Dydd Gwyl Dewi Sant

St David's Day in case you were wondering.

As you can see, St David was a keen birder and always went round with a white dove on his shoulder.  No white doves at Heysham today but the following birds were seen from the
North Harbour Wall
Red-throated Diver - 2 distantly on the water
Great-crested Grebe - 6 floating in with the tide and a couple of them displaying to each other
Red-breasted Merganser - 9 also floating in and doing a bit of ducking and diving at the same time
Eider -  76 visible
Peregrine - 1 staking out some waders
Mediterranean Gull - 1 adult with an almost full black head
Twite - 72
Vis?
Greenfinch - 1 NE
Canada Goose - 9 N

Heysham Nature Reserve
Another unringed Long-tailed Tit caught
Great-spotted Woodpecker near the entrance gate
Negative news on daffodils and leeks.

Waxwings again

Heysham Nature Reserve
3 Waxwings flew NE over the reserve at 1315hrs, heading towards Heysham village
Further evidence of birds shifting around came in the form of the following unringed birds caught:
Blue Tit, Great Tit, Long-tailed Tit, Dunnock and a dozen Greenfinches.
A Common Buzzard flew NE at midday.

North Harbour Wall
Twite 45 - at least 5 unringed
Red-throated Diver - 1 offshore
Knot 1700 - below the heliport

Sorted

Our international correspondants have now sent details of Med 3CY.  This Belgian youngster was ringed as a chick in Antwerp on 17/05/2011 with ring no. E929291.

Other news from the North Harbour Wall today:
Mediterranean Gull - one of the adults around
Turnstone have increased to 150.
Twite 17 at 10am

That was it 2 hours before high tide (unless you want to include the 13 Cormorants, 1 Magpie, 7 GBB Gulls and 2 Herring Gulls on the wooden jetty).

The Great Med Mystery - almost solved

Super sleuths Packham and Cook continued to track down the 3CY Med and, armed with no more than slices of cheap bread and rather expensive cameras, took more covert photos of its leg ring to, hopefully, reveal the secrets of this bird. 

Here we can see the the first letter and number very clearly.

And here are the last three numbers.

When enlarged this appears to read 9291 but it's not really clear enough to clinch it.

Attractive though its legs might be, here's the rest of the bird showing its attached body and wings!

 

 

Investigations continue via our international contacts and we hope to bring the results soon.

 

 

The usual adult Meds were on the railings at the north Harbour Wall.

Visit to top-up nyger seed at lunchtime but only c20 Twite seen flying across the harbour.   



 

Excellent visibility

 Excellent visibility but nothing unusual about (up to 1310hrs anyway).

North Harbour Wall
Twite 60, Goldfinch 2, Robin 1, Dunnock 1, Pied Wagtail

Harbour
Mediterranean Gull 1 adult, Black-headed Gull 124, Herring Gull 46

Wooden Jetty
Turnstone 127, no sign Purp Sand.
Great Black-backed Gull 12, Cormorant 26

Red Nab
Redshank 10, Curlew 86, Shelduck 37, Wigeon 68, Lapwing 48, Knot 1, Black-headed Gull 52, Lesser Black-back 2, Oystercatcher 290

Outfalls
Black-headed Gull 30

The only other bird of "note" was a Siskin which flew over the dogwalk track.

Middleton NR
1 stoat in full ermine
5 mute (3 juvenile)
9 coot
4 moorhen
7 gadwall (1 "spare" male)
3 tufted
2 pochard
1 goldeneye
17 teal
10 mallard
1 little grebe
4 snipe
10 redwing

More Twite

North Harbour Wall
Increase in Twite from previous days
52 Twite
Only 3 unringed and at least 1 Machrahainish bird red / white
2 Linnet
1 Robin
2 Med Gulls Adult and 2nd Winter
Red-throated Diver in at 1330hrs

Heysham Reserve
20+ Mixed Finches Greenfinch Chaffinch and Goldfinch

Med Gulls

North Harbour Wall

The two usual adult Med Gulls came to bread.
But no sign of the 2nd Winter.
Also 30+ Twite and 3 Goldfinch, 1 Song Thrush, 1 Robin and 2 feral pigeons.
Red-breasted Merganser - pair in channel at high tide

Twite observed at 0900hrs:
1 out of 22 birds unringed
2 Machrahanish birds - 1 x red over white , 1 x green over white


Middleton NR - Model Boat Pond
Mute Swan  - 2 adult and 3 juvs
Tufted Duck - 2 male, 1 female
Coot - 4
Lesser Black-backed Gull - 1
Black-headed Gulls and Herring Gulls also present
Dunnock - pair in the brash at the side of the pond.
Oystercatcher - flew to MBP but couldn't see where it landed

No Swimming Pond
Coot 1, Mallard 1 male.

Awayday

Most of the usual observers were out of the area today but Janet took a pic of one of the Herring Gulls:

Note the colour ring.  It may be a bird from Walney but we await details.

Quick Visit

Just a quick visit early afternoon to top up food and feeders.
North Harbour Wall
32 Twite
2 Goldfinch
These competing for food with 4 Feral Pigeons.
Also unringed Adult Med Gull

Belgian-ringed 3CY Med nearly 'sorted'

Heysham Obs
The 3CY Med Gull saga took a positive step today with the reading of the last two numbers (91) and two lines of rather small vertical writing between the end numbers and the butt of the ring = 1000 Brussels. Thanks Renaud.

North harbour wall
Twite - 101, including at least 6 unringed and Machrihanish-ringed bird

Thanks Janet

Med Gull - 2 adults and 3CY
Guillemot - 1
Red-throated Diver - 1, but offshore visibility poor

Heysham Nature reserve
Lesser Redpoll - one north
Siskin - Four grounded along the dog track