As you were with Iceland gull again absent at high tide

Heysham obs

Harbour area and offshore
Iceland gull - present in harbour area early pm
Red-throated diver- 2 offshore
Twite - 6 plus
Med gull - at least 3 adults

Ocean edge and red nab
Wigeon - 116

Middleton m boat pond
Large collection of gulls over the tide and two little egret and 6 tufted duck

Iceland Gull elusive

Heysham

North Harbour Wall
The finch flock this morning was very restless, partly a result of pigeons hogging the seed area.

Goldfinch - 17
Twite - 1 ringed with Orange/Blue over Pale Blue.
Linnet - 20 at least.  Accurate count not possible because of constant coming and going.

General
Iceland gull - on red nab from at least 1330 to 1410 when flew back towards harbour.
Common scoter - female in
Med gull - at least five
Guillemot - one in harbour and at least two in underground reservoir

Moths
Two mottled umber and one b lacticollela

Always cover the cover at high tide

Heysham Obs

Thanks to Pete Cook

Must get the local patch website stuff sorted out.  A really jammy 'patch find' this morning with good birders who got up at the proper time checking everywhere but the old Fisher's roof on which was a juv Iceland Gull - presumably a small female.  Its behaviour also suggested that it has been around for a day or so as it quickly located the waterfall.  Hopefully it did not clear off at lunchtime when it flew off up the harbour and out of view.  Pics later.

North wall/harbour area
Iceland Gull - juv, pres female, 1000ish to at least 1145ish, then on Red Nab until at least 1330hrs when all observers left
Red-throated Diver - one in the harbour - didn't get good enough views myself to age it - any help please?
Med Gull - 4 adults, including 2P96 darvic-ringed bird

Red Nab
Oystercatcher 1200
Knot 200
Redshank 10
Curlew 8
Turnstone 1
Wigeon 86

Middleton Nature Reserve
Model Boat Pond:
Gadwall 3 pairs
Cormorant 2
Little Egret 2
Grey Heron 2
Pochard 1 male
Tufted Duck 3 female
Moorhen

Lovely Morning for a Stroll

Heysham North Harbour wall
A beautifully clear morning but small numbers of birds.
Around the feeding area were:
Linnet - 16, some already ringed
Goldfinch - 4
Dunnock - 2
Robin - 1
Feral Pigeon - 3
Gentleman Reading Newspaper - 1.  This person sauntered down over the feeding area to the harbour's edge whilst I was trying to count through a telescope and then slowly returned, stopping every few steps to concentrate on his newspaper, even stopping for a couple of minutes standing on the seed to carefully read an extra-gripping piece of news!

Mediterranean Gull - 1 adult with right leg ring above tarsal joint.

Ocean Edge saltmarsh
No finches present. Area and caravan park quiet.

Middleton Nature Reserve

2 mute + 7 cygnets

2 coot

14 moorhen (9 in horse's field near Tim Butler)

6 gadwall

3 tufted

3 mallard

42 teal

1 cormorant - feeding on boating pond, but didn't see it catch anything

2 little egrets - also "feeding" on boating pond

1 snipe

also heard Water Rail (or small piglet)

1st winter BHG with metal ring - lower right leg (from Leighton?)

 

70 linnet

2 bullfinch

8 meadow pipit

Hut Moth Trap
Angle Shades - 1
Mottled Umber - 1

ajd

Underwhelming stuff

Need to learn how to brand days like this starting with 'our' 6 mallard and our 95 wigeon off ocean edge . The mega year for December moth continued with another two plus a mottled unber

Unseasonal and rather painful day

Heysham Obs
No often you deal with a moth catch of 250 (120 December Moth) at Millhouses and then ring a Chiffchaff at Heysham at this time of year.  The Heysham moth trap was more seasonal after yesterday's bonanza (one Mottled Umber)

North wall
Med Gull - Czech adult
Linnet - 19
Goldfinch - 17
Twite - 1

Office area
Chiffchaff - one collybita heard calling and later caught
Kestrel - one female stuck its claw right in the finger next to the nail - supposed to be playing music tonight - hope it doesn't stiffen.  Already ringed - EX11 sequence
Pink-footed Goose - migratory 'in-off' and high flocks SE of 120 and 150 at 1030 & 1032
Long-tailed Tit - the first unringed one for a bit in what has been a "nil movement" autumn
Goldcrest - 2

November December Moth bonanza continues

Heysham Obs
Offshore
Guillemot - 1

North wall on seed
Starling 12
Twite 3
Linnet c15
Goldfinch c10
Robin 2
Dunnock 2

Moths
December Moth (6), Mottled Umber, Winter Moth (4), Feathered Thorn (2), Blastobasis lacticolella, Light Brown Apple Moth.  Record single-night count of December Moth and a really good catch for late November for here.  An actinic set in the SD46A part of the reserve contained a Scrobipalpa costella, only the second record for the reserve along with a Winter Moth female on vegetation close to the trap and an unidentified as yet micro.

Twite Numbers Slow To Build Up

Heysham

N Harbour Wall

Three whoosh net operations early this morning resulted in:
16 Twite (11 new birds,  5 Retraps)
1 Linnet retrapped
1 Goldfinch ringed plus 1 retrapped.

Smaller numbers than recently of Linnet and Goldfinch at the feeding area, perhaps a result of the small neap tide allowing plenty of access to natural saltmarsh food.

ajd

Motorised para'glider' clears out the foreshore

Heysham Obs
I'm not sure what motorised para'gliders' are supposed to be called, especially noisy ones which can be heard over a mile away.  This was weaving about c10 metres above the surface of the mudflats at a neap high tide and it was amazingly effective at scaring birds.  This relates to the drip-feed of disruptive activities which sneak on to the shore via the access point at Potts Corner.   The owner has attended meetings re-establishing good practice on the foreshore along this very important and often spectacular stretch of coast with its large internationally important flocks of waders and therefore this activity was presumably not with his blessing.  So why were these people on the foreshore with two large vehicles - I'm assuming they simply drove on via a seemingly unrestricted access?  Vehicles registrations have been taken and will be passed to NE.  Any continuation of this level of disturbance makes a mockery of the carefully worded information notices put up by Ocean Edge and Shorefields Caravan parks

Ocean Edge foreshore late afternoon
Fleeing birds included 3 Little Egret and perhaps the flock of c3900 Knot which ended up on the beach to the south of the Stone Jetty plus the usual Bar-tailed Godwit, additional Knot etc etc

Pink-footed Goose
It seems that 800-900 are utilising a morning flightline via a (brief?) landing on Middleton Sands and then over Middleton NR area en route to Lune side fields/saltmarshes.  This evening, they returned via the 'usual' Lune estuary flightline at 1600-1604hrs

Others
Twite number 6 (from this autumn's ringing) was on the seed along with 4 others and 23 Linnet (at least 17 unringed) and 14 Goldfinch (mainly ringed)

Usual 2 adult Med Gulls around north wall

Harbour Dunnocks

North Harbour Wall

Visit at 8am to check and replenish Niger seed. Birds feeding at first were just 5 Goldfinch, 7 Linnets, 2 Robins and 3 Dunnocks.

Also two adult Med Gulls nearby.

After a check of the south side of the harbour where no more small birds were seen, a return to the north wall a little later found that the finches had built up to about 35.

Very flighty and dogs about so didn't manage to see them all on the ground. 

Mainly Goldfinch and Linnets with probably no more than 7 Twite, at least three ringed, two local recent ones and the Machrihanish red/green.