Kittiwake famine is over

Heysham Obs
Very easy to take Kittiwakes for granted during the usual regular incidence of sustained periods of onshore winds.  Even though the winds may not always be strong enough to produce a motley collection of inshore storm-driven waifs, which usually find the 'waterfall' food supply in the harbour, they usually 'encourage' birds to follow boats to within visual range of onshore observers.  However, when these winds are absent or not quite sustained enough, as has been the case this autumn, Kittiwakes can be completely absent for lengthy periods.  This happened during the freezing weather in early 2010 (none between 1/1 and 12/3) and this autumn has been similar with none since 16/10

North wall brief car-based visit
Kittiwake - adult following an orange 'rescue boat' as far as the wooden jetty
Med Gull - adult as above
Twite - 10 on seed and others heard (2/10 unringed)
Goldfinch - 1+ heard

Awful weather!

Friday fare

Heysham Obs
North harbour wall SD36V power walk
Song Thrush - 1 mound
Wren - 1 mound
Twite - 61 in a 'pure' flock, then probably 11 different birds mixed in with:
Goldfinch - 5
Linnet - 1
Wigeon - solitary female on the sea - nothing else of note on single 'sweep'

No chance to see Twite ring details (food put out 0900hrs)

Moth
Winter Moth in the trap - looks quite productive for moths if you have shelter this next few days!

stena underperformer

Heysham Obs
A miserable wet day saw 10 bedraggled twite on the seed and an outgoing ferry called Stena Performer producing the obvious blog title as there were no Meds following it out, most unusually - but they have been suspected of heading for wet fields on this kind of day before

Twite return with extras

Heysham Obs

North harbour wall SD36V circuit
Med Gull - the usual three (2 ad & 1 2CY) following a departing ferry out as far as the wooden jetty before returning inshore
Twite - 67 all together on the seed allowing a quick check:  6 unringed (possibly 7-8) c/f yesterdays comment, one with metal-only on right leg (not a recent ring and not a Linnet!), rest all Heysham-ringed as far as could be seen
Linnet - 3 with above (2 ringed)
Goldfinch - 5 with above - not checked for rings
Song Thrush - 1 (but again no pipits)
Great-crested Grebe - 3 in a low-tide sweep

Moth
One Mottled Umber (the 42nd of the morning - 41 at Millhouses!)

More successful Twite ringing

Heysham Obs
North harbour wall
Song Thrush - 1
Twite - 30 were caught of which 18 were already Heysham-ringed, including quite a few birds from previous years.  Perhaps surprisingly, there were 12 unringed birds, marginally more than have been seen in the field recently.  There was at least one small flock which was not caught and ringed, nor examined in the field for ringed/unringed ratios.  The wary behaviour of this flock and observations on previous days suggests that possibly all the current Twite have now been ringed.  Will be interesting to see if any more unringed birds materialise this winter
Goldfinch - one unringed bird caught plus a few retraps
Linnet - one retrap, possibly more around as light very bad for speciating Linnet/Twite in the field
Med Gull - 2CY
Nothing of any interest seen offshore and no Meadow or Rock Pipit sightings reported   

Showery north wall

Heysham Obs
Perhaps predictably, the location of the particular anglers mentioned yesterday was strewn with newspaper, plastic bottles and discarded fishing line

North harbour wall
Twite - a brief scan of 77 finches on the seed before they flew produced 13 Goldfinch and 64 'twinnet'.  About 15 mins later, a smaller flock of pure Twite landed on the food and comprised 48 individuals with 10-11 unringed and the rest Heysham-ringed, mainly from this autumn
Linnet - minimum 4
Goldfinch - 13
Robin - 2

Heysham NR circuit
House Sparrow - one on NE pylon
Long-tailed Tit - flock of 17

Office area
Winter moth in trap and irritating bluebottle type fly (for 3rd day)

Twite hit the height

Heysham Obs
Usually a rant-free site but excuse the minor one today, please, after experience with a visiting angler this morning.  I was informed that scoping the Twite checking colour-ring details was 'in the way' as he had decided to park as close as possible to the narrow road.  Many of the anglers are good company, but there are certain non-local visitors who seem to think that their 4-wheel drive monstrosities blocking the single-track road is their 'right' and "someone" will remove all their rubbish if they either leave it strewn about or do that "someone" a favour by tying the bag of rubbish to a fence.  Who are these people?

Twite - 57-60, at least 8 unringed
Linnet - 5
Goldfinch - 4
Song Thrush - 1

Moth
Mottled Umber 

Red-line Quaker surprise

Heysham Obs

North harbour wall
Twite - 19
Linnet - 2
Goldfinch 4
Red-throated diver - one offshore
Med Gull - 2 adult and one 2CY on the old Fisher's roof at high tide

Moths
A Red-line Quaker found on egg packing which was definitely checked yesterday - just about alive - also one Winter Moth but could have been other things as Barn Owl boxes etc being stored in trap!

Brief north wall visit

Heysham Obs
Twite - 20, including 4 unringed & probably the usual Machrihanish-ringed bird
Linnet - 6 - at least 2 unringed
Goldfinch - 5
Meadow Pipit - 1

Heysham NR
Meadow Pipit - one flew over car park

In-off finch surprise

Heysham Obs
Most surprising sighting this morning was 5 Goldfinches being picked up coming in-off from the direction of Barrow - first seen as tiny dots way out into the bay.  

North harbour wall SD36V area
Red-throated Diver - two on an incoming tide sweep
Goldfinch - see above plus about 8
Twite - absolute minimum of 53 and 11 "Twinnet", possibly/probably mostly this spp. Did some of the extra ones come from across the bay?  No chance of close examination due to centrica store forklift activity next to the feeding site.
Linnet - at least 2
Meadow Pipit - 1
Song Thrush - 1
Robin - 3

Late record
Need to add 290+76+45 Pink-footed Goose yesterday in the fog, heading south, then east