More landbird coverage and the return of the Czech Med

Heysham Obs
The only coastal coverage today was a quick gathering up of an actinic left in the iconic SD36V where the "highlights" were the first records of Parsnip Moth and indeed Square Spot Rustic for the 10km square!

North harbour wall
Med Gull - Czech-ringed bird and a 2CY on the railings in true 'winter' mode

Office area and Middleton NR
Vis
Grey Wagtail - a decent passage with at least 23 birds south, including flocks of 5 + 4 and 13 colour-ringed (would have been more but for a broken shelf-string at a critical (very early) time!)
Tree Pipit - one south
Swallow - perhaps 200 S, mainly mid-morning onwards
House Martin - 25 S
Goldfinch - at least 15 seeming to be on migration to the south
Meadow Pipit - none
alba Wagtail - 3 south

Grounded
The office area suggested that it was 'all' leftovers with just three Chiffchaff in residence.   Difficult to judge at Middleton with low single figures of 'new' Whitethroat, Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler and Blackcap but 'wetland warbler species' conspicuous by their absence

Moths
See above, also 16 Lime-speck Pug and 7 Agonopterix nervosa in the trap.  The office trap held single Magpie, Dark Sword Grass, 8 Silver Y and the usual stuff included half a dozen Treble Bar

Butterflies
The census included four Small Copper together in the heathland area

Making the best of a poor morning's weather

Heysham Obs
Quite a stiff westerly this morning was a bit of a surprise as I left home in still & murky conditions hoping for a few migrants.  'We have got up so we'll go through the motions' was the sentiment and the results were not too bad given the low expectation

Outfalls/Red Nab
Very short visit
Med Gull - 13, including 6 juveniles including a 'new' bird with a white darvic.  One of them is well-advanced into 1st winter plumage
Little Egret - 1

Office area
Grey Wagtail - 4 SE, three of them colour-ringed
Tree Pipit - one SE
Meadow Pipit - 3 SE
House Martin - c20 S
Swallow - 2 S
Willow Warbler/Chiffchaff - one of each ringed were the only new warblers
Sparrowhawk - young female ringed
Chaffinch - a bird ringed elsewhere - X887 - I think we may have had this before

Disappointing apart from a few grounded migrants

Heysham Obs
Sometimes a quick whizz round connects with everything and you can get on with some work.  On other occasions it doesn't happen and the 2 hours put in over the neap tide this morning were some of the worst returns this year

Coastal areas 0830-1030
Robin - three migrants in the willow herb along the south wall, one on the north wall 'mound'
Whitethroat - one in the south harbour willow herb
Wheatear - two in sandworks, one OE foreshore
Med Gull - 11 seen (3 juvs, 3 2CY, one 3CY, rest adult or sleeping partially-obscured adult-type).  Split between the harbour mouth and red nab
Bird spp - a warblerish thing shot out of the south harbour willow herb into the power station and was brownish with a rather rounded tail.  'Not a Dunnock' was about as far as the id got in about 1.5 seconds viewing

No sign of  Bonaparte's or Little Gull

Absolute zero on the sea in 30 mins 0830-0900

Moths
Best were a Tawny Speckled Pug and an unusual September Cabbage

Earlyish morning whizz round

Heysham Obs
Sorry for the late info - in a bit of a rush, then changed cars and left my phone in mine so the B. Gull did not get pagered at a helpful time.

Along the shore sites 0850ish to 0920ish
Bonaparte's Gull - in the harbour then flew towards outfalls
Little Gull - sat on sea
Med Gull - at least 6 on Red Nab but could have been double that - just one quick sweep
Common Tern - Juv Red Nab

Seawatching for two hours early afternoon
Arctic Skua - dark morph out
Gannet - c12
Fulmar - 2
Med Gull - c10 noted loafing around

Moth
First Pink-barred Sallow of the autumn plus Frosted Orange which is not common here

Bonaparte's Gull visits SD36V at last!

Bonaparte's Gull was showing very well in the harbour mouth late afternoon in association with 5-6 Black-headed Gulls sitting on the water and carrying out short flights A flock of 11 Med Gulls was on the mudflats between Heysham one and the wooden jetty Two Little Gulls were mobile around the outfalls area Two juvenile Curlew Sandpiper were in Ocean Edge saltmarshg creek this morning before being spooked by an alarm-calling Redshank and flying out to the tideline and mingling with Dunlin, Grey Plover etc Moths Dark SWord Grass in the trap

Make sure your information is up to date before publishing site guides

Heysham Obs
See below. Just read the whole thing.  I'll re-write it is the politest thing I can say although some is obviously editorial mix up over numbers and sites.  Most of the info can be found on the map below but I'll do a 'how to watch' in more detail = far too many people turning up on high spring tides!

Information published on complex industrial/recreational areas can often rapidly become out of date and indeed inappropriate as regards current access arrangements.  Access routes change, new buildings appear, buildings are knocked down, gates are locked or unlocked, general security issues change and so on.  Therefore it is really important if you are doing a Site Guide that you make sure you have up to date information.  This has not happened with the latest Birdwatching magazine Site Guide to this area, which seems to have drawn on outdated historical stuff and has certainly not involved contacting the Wildlife Trust or local birders.

Apologies to the Ocean Edge caravan site for suggesting that birders can park within the complex - this is not the case and indeed the current access arrangements have been been repeated on a virtually daily basis in the public domain since mid-July with respect to the Bonaparte's Gull

The author is obviously casting himself quite a distance from sites he personally knows well.  Therefore what I have suggested to Bird Watching is that it is important that he runs any Site Guides past the relevant County Recorder who can then forward the draft to the appropriate local to check the up-to-date situation.  Misinformation, even of a seemingly minor nature, can cause problems at a local level, especially if it is relating to access arrangements.

Outfalls/Red Nab area
A 'power walk' round the circuit was long overdue and produced:

Little Gull - adult-type, perhaps 3CY on mudflats
Med Gull - 10 in the usual gathering ground between Heysham one outfall and the wooden jetty
(2 juv, 4 adult, 2 2CY, 2 3CY).  None appeared to be ringed - certainly not with darvics

The bad news is that Heysham One seems to be 'off' and the number of gulls on the outfall was the lowest I've seen for a bit and no obvious sign of the Bonaparte's.  However, it was low tide and many gulls were scattered far and wide over the mudflats to th south

Outfalls/Red Nab evening
Nothing on the sea!
Bonaparte's Gull - Red Nab, but really hard to see facing away - too ages before it lifted its head & gave confirmation to presumed id
Med Gull - now 4  juvs
Little Gull - also roosting red nab - same bird as earlier     

Toadflax Pug and the return of the Wall

Heysham Obs
Toadflax Pug in the moth trap - a local speciality - and a great record of Wall Brown on the bank by Red Nab - a butterfly which used to be common here but this is the first since 2011.

Just a Little Gull and 3 Med Gulls on a casual glance around the mudflats/outfalls

Juv Reed Warbler in the HNR nets the only presumed migrant encountered

Morning and evening Bonaparte's

Heysham Obs
As the rubbish westerly appeared a day/night earlier than was originally forecast, it was back to seagulls with today being notable for the longest time period between Bonaparte's Gull sightings in a single day

Outfalls/Red Nab
Little Gull - 3CY in heavy moult, adult-type distantly in more advanced moult
Bonapartes Gull - Heysham one and area in the morning and then roosting on Red Nab late afternoon - not easy facing into the westerly in bad light
Med Gull - just 11 seen and only one juv

Ringing this am
Nothing printable to say other than no migrants

500 Swallows in the Middleton roost last night (and therefore this morning) and a handful of warblers caught indicating a reflection of the small arrival at the nature reserve in the morning

Moths
White-line Dart a bit late

Bonaparte's Gull and trickle of grounded migrants

Heysham Obs
A bit disappointing so far with no migrants on the mound/sandworks and a trickle appearing the  Heysham NR office nets.  At least there are some Willow warbler this morning (all two of them), other birds ringed so far include 6 Whitethroat and a Sedge Warbler

Ad Bonaparte's Gull showing well on sand and on outfalls just after lunchtime along with at least one 3CY Little Gull

Six Med Gulls following two outbound ferries 0845hrs, including "our" ringed bird 2P96, 2 ads, 1 2CY and 2 juvs

Flock of 16 Goldfinch and 5 Linnet on mound

EVENT on 7th September
Please see LDBWS site for details (link on right hand side).  If you want to arrive pre-0900 to see what might be happening migrant-wise early on, please email PMrsh123@aol.com so I can retain your e-address and contact nearer the time.  Alternatively, if this is easier, text (not ring) 07532433043 making sure you don't register as 'unknown' at my end!  No mobile answerphone messages please, I often forget to check

If  Metcheck long range is reliable, it suggests a westerly airflow which is fine for the main event, especially the chance of something on the outfalls, but not too clever for anything happening earlier on unless strong enough the previous couple of days or so to accumulate some Leach's Petrel

Thanks Pete

Time to leave seagulls and switch to landbirds for the rest of this week

Funny morning. Middleton NR CES saw a Crossbill, 11 Tree Pipit and two Yellow Wagtail south by 0645hrs but deadly silent as regards grounded birds or lingering local summer visitors. Then the vis ceased apart from a few hirundines and two early Meadow Pipit and there was an hour of absolute zero activity. Then a trickle of grounded migrants from about 0830 to 1000 including a bit of local quality in the form of three Whinchat together and a Pied Flycatcher
The other significant feature this morning was a complete absence of Willow Warblers within earshot at either Middleton or Heysham
The Ad Bonaparte's Gull was on Heysham one outfall just after lunchtime along with 3CY Little Gull

Middleton NR 0530-1015 grounded
Whinchat - flock of three made their way inland across the two marshes, perching regularly, at 0835
Pied Flycatcher - female type in willow by gate into central marsh area at least 1005hrs 
Sedge Warbler - one seen & heard & caught!
Reed Warbler - three juvs (2 unringed) the only activity
Whitethroat - about 10 seen 4 ringed
Lesser Whitethroat - moulting adult and three juvs ringed

Middleton NR vis 0530-1015
Tree Pipit - 11 south-east, all before 0645hrs and including groups of 5 and 3 
Flava wagtail - two south-east
Crossbill (spp?!) south at about 0635hrs - too high to see details
Swallow - difficult to work out whether there was any passage
House Martin - at least 20 presumed migrants

Heysham NR
A trickle of warbler species and one Tree Pipit

Outfalls area 1230ish for about 25 mins
Little Gull - 3CY on mud, then flew towards Heysham one outfall
Bonaparte's Gull - on Heysham one outfall
Med Gull - at least 5

Moths
Yellow-barred brindle notable for here

Butterflies
The office buddleia hosted: Brimstone, Meadow Brown, Speckled Wood, Green-veined, Small and Large Whites, Painted Lady, Comma (briefly), Small Tortoiseshell, Red Admiral, Peacock

Heysham Moss 2 snipe flushed.