very rapid posting

Heysham Obs
Early morning seawatch saw just one Little Egret north (later 2 around) and 20 Twite still on the seed.  Meadow Pipit = 36 in 30 mins, including group of 22, also 7 alba Wag and a Lesser Redpoll

Lunchtime seawatch saw no sign of any Twite but two distant Gannet out and two Sandwich Tern in
Guillemot on sea

Middleton NR saw a Common Sandpiper, male Redstart, c20 Sand martin and c10 Swallow but didn't have time to check the marsh area for...................

................Grasshopper Warbler singing in the tank farm next to Heysham NR office.  Also Lesser Redpoll north

Outfalls produced 13 Arctic Tern, one Common Tern and one Sandwich Tern and about 280 mixed gulls, including 120 Common Gull

Wheatear 2
Whimbrel - 1

A tale of two short seawatches

Heysham Obs

North harbour wall 0745-0830 and 1200-1300
Arctic Tern - 15 slowly 'out', one in during first period
Sandwich Tern - 2 out first period, one out second period
Little Gull - unexpected 25 out during second period (3 x 2CY), in dribs and drabs
Arctic Skua - two dm lifted off the sea briefly, flew in about 1 mile, then re-landed at about 1210hrs
Kittiwake - 3+1 in first period, 3 + 17 in second period
Meadow Pipit - a trickle during the first period (c10)

Onshore sightings north wall
Wheatear - 2
Twite - still 44 = all ringed
Linnet -3

Outfalls 1310hrs
Arctic Tern - 5
loads of large gulls

Velvet Scoter highlight

Heysham Obs
Coverage was a little 'bitty' today with no mist-netting to assist document what was obviously a reasonable. if not large, arrival of migrants, notably Willow Warbler and Wheatear.

Coastal areas/Middleton NR
Wheatear - at least 27
Willow warbler - at least 17 singing males
Sand Martin - c20 Middleton am
House Martin - one Middleton am
Swallow - c25/hr north in morning
Meadow Pipit - a trickle with c20 per hour north in morning
alba Wagtail - c15 per hour north in morning
at least 300 large gulls around the outfalls area on the incoming tide

Sea - hampered by early morning poor visibility
Velvet Scoter - male flew 'in' at 0745hrs
Red-throated Diver - just 3 seen
Sandwich Tern/Arctic Tern/Kittiwake - jsut singletons of each!
Auk spp - 2, but distant

Twite
Still at least 52 early morning, but no sign at lunchtime

Butterflies

Comma and Small Tortoiseshell seen as well today.  Thanks Janet

Tropical maritime at last

Heysham Obs
Very different morning than of late with double-figure temperatures from the off, a 400ish moth catch to deal with first (at Millhouses - best Acleris literana) and pulses of rain as a slow-moving weather front appeared to be weakening on the spot

Apologies for the closed nature reserve gate - this is for security reasons and may be the case for another day or two

Mainly seawatching from the north wall 0720-1030
Red-throated Diver - 12+2+8+19+1+1 'in' - the flock of 19 quite high
Kittiwake - one flock of 12 'in'
Common Scoter - 22+ 5 'out'
Merlin - one rapidly 'in' over the sea at 0905hrs
Meadow Pipit - c25 'in' 0930-1030
alba Wagtail - c15 'in' 0930-1030
Rock Pipit - on off-passage along the seawall
Twite - 54 on the seed - all ringed
Golden Plover - flock of 5 'in', quite high, is most unusual here

Ocean Edge/Red Nab/outfalls
Black-headed Gull - 27 - all 2CY
Common Gull - 124, all but two 2CY
Herring Gull - 170, mainly imms

No terns at all - this is not unusual on windy days when the wind is coming from a southerly quarter

Moths
Early Grey new for the year

Good variety of winter and summer migrants

Heysham Obs
Murk and a very short pulse of rain just after dawn, clearing after about 1.5 hrs and a south-easterly airflow.   It was predictable that there would be some birds, however the species composition held a few surprises - the main one being that Goldcrest, as opposed to phylloscs, were by far the most numerous night migrant in evidence - I thought these had just about passed through

Grounded migrants
Redstart - male by Heysham NR office early on
Willow Warbler - one ringed
Chiffchaff - surprisingly few new birds in relation to e.g. Goldcrest with just 3 ringed
Goldcrest - 30+; 20 ringed and additional bird on north wall mound
Wheatear -at least 14 seen
Redwing - 162 grounded on the tank farm overnight - flew inland in dribs and drabs
Song Thrush - one with above
Blackbird - two unringed birds caught - there have been 'extra' Blackbirds around on many mornings this month but so difficult to quantify (unlike e.g. Walney)
Blackcap - singing male Moneyclose Lane
Robin - at least 4 migrants

Middleton grounded etc
Willow Warbler - 5 singing
Chiffchaff - 5 singing
Phyllosc - 5+
Swallow - 5
Sand Martin - 2
Tufted Duck - 21
Teal - 6

Vis mig (north-east unless stated)
Almost all this happened after the skies cleared at about 0830hrs
Meadow Pipit - at least 640 over Heysham NR pre-1100hrs. 
Tree Pipit - 1
Brambling - 1 poss 2
Chaffinch - at least 6
Redpoll spp - only three
Siskin - plenty but so difficult to see e.g. "one calling" transpired to be a flock of 13.  At least 11 separate registrations involving a minimum of 23 birds
Goldfinch - c15
Sand Martin - 2
Swallow - c75 (all coastal)
Woodpigeon - 11+9 over reserve
alba Wagtail - c40
Collared Dove - 1
Carrion Crow - 6+2+3

North Harbour Wall
Meadow Pipit  - 324 from 0615-0850
alba Wagtail - 4
Woodpigeon - 17
Carrion Crow - 4
Redpoll sp - 1
Siskin - 6
Greenfinch - 8
Goldfinch - 1
Swallow - 8
Grounded:
Chiffchaff  - 1
Goldcrest - 1
Wheatear 3

Sea passage
Sandwich Tern - maximum at any one time of 40
Red-throated Diver - at least 3
Great-crested Grebe - noticeable influx with 10+ on water
Arctic Tern - 1+1+18
Dark-bellied Brent Goose - one 'out'
Little Gull - adult-type on water
Kittiwake - flock of 16
Sanderling - 1

Miscellany
Rock Pipit along seawall
Twite - still 56 - all ringed!
Purple Sandpiper - still on wooden jetty


Moths
At last!  Agonopterix heracliana (2), Acleris hastiana (1), Shoulder Stripe (4), Hebrew Character (1), Common Quaker (3), Clouded Drab (1) - about 300 less than in the Millhouses trap!

Steady migration includes Tree Pipit

Heysham Obs
Pre-dawn start today but only two people could cover Heysham in what was a reasonable migration morning

Only the office nets were set yet 6 migrant Robin found their way in - a decent west coast spring haul!  Also four Chiffchaff ringed and at least 4 others in song on the reserve.  Steady stream of Meadow Pipit overhead, particularly from 0830 onwards.  A handful of finches ringed included a Goldfinch ringed elsewhere with L952 sequence.  A scatter of coastal Wheatear (at least 10).  Sea neglected, but did include a Razorbill and 'gang' of Sandwich Tern

Best were the first Tree Pipit of the year overhead and a late migrant Woodcock in the NE corner of the reserve. Green Woodpecker reappeared on the reserve.

North Harbour Wall 0700-1000hrs
Feeder
Twite 45
Grounded 
Wheatear 1
Robin 1
Channels
Razorbill 2
Eider 56
Great-crested Grebe 1
Sandwich Tern 5 on yellow buoys/fishing in channel, 15 in
Vis (0700-0730 and 0930-1000 NHW ; 0730-0800Ocean Edge)
alba wagtail 1
Meadow Pipit 303
Tree Pipit 2

Black-throated Diver and Arctic Tern head a decent north wall haul

Heysham Obs
Quite productive on the sea this morning with decent views of a non-breeding-plumaged Black-throated Diver on the water.  Trouble was I'd forgotten my mobile and had to leave it to inform others and we arrived back as probably the same bird/species took flight and headed out of the Bay. Many other things of interest as can be seen below - all during the early stages of the incoming tide as the sandbanks were being covered

North wall 0700-1000
Marsh Harrier - one north over the sea at c0900 - cream-crowned but no obvious cream on forewing
Arctic Tern - 2+5+2+1 'in'
Sandwich Tern - absolute minimum of 11 blogging/passage birds
Red-throated Diver - flock of 15 circled high over 1/2 moon bay before appearing to head inland over Heysham Head!  Also 3+1+5+1 (25 in total)
Guillemot - 2 on sea
Black-throated Diver - probable 2CY in the centre of the nearest channel, actively fishing 0910 until c0920
Great-crested Grebe - at least 4 on sea
Red-breasted Merganser -loose flock of 9 'in', 3-4 on sea
Swallow - 1 'in' (thanks John - we missed it as it sped along the harbour wall 'below' the telescopes!)

Vis mig
Meadow Pipit - in the region of 220 NE
alba Wagtail - at least 20 NE
Twite - two flew NE along the seawall and "dragged" 8 from the seed area along with them - appeared to continue NE!  Prior to that there were still 74 on the seed, a large number for this late in the spring
Siskin - 1 NE

Ocean Edge/Red Nab
Massive decrease in Black-headed Gull & no sign of the 3CY Med

Mipits and crests

The theme of today was yet more Meadow Pipits but not easily detectable as the skies were blue and the birds were flying high.

Heysham Nature Reserve:
0630-1000hrs of intermittent vis
Meadow Pipit 232 (50 of which were grounded at Ocean Edge).  Judging by the gangs of 20 to 40 at a time coming to the tapelure used for ringing, there must have been many more, probably 10x more, than the 232 detected from ground level. 
Woodpigeon 6 north (these have been a feature of vis further south in the last day or so)
Siskin 1
Goldfinch 1
Linnet 2
Thought I heard a Willow Warbler on arrival at the reserve but it may have been wishful thinking.  They should be arriving soon, tomorrow or the day after is my prediction (Jean writing).

BIG NEWS - a pair of Tufted Duck on the fire pond!

Ringing
Goldcrests, Chiffchaff, Meadow Pipits, Blue Tit, Blackbird. 

                          Here's a Chiffchaff we ringed earlier and nicely photocaptured by Janet.

North Harbour Wall
Twite - at least 44 still waiting for a turn in the weather (and for their usual breakfast of nyjer seed).
Visibility was so hazy that little could be seen out at sea.

Middleton
Single Greylag

Thanks Janet

Insects
Comma

Back to a freezing cold blocker

Heysham Obs
Early morning stuff was distant and uninspiring apart from the continuing presence of 65 noisy Twite piling into the nyger, presumably thinking about fat reserves for the arduous and perhaps overdue migration to west Scotland

North harbour wall 0700-0830
Twite - 65 - 4 unringed, rest Heysham ringed
Goldfinch - 2
Auk spp - very distant gang of three 'in'
Red-throated Diver - 6 'in'
Great-crested Grebe - 2 'in'
Kittiwake - flock of 5 'in'
Common Gull - c95
Sandwich Tern - c11 blogging early on, none by 0815hrs
Meadow Pipit - c25 north in 1.5 hours
alba Wagtail - 5 north in 1.5 hours

Ocean Edge/Red Nab
Wheatear - male and female
Mediterranean Gull - ringed 3CY
Little Gull - 2CY on rocks - seemed to arrive just after high tide

Middleton NR
Tufted Duck - 12
Gadwall - 2 pairs

Mammal
Roe Deer near entrance gate to reserve - perhaps this one photographed yesterday by Janet

Marsh Harrier and Sand Martin open their accounts

Heysham Obs
Whilst checking the waders to the south of Ocean Edge, the main 'vis' line this morning was connected with - Heysham can be a difficult site in this respect. Birds were coming in-off from the direction of Rossall and making landfall between Potts corner and Ocean Edge

The vis included a very noticeable concentration of Meadow Pipits between 0930 and 0940 with a 'flock' of 82, suggesting they had all moved on from a gathering ground on the Fylde.  In total, 262  headed NE between 0925 and 0945, but the subsequent 40 minutes 'only' produced 91

Quite a few night migrants appeared during the course of the day

Grounded
Goldcrest - at least 15
Chiffchaff - at least 7
Wheatear - minimum of 5 (4 OE foreshore)

Thanks Janet

Coastal sightings
Meadow Pipit - see above - more to be added later
Marsh Harrier - cream-crowned, cream fore-winged individual in-off at 0945hrs on a north-easterly heading coming ashore at the southern end of Ocean Edge
Sand Martin - single with Meadow Pipit at 0940hrs
Twite - 61 on seed - two unringed & definitely no sign of Machrihanish bird
Bar-tailed Godwit - 2,700
Knot - 3,100
Dunlin - 2,200
Grey Plover - 125
.................all these were flushed by the Marsh Harrier and headed further south & landed off Potts Corner.  There were no waders within 400m either side of the DONG cable wire, despite no personnel moving up and down - the same pattern as observed yesterday

More sightings to be added from earlier in the morning

Mammals
2 of these on Heysham N R:

Thanks Janet