willow Warbler - two ringed, probably migrants

Middleton NR
Reed Warbler - four singing males
African Grey Parrot - thanks to Brian Russell for informing us of the presence of one of these 'last week' around the gun club building/model boat pond (assuming there is no other wirehopper which is 'pigeon-sized, grey with a bright red tail' - Brian did not see the head/bill properly?)

Insects
There were a few!  The moth trap held a White Ermine and Common Carpet.  Middleton NR produced teneral Four-spotted Chaser, teneral Common Blue Damsel and about 30 Large Red Damsel (central marsh only checked).  Heysham NR butterfly transect saw 30 Large Red Damsel, 13 Common Blue butterfly and single Orange Tip, Small White and Peacock (no Speckled Wood!)