Lesser Black-backs pile in

Heysham Obs
Lesser Black-backs piled in today with up to 120 at any one time.
Sightings:
Little Gull 28
Kittiwake 23
Guillemot 4
Pintail 1 out
Med Gull 2 adults
Twite 35 plus

Middleton Nature Reserve
Scaup 2CY male
Pochard 5
Gadwall 9

Done from memory - notes left in office ! Will update tomorrow.
Thanks to Ian ands Malcolm.

Doing the rounds but little change

Heysham Obs


Middleton NR model boat pond
Scaup - 2CY male
Pochard - 4 males, I female
Tufted Duck - 11
Snipe - 1


Offshore low tide
Eider - 78
Red-throated Diver - 1


Harbour area
Shag - 1, prob 3CY briefly then flew out
Kittiwake - c15
Guillemot - 1 (& 1 inshore)
Twite - at least 60 (one green/white Machrihanish bird plus the old Heysham bird caught two days ago)


Outfalls
Little Gull - 2 x 2CY, 1 x Ad
Kittiwake - 2 Ad

Selection of Gulls in the harbour.

New moths, similar birds

Outfalls
3 x 1W Little Gulls

North Harbour Wall
adult Mediterranean Gull
72 Twite
14 Linnet

Heysham Nature Reserve
Common Quaker - first of the year
Dotted Border - 2

Med Gull at North wall

Ringed Gull at North Wall

Black Headed Gulls at different stages.

Harbour Wall Finch Catch at Last

Heysham
North Harbour Wall

After the recent strong winds and rain, this morning was an opportunity to try for a whoosh net catch.
One early fire caught 21 birds:
Linnet - 4
Goldfinch - 1
Twite - 16  including one retrap from oct-dec 2010 and two recent retraps.

Thereafter, the birds in the vicinity were mainly Linnets that were very unsettled and feeding in a spread-out manner mostly off the designated catching spot.

ajd

Waders at the heliport.

North-bound Whoopers the only surprise

Heysham Obs
A good number of gulls around this am before the 0925 rain watershed......but couldn't find anything of real interest

Thanks to Craig Bell for these pics taken yesterday

Twite - 55, including a green/white Machrihanish bird
Linnet - 14
Med Gull - 2 ads in harbour
Kittiwake - 19 in harbour, one outfalls
Little Gull - only three seen on/around outfalls (1 Ad)
Guillemot - 2 in harbour, one offshore
Whooper Swan - 26 north at about 0910hrs
Scaup - 2CY male Middleton mb pond
Pochard - 3 males and female Middleton mb pond

Good coverage, Shag new in and Twite increase

Heysham Obs
Shag - 3CY or older harbour, then flew out (thanks Margaret and Mark)

Kittiwake - 19 harbour, 1 outfalls
Little Gull - up to 8 outfalls
Guillemot - 3
Twite - 74 on seed
Linnet - 14 on seed
Red-throated Diver - 2

Nothing new

Heysham Obs
An unpleasant day at high tide kept the handful of inconsiderate dog walkers off the heliport and there was a nice roost of 3,600 Knot.  No obvious sea passage despite promising conditions but maybe didn't leave it long enough!


Med Gull - 2 adults
Kittiwake - 13 harbour, 3 outfalls
Little Gull - max of 31 outfalls (15 2CY)
Guillemot - 6 harbour
Twite - at least 46
Linnet - at least 16
Scaup - 2CY male Middleton model boat pond
Wigeon 127

Also on Middleton:
Skylark - 2
Meadow Pipit - 2
Jack Snipe - 1
Common Snipe - 2 (& 4 OE saltmarsh)
Teal - 54
Mallard - 8
Gadwall - 7
Pochard - 3
Coot - 9
Moorhen - 9
Mute Swan - 5 ad 7 juv
Tufted Duck - only 7

Thanks for a lot of this, Malcolm

Harbour Wall Visit Only

Heysham North Harbour Wall

Mixed finch flock this morning numbered 80 birds.  Very unsettled and feeding spread out amongst rubble beyond feeding area in spite of much fresh seed put down.  Flock being spooked by every passing gull.

Twite - c55, large proportion ringed
Linnet - c15
Goldfinch - c10

Great Crested Grebe - 2 offshore
Red Throated Diver - 1 offshore


ajd

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