Black Guillemot surprise

Heysham Obs


A Black Guillemot was reported indirectly as being seen off Morecambe a few days ago and I wonder if this mornings sighting was indeed that report coming to fruition.  It flew past the end of the outfalls and disappeared either into the troughs or re-landing on the sea.  A quirky feature of this morning was that the only other auk seen was a dead Razorbill on the sea off the harbour mouth


I suggest this might be a good week to check tidelines for ringed seabird corpses. 


One lengthy seawatch is still in the observer's notebook so hopefully more later


Sea/outfalls
Black Guillemot - one 'out'
Kittiwake  72 'in' including flock of 47 (more to add).  At least 15 inshore with 11 in harbour
Little Gull - At least 17 'out', some having previously been on the outfalls.  In addition, 28 still on outfalls after seawatching finished
Common Scoter - male floating in on sea
Red-throated Diver - one out
Med Gull - adult
Razorbill - dead one on sea off harbour mouth

North Harbour Wall
Twite - 35
Linnet - 8
Goldfinch - 2


Middleton NR
Scaup - 2CY male still

Wild and wilder

Heysham obs

Little gull - c30 at once late pm with a 'running total' on outfalls - max of 12 2cy and 21 ad seen during day. 'Ad' includes a few 3cy.
Med gull - ads north wall and midd boat pond
Scaup - 2cy male midd mbp
Barn owl - one midd early am
Pochard - 5 (1 f)
Razorbill - one offshore
Guillemot - 3 harbour, 2 offshore
Kittiwake - 10 inner harbour plus about 5 others inshore
Twite - c40 nhw
Linnet - 13 nhw
Red t diver - one out am

Routine day

Heysham Obs
A bit windier today, so the Little Gulls were back, but the IOM ferry was a disappointment.  Otherwise as you were apart from the first moth of the month in the trap - no good off southerly/south-easterly winds


Guillemot - two visible in harbour
Little Gull - max of 5 x 2CY, 2 x ad outfalls (in am)
Med Gull - adult
Kittiwake - 11 (3 x 2CY) harbour, 3 adult behind ferry
Scaup - 2CY male Middleton model boat pond
Pochard - 4 males and female as above
Tufted Duck - 13 as above
Little Egret - one as above
Twite - at least 33 with at least 8 unringed, possibly many more north wall
Linnet - 15 north wall
Goldfinch - 6 north wall  


Moth
Dotted Border

More Finches

Heysham Obs
North Harbour Wall
Increased number of Finches to c60 although very flighty including
Twite 30+ and very vocal
Med Gulls - 2 Adults

Harbour Area
Kittiwakes 4 Adults & 2 2CY, c10 later

Outfalls / Red Nab
Little Egret
Rock Pipit
2cy little gull main channel off hey 2 outfall

Middleton model boat pond/nr
Scaup 2CY
Pochard 4
Water rail 2 heard mid pm
Jack snipe 1 flushed mid pm
Barn owl 1 late pm

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