Shirt-sleaved christmas

Heysham Obs
Happy Christmas!

A nice mildish morning saw little need for coats or even jumpers whilst doing the circuit of SD36V after feeding the Twite.  Trouble is that this weather does not produce a great deal, but finch numbers reached a new height this morning with c90 down on the seed at once. Oddly, no Meds seen.

North harbour wall
Twite - 79-81, including Machrihanish-ringed bird with metal above green/white and a metal-only ringed bird of unknown origin (c11 unringed)
Linnet - 7 (2 unringed)
Goldfinch - 6+
Mistle Thrush - one spooking the finches
Pink-footed Goose - 52 NW
Red-throated Diver - 2 on sea offshore, one very distant
Robin - 2

Ocean Edge/Red Nab
Wigeon - 135
Lapwing - 330

Middleton NR circuit
Jack Snipe - one in mown wet area near Tim Butlers (NE corner) - the only snipe spp seen
Teal - at least 10 Tim Butler pond
Tufted Duck - 14 scattered around
Pochard - 2 males model boat pond
Goldeneye - female model bpat pond
Mute Swan - 4 juvs
Coot - just 4
Little Grebe - unusually none
Mallard - none
Grey Wagtail - 1 (unringed)

Moth
Mottled Umber - 1

Trilling frustration

Heysham Obs
Did the usual bracing wake-up call of the mound north wall circuit this morning and I had just got back to the car when a familiar trilling noise was heard just the once, seemingly from up in the sky in the harbour direction.  However, just couldnt find anything so the record has been binned (there are a lot of extraneous noises around the harbour) and an opportunity to add to the iconic SD36V list missed

North harbour wall/mound area 0910-0940
Twite - 56-58 with 9 or 10 unringed - definitely no more, c/f the 15/60 reported the other day
Linnet - 5
Goldfinch - 2
Red-throated Diver - 2 flew 'out'
Pink-footed Goose - 320 NE
Med Gull - 2CY Fisher's roof roost
Bad news on Meadow Pipit - none seem to be left - sandworks searched

strong wind fails to deliver

Heysham Obs
....................as perhaps is usual on the first day.  I cannot see any sustained onshore winds likely to produce a variety of waifs like last back end for any new year's day listers.  Last year 100 species in this area was a 'doddle' - easily achieved on 1st Jan without even trying i.e. didnt do any of the north fylde, courtesy of shag, guillemot, kittiwake, little gull (missed glaucous but jammed in on rock pipit) bonuses at heysham and glossy ibis/great white egret/marsh harrier bonuses at the leighton roost. You only need 6-7 or so 'guaranteed extras' over and above the usual fare and the usual difficult stuff like treecreeper to easily make 100.  I cannot see where they are coming from this time round (although marsh harrier looks like being available again), so anyone havng a go will need some careful planning and luck. 

North harbour wall
Nothing offshore or inshore with a gang of turnstone below the north wall failing to 'deliver' any purple sandpiper and, as far as I know, there have been no december sightings to date

Twite - 13 (one unringed)
Goldfinch - 8
Linnet - 4 ringed birds

Moths
One winter moth (trap at Millhouses, nr Wray held pale brindled beauty, red-green carpeet, chestnut, satellite, 6 winter moth and 43 mottled umber)

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