Clear gaps in the weather produce the vis mig

Heysham Obs
Vis mig 0700-0815
"Rolling" vis mig this morning - a mixture of checking the outfalls and listening, north wall and listening and outside the office produce the following obvious underestimate:

Meadow Pipit - 72 SE
Grey Wagtail - 2 SE
Chaffinch - c25 SE or temporarily grounded (all office area)
Linnet - 3 SE
alba Wagtail - 7 SE
Goldfinch - 6 SE (flock)
Swallow - 2 SE

Grounded
Goldcrest - at least 2 by office
a few 'ticking' Robins

Miscellany
Pale-bellied Brent Goose - 3 together SW at about 1100hrs as seen from the north wall - couldn't subsequently find them on the mudflats south of Ocean Edge
Shelduck - flock of 8 SW
Med Gull - ad & 1CY north wall, 3 1CY, 2 2CY, 2 Ad outfalls/Red Nab and area
Little Gull - ad stage 2 outfall
Common Tern - juv stage 2 outfall, later in the bay by Ocean Edge saltmarsh
Fulmar - one out mid-pm
Whimbrel - late bird over nhw mid-pm
Wheatear - one heliport
Ringed Plover - 54 heliport (one cr bird read & sent in) and 23 Ocean Edge at high tide
Redshank - 410 Ocean Edge beach at high tide

Moths
A major surprise in the form of Toadflax Pug - very late in the context of the recent weather.   This is one of the few regular sites in the north-west and it seems to have become rather scarce here in recent years.  Other insects included a Common Darter and Meadow Brown by the dipping pond.  Acleris emargana by the dipping pond mid pm along with at least one Nettle-tap moth

A gap in the rain reveals a leachs

Heysham Obs
A short gap in the rain allowed better visibility from the north harbour wall and a Leach's Petrel was picked up slowly making its way out of the Bay at 1320ish.  Not without precedent, this was the only seabird seen.  Two cars bearing birders appeared, but left after about 5 minutes as the bird had moved on.  Clearly, despite all the efforts in the birding press with respect to seawatching and vis mig, there is still a long way to go on the educational front.........or a significant number of people are just not interested in birding which requires "speculative effort" after the known target has left.  I'll give the north wall another go in about 30 minutes time.

Ocean Edge/Red Nab pre-tide
Med Gull - 2 1CY, 2 2CY, 1 3CY, 2 Ad, plus adult Fisher's roof
Little Gull - ad
Wheatear - 1
Linnet - 46

Webs 'highlights' (most of the stuff displaced by high tide/wave action)
Cormorant - 64 wooden jetty and area
Turnstone - 261 wooden jetty, 31 Ocean Edge beach
Ringed Plover - 22 heliport itself, 15 Ocean Edge beach
Redshank - 260 heliport seawall, 21 Ocean Edge beach
Oystercatcher - 560 heliport seawall, 160 Ocean Edge

Moths
Very little: 10 Treble Bar, Silver Y, 2 Square Spot Rustic, Rhomboid Tortrix, Garden Carpet (= the most 'unusual'!) and Common Marbled Carpet.

Another little vis window

Heysham Obs
Calmer than forecast this morning and mist nets would have been an option.  The whoosh net, however, did the trick with 4 Grey Wagtail colour-ringed and four Meadow Pipit as we were packing up

Outfalls/Ocean Edge quick check prior to the tide
Med Gull - 5 1CY, 3 2CY and 2 Ad (4 of the 1CY on Heysham 2 outfall)
Little Gull - ad
No terns seen

Office vis mig approximates/gross underestimates (other than Grey Wag) 0700-0930
Meadow Pipit - 60+
Chaffinch - 25+
Grey Wagtail - 5 (4 ringed)
Swallow - 5
Pink-footed Goose - 45

Middleton
22 Tufted Duck on model boat pond

Moths
An excellent catch considering the overnight conditions with 30+ including 12 Treble Bar, 7 Silver Y and Rhomboid Tortrix

Pinkfeet but little else

Heysham Obs
A marginal-strength wind with a tiny fraction of north of west in it was predictably, on the first day of the blow, a bit of a waste of time for seawatching.  This was somewhat as expected but we all felt we needed to go through the motions of a bit of coverage

North wall 0700-1100ish
Auk spp - 2 out, one in
Skua spp - 1 very distantly out coinciding with definite Arctic at Rossall
Pink-footed Goose - 60+25+65+63+37+20+25+8 SE (303)
Wheatear - one
Med Gull - Czech-ringed bird plus a 1CY

Outfalls/Red Nab
Common Tern - one juv for second day
Arctic Tern - one with the above briefly
Little Gull - adult
Med Gull - 2 2CY, 2 1CY, 2 ad

Butterflies
Two Red Admirals on the buddliea, the highest count of the year!

A short vis mig window

Heysham Obs
A short window of calm before another few days of wind and rain saw a smattering of the usual suspects on vis mig and three Grey Wagtail colour-ringed.  A couple of low weight/fatless Robin were ringed but no other evidence of night migrants.  As I post this, the wind is getting up and time to take the nets down looming.

Office area dawn to 0900 (intermittent vis mig coverage)
Pink-footed Goose - flocks of c150+118+31+45SE
Swallow - 1 SE
Chaffinch - 31 S/SW
Meadow Pipit - 29 SE
Linnet - 2 S
alba Wagtail - 17 SE
Grey Wagtail - 5 SE (3 ringed)
Carrion Crow - 2 perceived migrants S
Robin - two ringed
Goldcrest - group of four passed through next to the office mid-morning
Chiffchaff - 3 with LTT flock by dipping pond mid-pm

Ocean Edge area
Quick pre-tide check saw 2 x 1CY Med Gull, ad Little Gull, c3,400 Knot and 240 Grey Plover.
Sanderling - 12
Common Tern - adult outfalls

Tufted Ducks continue to increase

Heysham Obs
Due to some blip with my (very slow) home computer, it is not possible to upload pics or e.g. italicise text as the task bar will not appear until I get into work the following day! Anyone any suggestions as to why this might be and how to resolve it?

A very quick check off Ocean Edge saw 6 Med Gulls (3 2CY, 2 ad, 1 juv) and the usual adult Little Gull in the morning

The Tufted Duck on the Middleton model boat pond comprised 7 from 2/9 on wards, increasing to 11 on 10/9 and now 12 this morning.  Thanks for the pics Janet.

Bits and bobs slip through in fresh north-westerly

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?

Equinoxial weather day one

Heysham Obs
A good working (as opposed to distractions) week coming up, I suspect.

Ocean Edge incoming tide afternoon
Med Gull - 2 juv, 7 2CY, 1 3CY, 6 ad
Little Gull - ad
Sandwich Tern - two early morning only
Waders included 2,700 Dunlin, 1750 Knot
Wheatear - 1
Linnet - 47

Moths
Highlight the first Pink-barred Sallow of the year

Thanks to Sandra and John Truran for the following selection taken around Ocean Edge/Middleton & Heysham NRs

Vis mig to the fore in clear conditions

Heysham Obs
The first decent movement by Grey Wagtail and Meadow Pipit was unfortunately not reflected in the ringing effort where sun on the nets was a major problem.  Finch passage was also noticeable, but very few hrundines by 1000hrs other than a 'wadge' of House Martins.  The vis was almost certainly underestimated as multi-tasking was the order of the day (plus a late start!).  Grounded birds amounted to a rather surprising Redstart but very little else.

Walney are individually colour-ringing Goldfinches.  Please could you keep a lookout and make sure you record the single colour ring on the left leg (with metal) and the two single-colour rings on the right leg.  A bit easier than Twite where we have had to use split two-colour rings.  Please email any sightings (even if you don't manage to decipher all the colour-rings) to colin@walneyobs.fsnet.co.uk

Office vis mig 0645-1000hrs onwards
Meadow Pipit - 145 SE
Grey Wagtail - 22 SE
House Martin - 16 S
Swallow - 7 S
Chaffinch - 29 S
Tree Pipit - 1 SE
alba Wagtail - 4 SE
Starling - flock of 6 high to S
Jay - 1 possibly 2 thought to be passage birds
Goldfinch - 18 SE

Middleton
Raven - 11+2 moving south.

Ringing
5 Grey Wagtail colour-ringed was a pretty poor return from a major migration morning - there were more birds sitting on top of the nets than in them!  Very little else but did include a Sedge Warbler and four Reed Bunting

Moths
Mainly Treble Bar and Square-spot Rustic with nothing of note other than perhaps Agriphila geniculea

Butterflies
A late Gatekeeper by the office, also 2 male Common Blue

Crossbill but no cross bay vis

Heysham Obs
A murky morning with lowish cloud saw all the movement from the direction of Heysham Head and it contained two conspicuous absences which normally feature more regularly in 'cross bay vis' (Meadow Pipit and Grey Wagtail).  The poor visibility led to nothing from that direction unless it went south of the power station

Late news
The Swallow roost at Middleton contained at least 350-400 birds but seemingly very few Sand Martin this evening.  70 juvenile Swallow and one juvenile Sand Martin were ringed during a carefully controlled operation which saw the net closed before dusk and catch dealt with by 2025hrs.  You have to be so careful not to overstretch when roost-ringing this species.  Thanks to Jean and Louise for help.
Pink-footed Goose - smallish flock flew south after dark (2030hrs ish) as heard from Heysham NR carpark

Office area 0700-0930
Crossbill - two together SW at 0830hrs - both 'greenish'
Chaffinch - 22 SW
Swallow - c45 south - started moving quite early
House Martin - 9 south
Goldfinch - 6 SW
Siskin - 2 SW
Linnet - one SW

Grounded: at least one Willow Warbler, Lesser Whitethroat, two Goldcrest and at least one 'new' Chiffchaff.  Ringing produced very little in the 1.5hrs available, not helped by the feeders being empty all day yesterday! (single Goldcrest & Chiffchaff the highlights)

One that got away
Here is a record shot from Phil Slade of a Marsh harrier heading for our recording area on 3rd September. Does it count?!  Thanks Phil

Moths
July Highflyer and Dun-Bar were late, otherwise mainly Treble Bar, Silver Y and Common Marbled Carpet with low double-figures of each.  Two Light-brown Apple Moth were my first of the autumn

Butterflies
Here are some excellent pics taken by Janet yesterday.  Don't forget to vote for one of Janet's pics in the local newspaper (Guardian and Visitor) photo competition!  Thanks Janet