The local birding event weather jinx continues

Heysham Obs
A decent look at the outfalls and Red Nab was marred by some poor weather during the latter half.  It also knocked on the head any early morning searches for migrants.  There appears to be high degree of certainty that the Bonaparte's Gull has gone, although you always have to be very careful with these pronouncements when wet fields are available nearby, reducing 'reliance' on the outfalls

Outfalls/Red Nab/Ocean Edge most of the morning from 0900hrs
Sanderling - juvenile on the mudflats off ocean Edge
Little Gull - one adult-type
Sandwich Tern - 3 'out'
Common/Arctic Tern - one seen very briefly
Med Gull - Maxima of 9 1CY, 4 2CY, 1 3CY and 4 adult-type
Little Egret - one flew over the reserve early morning and the same may have been seen on Red Nab

Migrants
Wheatear - 6-7 seen
Swallow - about 12 casually noted heading inland from across the bay
Meadow Pipit - 8 as above
Grey Wagtail - 2 SE
Pink-footed Goose - IOA -two lots of 5 headed south-east
Wigeon - IOA - 2 off Red Nab early morning, joined by a flock of 8 later
small duck spp - one with two Wigeon early am but very brief and distant
Kestrel - one may have come in-off as it disturbed the gulls on Red Nab
Grey Heron - one south over the reserve

Moths
Just a handful of Silver Y and yesterday's Mullein Wave relocated after it went awol in the toilet!

tomorrows event

The weather is a bit unpredictable. Therefore we cannot promise any early arrivals that there will be e.g. any ringing to watch. Early arrivals will probably be taken out on a short migrant search before the main event at 0900hrs. Please meet at Heysham NR car park at 0900hrs for the main event, not by the mast. Thanks Things are looking good weather-wise for the main event at 0900hrs but it was not possible to recce the outfalls and area at the correct time the last two days, so fingers crossed for plenty of the known quantities still being around and maybe an odd extra like a Black Tern

Spotted Redshank,Mullein Wave and 2P96 brighten a dull miserable day

Heysham Obs
Ocean Edge mid-afternoon dropping tide
Med Gull - 5, including 2P96 ringed by us last spring and a 'winter 'resident'
Spotted Redshank - Juvenile Ocean Edge saltmarsh creek (with an unpublishable awful record shot mobile phone & x 50 fixed telescope lens).  Always scarce and not annual here

Moths
Mullein Wave was a good record - quite sporadic here and Treble Bar reached 15 at one of its few Lancs sites where it is in abundance

A varied migration morning

Heysham Obs
Office area
Not bad at all this morning with a good variety on the vis mig including 3 Tree Pipit, c26 Grey Wagtail (12 colour-ringed), Crossbill, Tree Sparrow but just 3 Meadow Pipit and no hirundines until a trickle of Swallows post 1000hrs

Grounded stuff
Included at least 10 Whitethroat and a scattering of Blackcap, Chiffchaff and just the one Willow Warbler

Ocean Edge
A very quick visit to Ocean Edge was too late for the tide but 11 Med Gulls (5 juv/1CY) and a Sandwich Tern were on the rapidly covering Red Nab

Moths Included a Toadflax Pug and Old Lady

Butterflies Included a Painted Lady on the office buddleia and good numbers of albeit rather worn Common Blue - the last decent day for butterflies this year?

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