Heysham Obs
Should have looked a little more carefully at the weather but the home internet is not working.  A half-baked 'earlyish' start should have been a full-blown 'nets up at dawn'.  Arriving to a lot of tick-tacking, interspersed by hueets and an overflying Grey Wagtail & Tree Pipit

Office area 0650 onwards
Probably about 6 Blackcap, 4 Lesser Whitethroat, 10+ Willow Warbler and 5+ migrant Robin.  Best was a fem/imm Common Redstart by the entrance gate but, in the context of this year, no surprise that Common Whitethroat did not feature

Belated ringing effort just as the wind started to get up and the sun shone on the nets and 'new' birds included 4 Willow Warbler, 3 Robin, 3 Blackcap and a Lesser Whitethroat.  After two hours, it became too windy.

Southbound vis comprised:  10 Chaffinch, 3 Grey Wagtail, 2 Tree Pipit (all in the first 30 minutes) and 27 Swallow

Ocean Edge/Red Nab over the tide
Med Gull - 11 juvs on Red Nab/outfalls, two of them now sporting 1st winter masks as opposed to the rather uniform gingery brown juvenile head pattern, 1 3CY, 2 2CY and one adult
Sandwich Tern - one
Little Gull - usual adult
Grey Plover - 226
Dunlin - 370
...............then before the Barwit and Knot could be counted, a gentleman who proceeded to walk out and started to 'kick' the water flushed everything.  He was wearing a teashirt with what seemed to be Mickey Mouse on the front.

Moths not worth mentioning

Experimental photography

Heysham today.

Ocean Edge/Red Nab medium high tide
Grey Plover - 223
Bar-tailed Godwit - 270
Dunlin - 320
Ringed Plover - 32
Knot - 295
Oystercatcher - 5,650
Curlew - 52
Redshank - 480
Whimbrel - 1
Turnstone - 13 (+105 on wooden jetty)
Med Gull - 4 juvs, 2 ads, 2 2CY (& 2 juv, 1 Ad north wall area)
Little Gull - adult

Last night's Middleton Swallow roost
About 450 in the roost but did not arrive en masse until about 2015hrs and roosted in the more sheltered reed bed next to the gate in the western marsh.  Plenty of Sand Martin calls heard and 4/73 birds in the net were this species despite no tape. Just 3 adult Swallows ringed.

Toad in the trap and a leaf-mining expedition

Heysham Obs
A bit of going through the motions with seabird coverage this morning with no high expectations.  The most exciting thing this morning was a smallish Common Toad in the moth trap - quite a feat climbing a 3.5 metre wall, then presumably leaping/falling another 1.5 metres down a smooth inner wall on to the floor.  The most exciting thing this afternoon was breaking my duck with Southern Hawker with a nice male on the HNR top path (only about 5 previous records).  A leaf mining expedition provided some riveting discoveries for John.

North harbour wall
Manx Shearwater - 2 together out
Gannet - one adult in
Fulmar - one out
Shelduck - 7+10 out
Whimbrel - 3 out
Med Gull - one 2CY

Red Nab
Linnet - 60
Med Gull - 4 adult, 6 juv (one on outfalls), 1 2CY
Little Gull - one adult
Oystercatcher - 3,500
Redshank - 345
Curlew - 56
Dunlin - 2
Turnstone - 17
Black-headed Gull - just c250 (therefore many of the gulls far away on the sands south of Ocean Edge)

Birds along Ocean Edge-Potts corner foreshore too far away in bad light

Insects
The first two second brood Treble Bar of the late summer/early autumn or whatever this time of year is and a (scarce here) Garden Carpet.  A Rush Veneer was in SD46A along the top path this afternoon along with 10+ Silver Y on the reserve circuit.  Leaf mining produced Aspilapterix tringipenella, Mompha raschkiella, Parornix anglicella, Stigmella aurella  

Male Southern Hawker, 6 Migrant Hawker on a circuit of the reserve

Three Comma, 3 Brimstone, 2 Small Copper and a late Small Skipper on reserve circuit

Amphibian
A smallish Common Toad in the moth trap (see above)

No birds or big cats in the wrong kind of wet weather

Heysham Obs
A gang of four ducks on Middleton 'fence' pond first casually noticed just prior to racing round and putting the CES nets up yesterday morning were sorted out later as 3/4 sized juvenile Gadwall - surely, in conjunction with regular adult sightings, proof of breeding in SD45.  Thanks Mark

Better wind direction tomorrow on the earlyish morning tide for a seabird or two

Ocean Edge/Red Nab
Once again an intruder flushed all the gulls from Red Nab on the early morning tide and they were vefry unhelpfully rear-on miles away towards Potts Corner.  Just 4 juv and one adult Med located
Waders as per yesterday other than increase in Knot (at least 150) and Dunlin (c200)

Moths
Agriphila latistria best of the small catch

Common Buzzard double

Heysham Obs
Not too bad a morning for migration although the overhead passage was a little disappointing as recorded during the Middleton CES.  Thanks to Mark Breaks for helping with the evening Swallow roost.  120 Swallow and 8 Sand Martin were ringed with an additional Sand Martin control: Y551211

Middleton
Low single-figures of each of the common warbler species (Willow, Reed Sedge, Blackcap, Chiffchaff, Lesser & Common Whitethroat) were ringed but no sign of any Grasshopper Warbler
Grey Wagtail - one south very early but none subsequently, despite tape being played by a non-CES net
Tree Pipit - two south
Meadow Pipit - 5 south
House Martin - c70 south-east in three swirling groups
Swallow - probably about 40 SE (hope the roost is still extant later today!)
Common Buzzard - 2 juveniles circling around high then headed north at about 0845hrs - rare here!

Heysham NR
Much quieter migrant-wise but out of habitat Reed Warbler caught in the office nets

Outfalls/Red Nab pm (thanks to Mark for info)
Med Gull - 17, including 6 juvenile
Little Gull - adult
Sandwich Tern - 3
Grey Plover - 230
Bar-tailed Godwit - 260
Dunlin - c150
Knot - c60

Moths
Large Wainscot was early

Early morning trick missed?

Heysham Obs
A cluster of 5 Chiffchaffs seen at Middleton whilst on a mist net guy replacement mission mid-afternoon hinted at what might have been missed in the dull calm conditions this early morning.  Contra several forecasts, the lack of early morning wind and rain should perhaps have been responded to with a short monitoring ringing session

Outfalls/Red Nab
Med Gull - 5 juvs, one adult, one 2CY

Moths
Included Agriphila latistria and geniculea but nothing dramatic

A day for aerial feeders

Heysham Obs
Middleton NR in the evening
Big Swallow roost this evening with over 450 birds and the single net was closed at 2000hrs allowing 70 birds to be processed in good time ahead of the threatening skies to the south
Male Gadwall seen this evening and also yesterday evening

Ocean Edge
A quick pre-tide check mid afternoon was a little early and just 5 distant juvenile Meds were recorded

Office area
Virtually nothing grounded - not a single Willow Warbler seen for example.  A few Swallow tricked south (c40) and a further 65 moved ahead of a area of dark cloud along with a late Swift and c10 House Martin

Moth
A late Gothic was unexpected

Butterflies
Red Admiral on the office buddliea but no sign of yesterdays Painted Lady

Twenty one Meds and an obscure moth

Heysham Obs
Ocean Edge/Red Nab area
Med Gull - 10 juv, 7 adult/3CY, 4 2CY
Little Gull - adult

Middleton swallow roost
A cautious session this evening as befitted the possible threat of sudden rain out of a pretty uniform grey sky.  A single net visited regularly and taken down before dusk produced 44 Swallows (one adult) and a Sedge Warbler

Insects

Thanks Janet

Moth trap
An obscure thing I've forgotten the name of like a Coleophora with a tapering body - managed to locate it = Batrachedra praeangusta. Also three Agriphila latistria

Summer is over as the Old Lady visits the toilet?

Heysham Obs
A fresh autumnal morning after quite a warm early part of the night saw a moth catch seriously reduced in species as we seriously hit the 'rustic' season

Ocean Edge/Red Nab
Med Gull - at least 6 juvs, 3 adult, 3 2CY
Little Gull - adult
Whimbrel - one

Moths
Old Lady was new of the year in the 'toilet trap' and Bordered Beauty best of the rest which saw a significant increase in Flounced Rustic (36) and surely the last Straw Underwing and Heart and Dart of the year?

Plumes highlight a full moth trap

Heysham Obs
Ocean Edge/Red Nab
A miscreant racing around the mudflats in a four-wheel drive (N957 FWY) followed by three dogs.
Med Gull - 10 juvs, 3 adult/3CY, 4 2CY
Little Gull - moulting adult
waders pushed too far away towards the Lune by above vehicle

Yesterdays Swallow roost ringing
Sunday evening's session at Middleton NR was pre-roost and another session yesterday evening led to a further 85 Swallow and one Sand Martin being ringed out of about 250 roosting in a nearby reedbed.  In addition, there was a Swallow bearing a brand new ring from elsewhere - Y519776.

Insects from Heysham Nature reserve north yesterday afternoon:

Comma have not been particularly common this year and Least Yellow Underwing is a regular day-time flier, usually seen whizzing about rather than quietly nectaring like this individual.  Thanks Janet.  

Moths

Todays catch was large and typically dominated by Sallow, Flounced Rustic, Square Spot Rustic and the 'back-end' of the Six-striped Rustic emergence.  The other two 'plague species' at this time of year are never common in this trap (Large Yellow Underwing) and are having a bad year (Common Rustic (agg)).  Highlights were a late Grass Emerald, Agriphila latistria (3), Cochylis dubitana, Dusky Plume (Oidaematophrus lithodactyla) and Ambtyptilia acanthadactyla