Meadow Pipits from Dawn

Heysham Reserve
Decent numbers of Kittiwake, Red-throated Diver and Meadow Pipit

There were no obvious grounded night migrants this morning.  Either they had passed straight through in the relatively calm and clear night, or they are not here yet.  Meadow Pipits, which often get going during the morning were on the move from dawn though.

Nets were set for migrants at dawn, but by the time it was proved that none was around there was not time to set up a whoosh net for Meadow Pipits, consequently the catch was low.

Meadow Pipit - 300 to 400 seen from 06.30 to 11.00 brought low by cd lure (only 5 trapped).
Probably much larger numbers high overhead but not seen against the very clear sky.

Chiffchaff - 1 ringed individual trapped only.

Landscape Strip
A thorough search for a reported injured gull along Moneyclose Lane was unsuccessful.
Sparrowhawk - 1 in the screening belt.
Jay - also 1 in the screening belt trees.

North Harbour Wall 0730-1300
Twite - c35 early.  Later, numbers of 95 to 100.
Linnet - small number amongst Twite. Difficult light there on a bright morning
Kittiwake - 334 in 16+ flocks 'in', 28 blogging & at least two other tightly packed gull flocks on the water a long way out
Common Scoter - 17 out
Red-throated Diver - at least 60 -  a good day count for here
Scaup - flocks of 6 (in pairs)
Goldeneye - 3
alba wagtail - 10
Meadow Pipit - 66 seen and heard but probably 10x this number - the blue sky made seeing birds difficult and when located there were often up to 8 birds for one squeak, also when looking at seabirds Meadow Pipits were passing through the view in the scope.
Pink-footed Goose - 149 north in three flocks, largest flock 80+
Greylag Goose - 4 headed north then turned and flew SW
Skylark - 1

South harbour and area
Purple Sandpiper - 1

Mediterranean Gull - adults and the ringed 3CY


Mammals
Red Fox - 2 seen around reserve entrance road at first light.
Grey Squirrel - 1 sunning itself at the foot of a tree in the screening belt
Harbour Porpoise - one offshore

Alan Draper, John Mason, Jean Roberts, Gavin Thomas (thanks for  the pic), Ian Walker

Seabird cameo

Heysham Obs
Just 30 mins today and half of that was watching what was happening to  the waders south of Ocean Edge.  The 15 mins watching the sea were much better than of late!  A group of 3 Gannet and 9 Kittiwake headed in and when they reached level with Black Combe, the Kitts started to climb.  The Gannets followed them, then thought better of it (never seen any 'overland' when reaching the inner bay, unlike other species) and head out of the Bay, still quite high then swung in the direction of Cockersands.  The Kittiwakes continued to climb.  Then a close dark morph Arctic Skua headed slowly into the north-east wind until lost from sight towards the stone jetty.  Good to see a summer visitor which is perhaps a little earlier than usual!

North wall 0900-0915
Arctic Skua - dark morph 'in' at 0913hrs
Gannet - three u-turning as above
Kittiwake - flock of 9 'in' and gaining height
Twite - 19
Linnet - 1
Meadow Pipit - 9 N in 15 mins

Ocean Edge/Red Nab
Dunlin - 2,600
Knot - 2,700
Bar-tailed Godwit - 870
Wigeon - 4
Mallard - 2
Black-headed Gull - 246

A few quality sightings but general migration still slow

Heysham Obs
A steady stream of Meadow Pipit and one or two Chiffchaff apart, not a lot happening migrant-wise today with the sea particularly disappointing.  However a flock of Waxwings flew noisily over Middleton NR and a Short-eared Owl caught a vole on the higher ground there before being driven off by gulls.  The Scaup flock was still in situ in the tide race and increased to 11 birds.

North wall 0744 onwards
Sandwich Tern - 2 together 'in'
Scaup - flock of 11 floating out on the tide (5 male)
Twite - 55 (possibly including one or two Linnet - in silhouette on the sea buckthorn)
Red-throated Diver - up to 5 off-passage on the sea

Vis mig
Meadow Pipit - c170 NE 0700-1030
alba Wagtail - 16 NE
Linnet - one NE
Waxwing - flock of 16 flew NW over Middleton at about 0800hrs

Middleton NR
Short-eared Owl - one quartering the high ground at Middleton early morning - caught a vole
Gadwall - pair

Office area
Chiffchaff - 2

Scaup flock highlights some small-scale durnal migration

Heysham Obs
Thanks to everyone for letting me know about the hacked email.  Sorry to cause inconvenience

North harbour wall to 0930hrs
Red-throated Diver - absolute minimum of 27, including flock of 16 summer plumaged birds gaining height as they flew into the Bay
Wigeon - flock of 7 NNE
Scaup - flock of 7 sitting on the sea & floating out (3 ad male)
Gannet - adult 'u'-turned
Twite - just c35 left
Kittiwake - flock of 40-50 NNE, then 2 NNE
A lot of small flocks of Knot and Dunlin whizzing about

Vis mig to 0930
Meadow Pipit - c220 NNE either from north wall or office but not the same birds at each!
alba Wagtail - 25 NNE
Siskin - 1 NNE
Goldfinch - 13 NNE
Chaffinch - 2 NNE
Coal Tit - 2 heading north through the reserve

Grounded night migrants
None!

Slightly more over the sea, less overhead

Heysham Obs
Fractionally more interest today although Meadow Pipits and alba Wagtails are in reduced numbers so far

North harbour wall
Common Scoter - flock of 17 out
Red-throated Diver, 14 in, including groups of 3+5
Raven - one purposefully north over the sea
Coal Tit - very noisy flock of 5 on the fence by the ex-sand-works, then flew towards Heysham Head along the seawall!
Pink-footed Goose - 4+47 NW
Twite - maximum of just 47 but a lot of activity in nearby yard
Linnet - one on seed, first for a bit
Purple Sandpiper - on rocks below seawall on dropping tide
Eider - 189
In addition, 3 small gulls together in the direction of the wind turbines were almost certainly Little but extremely distant!

Office area & general vis mig
Goldfinch - 7 north
Reed Bunting - one north
alba Wagtail - 12 north
Meadow Pipit - just c35 north during the morning (9 ringed)

Ringing in March
Don't normally post much about ringing totals, but the newly-ringed stats for March are quite interesting for the wrong reasons!  Note that most of the activity involved nets set next to feeders, which were just not producing "any" new birds apart from a trickle of Blue and Great Tits, a few migrants Robins and the occasional 'new' finch:  Long-tailed Tit (3), Great Tit (5), Goldfinch (6), Blackbird (2), Chaffinch (2), Greenfinch (8), Twite (9), Mediterranean Gull (1), Robin (8), Meadow Pipit (49), Dunnock (3), Blue Tit (5).  The grand total of this lot was more than doubled by Goldcrest and Lesser Redpoll in March 2012 - conspicuously absent this year, along with Chiffchaff.       

No April drool

Heysham Obs
Today was about as devoid of anything new happening than I can remember at this time of year. There is the bonus of a prolonged stay by the Twite flock and unscheduled expense on nyger seed but otherwise just a dribble of Meadow Pipit overhead. The seawatching was really dire with nothing worth writing down in the course of just over an hour

North harbour wall
Twite 73, including two unringed and the usual Machrihanish bird, along with an old pale blue over white/red which I don't recall having seen recently

Office area
Meadow Pipit - 55 NE

Middleton NR
2 Greylag, 2 Snipe

Thanks Janet

No summer visitors seen or heard

Meadow Pipits but what else?

Heysham Obs
The highlight today was ticking the requisite boxes for a "white Easter" as a few snowflakes appeared late morning. Very disappointing morning with less happening than yesterday and not even a compensatory Osprey through the massive amount of airspace given good coverage

North wall 0700 onwards
Watching paint dry
Kittiwake - flocks of 14+12 the "highlight"
Eider - 91
Twite - c70
Great-crested Grebe - 9
plus vis dealt with below

Vis mig combined office & NHW 0700-1130
Siskin - 1
Lesser Redpoll - 2
Jackdaw  - flock of 4
Carrion Crow - 1 high & purposeful
Canada Goose - 5 did a circle of the golf course
alba Wagtail - 42
Meadow Pipit - 377
Goldfinch - 5
Greenfinch - 1 (!)
Linnet - 3
Coal Tit - 2+1 north

Miscellany
No Meds seen
Wigeon - 33

The spring passage of Turnstone is well under way -the time of peak numbers here.  In contrast, Little Grebe seems to have declined in the last three years as a breeding species at Middleton and so far this year, there may only be two pairs.   Thanks to Sandra and John Truran for the pics

Night migrants
None unless two unringed Robins being chased come into this category

Ringing
27 Meadow Pipit and 2 Greenfinch 

Meadow Pipits get going

Heysham Obs
Interesting Twite statistics.  35 were caught yesterday, two lots of 20 were caught today.  Only 10 of the 40 caught today were not caught yesterday and 7 of the first lot of 20 were retrapped in the second lot.  Yet the grand total of Twite in the last two days has been c82 yesterday and c75 today with just 5-6 unringed/day.  These probably accounted for the 5 unringed birds caught in the last two days.  Conclusion being that there is a 'core' of habituated birds, a handful of unringed birds unfamiliar with whoosh nets and a gang of wary ones!  Permission granted to use in Key Stage ?5 maths.  60-70 were back on the seed by lunchtime

Meadow Pipit and Kittiwakes were on the move today with three very short seawatches producing the latter and there may have been many others

North harbour wall
Twite - c75, including the usual Machrihanish-ringed bird
Med Gull - the displaying summer adults were still there early on at least
Mute Swan - 2 in harbour, one inshore

Vis mig
Kittiwake -  flocks of 18, 38 and 15 seen heading up the bay early morning
Red-throated Diver - 3+1 as above
Carrion Crow - flock of four purposefully north
Grey Wagtail - one north
alba Wagtail - minimum of 35 north
Meadow Pipit - c480 north
Goldfinch - c20 north
large raptor - Buzzard or harrier spp as a disappearing V shape heading over Heysham head early on

Miscellany
Pintail - male still at Middleton
No  Wheatear seen today
Knot - 8,200 on sands south of Ocean Edge
Bar-tailed Godwit - 2,850 as above
Dunlin - 2,400 as above
Grey Plover - 175 as above

A mixed bag of quality

Heysham Obs

Two out of the three Med Gulls yesterday afternoon on the north wall - the 3CY in the middle - this was not seen (so far) today.  Thanks Janet.

A lot of effort was put in today and it wasn't too bad at a local patch level, although a fly-over Osprey might have been a deserved reward.  Thanks to Malcolm, Pete Cook and John for extra records

North wall from very early on!
Med Gull - two noisy displaying adults as per yesterday for much of the early morning but no sign of 3CY
Yellowhammer - at least one of a flock of three birds heading north was a male of this species - most unusual in spring
Sandwich Tern - one flew up the Kent channel early on (first of year)
Kittiwake - flock of 14-15 up the Kent channel early on
Red-throated Diver - flocks of 3+4 up the Kent channel early on
Teal - 4
Twite - up to 82.  11 of these flew off high to the north towards Barrow during the early morning still air and the rest were quite noisy and flighty and at one point c50 circled high in the sky over the wooden jetty.  Normally only small numbers left by now (35 caught, 3 unringed)
Rock Pipit - one
Meadow Pipit - c35 north in 3 hours
alba Wagtail - c15 north in 3 hours
Goldfinch - 5 north in 3 hours
Whooper Swan - c15 distantly to the NW early morning

Ocean Edge/Red Nab area
Bar-tailed Godwit - c2,700
Wigeon - 25
Shelduck - 74
Jack Snipe - 3 different birds ocean edge saltmarsh inner edge at high tide
Common Snipe - on with above

Middleton NR
PINTAIL - male on Tim Butler pond - a mega!  First one ever known to have landed in this area
Teal - at least 40
Tufted Duck - 15
Mute Swan - 7 (2 juv)
Mallard - 6
Coot & Moorhen - 6 each
Little Grebe - 2
Gadwall - 3
Chiffchaff - one by no swimming pond (first of year!)

Seasonal mishmash

Heysham Obs
This weather is sending all sorts of mixed messages to the birds as they try and prepare for spring.  The following examples:

Med Gull - the pair of summer plumage adults (presumably from earlier in the month, not new ones) and Belgian-ringed 3CY returned to the north harbour wall for an afternoon's scavenging - these were all presumed long-gone

Linnet - a newly-arrived female gathered a bit of nest material, but her mate appeared to look up to the sky and shake his head, upon which the female let go of the piece of grass.  This is the first vaguely territorial Linnet seen this year - not even any vis mig yet

Wheatear - a male struggled in-off, then headed north

Meadow Pipit - a painfully slow trickle totalling 12 birds over 3 hours!

Ringed Plover and Oystercatcher display flighting over the inner shore

Pink-footed Goose - 47 struggling north over the sea

Twite - still at least 88, including 6-7 unringed and the usual Machrihanish bird

Whooper Swan - 6 reported as heading NW early morning