28th May

Heysham Obs

Outfalls & area
Arctic Tern - 2
Sandwich Tern - 3
Med Gull - 2CY (usual one)

Non-op land
Ringed Plover with 3 young, another pair with one young

Reserve
Additional singing male Reed Warbler in marsh

Pre-rain bits

Heysham Obs

 

An early morning seawatch to 0715 produced the following

Mute Swan – 3 flying across from Barrow direction towards Middleton sands

Shelduck – 10 out

Gannet – 2 out

Kittiwake – 23 out

Sandwich Tern – 19 out

 

A later seawatch of 30 mins produced

Arctic Skua - lm 'in' at 0810hrs

Common Scoter - 15 out very distantly

 

Two outfalls checks on the incoming tide produced

Arctic Tern - 2 (first low tide visit only)

Common Gull - 189

Black-headed Gull - 25

Kittiwake - 2 2CY

No sign of the Meds

 

Moths

An actinic set just below the old Obs Tower site produced 3 Brown Silver Line and a Shuttle-shaped Dart

 

Breeding bird pluses and minuses and gull census

Heysham Obs
A Lesser Redpoll over and some early morning Kittiwake flocks indicated that it is not by all means over for this spring, although it will probably have to involve decent easterlies or a howling south-easterly to produce any more notable goods i.e. the routine migration is probably just about over

Early morning seawatching (thanks Mark)
Kittiwake - flocks of 25, 30, 40 in, 12 out
Nothing else of note other than one of the two Meds below on Heysham 1 outfall

Red Nab high tide
Gull flock on the sea comprised
Black-headed Gull - 21
Common Gull - 22
Med Gull - 2 2CY - one of which was apparently ringed (thanks to the birder for info) with 3 characters (and head plumage) corresponding with the recent bird at Leighton Moss (and previously here, but legs not seen then) - this is a Dutch-ringed bird

Breeding bird census work
Lesser Redpoll - one north the only sign of migration - no Wheatear left
Ringed Plover - definitely two territories on the non-op land, the 'new' pair almost certainly having young but the original pair may have failed
Oystercatcher - breeding failure but the birds still hanging around
Great Black-backed Gull - pair nesting on the 'grey store' - the first breeding record for SD45E and the Power Station properties (another biodiversity notch!)

Gull census
Power Station non-operational land
Lesser Black-backed Gull - 13 nests
Great Black-backed Gull  - 1 nest
No definite evidence of nesting Herring Gull

Harbour area (one more roof to check)
Fisher's roof (harbour building - the one further back has not been checked yet)
Less than usual due to the hordes of roosting 2CY Herring Gulls, with most nests away from this at the east end
Lesser Black-backed Gull - 27 nests
Herring Gull - 10 nests

Centrica area
Lesser Black-backed Gull - 26 nests
Herring Gull - 6 nests
Great Black-backed Gull - 1 nest

Flat roof by rail terminal
Herring Gull - 13 nests (hard to see, possibly a few more - definitely the HG headquarters)

Roofs to the north of the freight access road
Lesser Black-backed Gull - 2 nests

Ocean Edge caravan site reception
Herring Gull - one nest
Lesser Black-backed Gull - 9 nests
Great Black-backed Gull - singleton hanging about but no evidence of nesting

Memo: Still to do:
Middleton IE
Back roofs at Fishers from Gate 38 area

Moths
Least Black Arches and Flame Shoulder

Early morning migratory bits and bobs

Heysham Obs
The forecast was for a completely clear sky this morning, therefore adjusted the Middleton CES three hours accordingly.  First job was the clear frost from the windscreen i.e. an early start!

Middleton NR
CES was latterly spoilt by testing a motorcycle on the adjoining road from 0645hrs and nothing was subsequently caught in the best two nets.  Prior to that it was pretty good for this time of year with quite a few 'new' birds and returning Sedge Warblers from previous years which had not opened their account in 2013.  Highlighted by a Reed Warbler ringed elsewhere and a retrapping of the the French-ringed Sedge Warbler caught on the last CES, therefore nesting on site.  Three birds ringed elsewhere on each of the first three CES visits.  This has been the feature of this spring and so far the following birds ringed elsewhere have been caught/read in field:  Lesser Redpoll (4, plus an ex-cagebird ringed in Chelmsford!), Goldfinch, Chaffinch, Sedge Warbler (2), Reed Warbler, Med Gull (Belgian ringed bird released from fishing line), Twite, Kittiwake (an ancient bird ringed in SE Ireland) and I think another I cant remember

Lesser Redpoll - at least six lots north totalling at least 11 birds - the passage is dribbling on and on this spring
Swallow - c13 north
Swift - c5 north
Gadwall - 2 males and female
Greylag - 2

Seawatching (Pete and Ian)
Red-throated Diver - 2 in sp 'in'
Common Tern - 18 'in' - the highest numbers for many years
Common Scoter - c20 distantly on the sea
Swallow - c5 north
Grey Wagtail - late presumed migrant north

Brief run-round

Heysham Obs

Outfalls/Red Nab
Kittiwake - usual 2CY
Common Gull - 91 2CY
Bar-tailed Godwit - 32
Wheatear - nice bright large male

North wall
30 mins produced a single 2CY Kittiwake

Little Egret deja-vu

Heysham Obs
The adult male Black Redstart has perhaps mysteriously disappeared - maybe it was just a one-day migrant.

Non-op land
Wheatear - 2

Outfalls/Red Nab
Kittiwake - 2CY
Bar-tailed Godwit - 32

Offshore
An attempt to reap similar rewards to the unexpected skua movement in at least the north Irish Sea last night with a lengthy early morning seawatch failed miserably, but at least it produced a record flock of Little Egret - rather similar to last year's spring gang which also headed north
Little Egret - flock of 10 north-westish towards Barrow
Sandwich tern - 1

Recent pics from Sandra and John Truran
As well as the above Wheatear, these were taken (thanks for these):

brief bits

Heysham obs
Most of the day seemed to be spent driving too and from Millom on so-called 'A' roads.  A bit of coverage this afternoon but not including the Black Redstart in strong winds

Non-op land
Wheatear - two 'leggy' females

Ringed Plover and Oystercatcher still sitting
Common Sandpiper briefly

Outfalls
2CY Kittiwake

Breeding bird survey surprises

Heysham Obs

Power station non-operational land and area
Spotted Flycatcher - one on fence by office 0830ish
Wheatear - at least two in the non-op area
Black Redstart - superb adult male found by Reuben and watched by the three of us feeding in a flat gravelly area before seeming to fly towards the Power Station/storage yard
Oystercatcher - on 3 eggs
Ringed Plover - on 4 eggs
Grasshopper Warbler - confirmation of two territories on the tank farm

North wall
Sandwich Tern - 6 blogging offshore

Night migrant free zone

Heysham Obs
75 minutes of seagulls/sea and an hour of migrant searching left a clean page still in the notebook.  Nothing left from yesterday after a clear early night.

Heysham NR
Lesser Redpoll - 5+3 north, the latter flock refusing to enter a belatedly set mist net which was a pity one bore a left-leg ring
Common Blue

Swallow - 3 north

Moths
"Highlighted" by White shouldered House Moth and Brown House Moth on the same night!

A nice late spring migration morning

Heysham Obs
First decent numbers of Spotted Flycatcher this millenium!

Heysham NR & area
Spotted Flycatcher - c9 (2 ringed)
Garden Warbler - one ringed
Sedge Warbler - 5 ringed plus another migrant
Reed Warbler - 1 migrant ringed, singing male marsh
Whitethroat - 6 migrants ringed
Robin - two unringed birds unexpected
Lesser Redpoll - 3 late vis mig birds ringed

North harbour wall
Spotted Flycatcher - one mound
Willow Warbler - one sandworks
Wheatear - 4 large birds mound - not there early am
Arctic Skua - 5 dark morph in
Gannet - 5
Sandwich Tern - c10
Arctic Tern - one outfalls
Common Sandpiper - one around all morning
Common Scoter - c50 raft offshore
Kittiwake - flock of 6 in
Pink-footed Goose - c75 north
Swallow - c200 per hour 0800-0900, fewer later
House Martin - 10 north

Red Nab area
Grey Plover - 61
Bar-tailed Godwit - 15  (75 yesterday)
Dunlin - c120
Kittiwake - 2CY outfalls
Med Gull - 2CY off Ocean Edge