Roller coaster

Heysham obs
Morning sightings included

Little gull - five adults out, 20 plus harbour mouth or outfalls
Kittiwake - c10 harbour
Guillemot - 3 hArbour
Scaup - 2cy male Middleton

North Harbour Wall
Finches about 35 including
20+ Twite, with 18 Linnets and 5 Goldfinch

Can someone please check the outfalls tomorrow am if the Ross's gull does not reappear at Leighton. The low tide should enable the area to be an obvious feeding magnet. Ok a long shot but......

Some complaints today about the local grapevine . I usually text people when things like this materialise but was in transit between Catterick and home via the dales and mobile free zones. A couple of short stops and a bad line at least enabled RBA to receive the details which had unfortunately been deemed in the 'reportedly' category on another bird info service and not altered!!

Managed to miss it by seconds - shades of the Plymouth first winter many years ago!

Some signs of spring!

Heysham Obs

Skylark increasing to two at Middleton, Coot starting to return and pair up, the Mute Swan adults continue trying to kick the young out, otherwise it was the usual howling gale and pulses of rain

Middleton NR (thanks Malcolm)

Mute 2 pair + 7 cygnet

21 tufted duck

4 pochard (2 male)

10 mallard

1 2CY male Scaup

42 teal

3 gadwall

7 coot

2 moorhen

2 skylark (together on plateau were linnet used to feed)

1 meadow pipit (with above)

2 stock dove

10 wood pigeon

Coastal sightings

Kittiwake - 2 ad & 2 2CY harbour

Little Gull - 4 x 2CY, 1 Ad outfalls, later 3 ads outfall and another ad off harbour mouth and increasing to 16 on outfalls by 1600hrs

Guillemot - two in  harbour

Med Gull - two adults harbour area

Grey Wagtail - one harbour wall 

No food and no finches north wall - quite at bit put out at 1200hrs

Nothing apparently happening offshore in rough-ish seas

Late news for yesterday - flock of 12 Kittiwakes flew 'in'

Nothing new

Heysham Obs


Kittiwake - ad & 2CY harbour
Little Gull - 2 x 2CY outfalls
Scaup - 2CY Middleton model boat pond
Pochard - 4 males and female Middleton NR
Eider - 71 offshore
Red-throated Diver - 2 offshore
North wall finches - c60 first thing then disappeared

Hazy thing in Cumbria

Heysham Obs
Visibility just not good enough to sort out a gull flying into the bay way over on the north side about "level" with Bardsea area - just about ruled out imm Mute Swan!!!  Wingbeats suggested imm Glaucous but absolutely no detail seen other than it 'didn't have a long neck' and looked uniformly pale coffee coloured with 'white outer primaries'.   It appeared to land or flew too low to see. Could someone alert Fizzer et al on the Cumbrian side, please - I've left a message with Lou?


Inshore/offshore coverage
Little Gull - 4 x 2CY outfalls
Med Gull - 3CY outfalls, ad harbour area
Kittiwake - just one adult seen in harbour
Guillemot - 3 'brown' ones as per yesterday in harbour
Finches - 61 straight into the sun on the feeder - majority of calls were Twite
Eider - 56 offshore

Pre-rain check

Heysham Obs
This was a low tide check and a whole lot more productive than the high tide walk yesterday


Middleton NR
Teal - c30
Grey wagtail - 1
Little Grebe -1 on the flooded central marsh, the rest of the stuff on model boat pond
Scaup - 2CY male
Pochard - 4 males and female
Tufted  Duck - 12
The Mute Swans adults are really hammering the young, especially two of them.  Best to stop feeding and allow them to disperse naturally


North harbour wall
Med Gull - 2 adult
Eider - c25
Red-breasted Merganser - 8
Twite - c30
Other finches - at least 15


Harbour/outfalls
Little Gull - 3 x 2CY, 1 x 3CY, 1 x Ad outfalls (poss 4 2CY)
Kittiwake - 2 ad & 2 2CY harbour
Guillemot - 3 "small brown ones" harbour
Med Gull - 3CY seaward end stage one

Green Woodpecker added to year list

Heysham Obs
Scaup 2CY male - Middleton Nature Reserve
Ringed Plover 29 - Heliport
Mediterranean Gull 3 adults - harbour area
Kittiwake 2 x 2CY and 2 adults - harbour
Twite c30 - North Harbour Wall
HIGHLIGHT - Green Woodpecker - Tank Farm then flew to golf course

Yesterday
4-5 Goldcrests at Northern end of Heysham Nature Reserve

Some of the same

Heysham Obs


Scaup - 2CY Middleton model boat pond
Little Gull - 2CY outfalls pm
Kittiwake - 2CYharbour
Twite - 32
Med Gull - 2 adults
Guillemot - two in harbour - one larger and darker than the other
Cormorant - 44

Ocean Edge Ringed Plover.

Heysham Harbour Guillemot and Kittiwake

Black Redstart reappears

Heysham Obs


Morning observations included:


Black Redstart - female type Red Nab area. chased by Robin
Med Gull - 3CY outfalls, 3 adults north wall area
Little Gull - 2CY outfalls
Kittiwake - 3 adults in harbour
Guillemot - 3 in harbour - one showing chars of nominate form - larger and blacker
Twite - c15, mainly ringed
Linnet - c10
Goldfinch - c8
Ringed Plover - 28 heliport


Photos Janet Packham

Guillemot photo.Janet Packham.

A day for the sea defences

A high tide (10.5m) and high winds meant the waves were crashing over the sea wall in places, especially along the 'promenade' below the power station. 

Outfalls
Little Gull 3 x 2CY
Mediterranean Gull 1 x 3CY

Ocean Edge
Ringed Plover 25
Little Egret 1
Pink-footed Goose 1

North Harbour Wall
Mediterranean Gull 2 adults
No Twite (no food) but 3 Linnets later on.

Heliport
Ringed Plover 37

Middleton NR
Scaup 1
Jack Snipe 1
Mute Swan  4 adults, 7 juvs
Teal 21
Tufted Duck 20
Mallard 4
Pochard 6
Gadwall 9
Meadow Pipit 1
Pheasant 1


Mammals
Nature Park
Common Shrew

Harbour
Grey Seal

Before the deluge

A quick trawl round while it was dry revealed the following:

Outfalls
Little Gull 1 x 2cY

Harbour
Guillemot 2
Kittiwake 1 adult

North Harbour Wall
65 finches - a mixture of Twite, Linnet and Goldfinch.  Got halfway through counting Twite when the flock flew off so a minimum of 34 Twite

Ocean Edge
Snipe 21

Middleton NR - Model Boat Pond
Scaup 1 x 2CY
Pochard 4 male and 1 female

Then it poured down for the rest of the day.

Observers - PeteMarsh, Malcolm Downham