Predictably clear and fairly birdless

Heysham Obs
Clear overnight with a westerly wind seemed to shift a high proportion of the warblers from around the office although two new Whitethroat, a Lesser Whitethroat and a Blackcap were ringed.  The highlight again was hearing Tree Sparrow, seemingly grounded but out of sight and involving at least two birds from the noise


22 Med Gulls seen on a scan from Ocean Edge, including 16 juveniles.  Once again, no ringed birds seen


Moth interest was limited to Ypsophola scabrella, but the sun beat me to the trap this morning!

Mid-morning retrieval of sorts

Heysham Obs
Wasn't on the ball this morning - the small print (detailed perusal of rainfall movement) suggested the heavy rain forecast was a bit dodgy and so it proved yet the conditions were sufficiently cloudy and humid with little pulses of rain to produce a decent number of migrants. Problems was, no birders until 0900hrs and immediately the presence of contact calling Willow Warblers was obvious!

A couple of nets were set in slightly breezy conditions which then became sunny and breezy, yet a mixture of warblers found their way in.

Around office:  c20 Willow Warbler (which soon melted away), 4 Chiffchaff, 6-8 Whitethroat, 2 Lesser Whitethroat, at least one Blackcap and the highlight a flock of 5 Tree Sparrow which headed south having had a look at the feeders

The evening Swallow roost was again a little windy and only 50 or so birds seemed to attend the roost, yet 32 were ringed

The moth trap saw the first Sallow of the autumn

Clouded Yellow alert

Heysham Obs
Three male Clouded Yellow on Middleton midday and also a female Wall Brown along the concrete road between the western and central marsh at about 0830hrs


1320 update - 6-8 Clouded Yellow around Middleton model boat pond area

Thanks to Dave Talbot

Toadflax Pug in actinic on the north harbour wall (new for SD36!)


Middleton CES saw reasonable numbers of Whitethroat but the only obvious migratory activity was two Sand Martin south and a bizarre tide displacement-unrelated flock of 23 Oystercatcher which tried to land on the model boat pond edge - very odd at this time of year.  c30 Swallows headed purposefully NE over Heysham NR

There were nine species of dragonfly seen today with the rarest for here being Southern Hawker - still less than ten records but most of them recently.  Thanks to Arnside Natural History Society for info.

Thanks to Dave Talbot

Monday 4th August

Heysham Obs
Of note were a juvenile Reed Warbler 'out of habitat' by the office and c200 Swallow in the Middleton roost (51 ringed)

August 1st to 3rd

Heysham Obs

Not a great deal new to report this last three days other than a few decent moths along the southern fringe with Mullein Wave and Grass Emerald on 1/8 plus 4 x Bordered Beauty in the office trap.  Meds have been in variable numbers but the main feature has been a large early influx of unringed juvs with many of the Ads and other older age classes from early July having moved on

1st August
Med Gull - 27, including 19 Juv, 4 adult, 3 2CY and a 3CY
Little Egret - 2

2nd August
Late in the tide cycle and just 11 juv and one adult Med

3rd August (thanks Gav & Ian)
Whimbrel - 1
Med Gull - 15 juv, 3CY, Ad

Mainly moths

Heysham Obs
The new glasses arrived this afternoon - mow how to use a scope with variefocals coming up...........

Moths included fleabane-eating plume number 1523 at Heysham NR along with a Southern Wainscot.  An actinic along the southern border of SD45 produced a second brood Pale Shouldered Brocade and Fen & Southern Wainscot

What sounded like a cockatiel flew over HNR this am but was not seen

More Meds milling around

Outfalls/Red Nab
7 Adult Mediterranean Gulls, 2 x 3CY, 4 x 2CY, 15 x 1CY

Plenty of finches but few new warblers

Heysham Obs
Despite a ringing total of almost 60 new birds by the office, the cloudy conditions, albeit with a NW wind failed to deliver any numbers of warblers, with Willow Warbler especially absent and far fewer Whitethroat than yesterday (when there were five on a fence together by office).  However, 5 new juvenile Blackcap were ringed and a couple more Chiffchaff.  The Willow Warbler to Chiffchaff ringing ratio this year is something like 90:72 i.e. a fantastic number of Chiffchaff for this early in the autumn.  Every chance that Chiffchaff totals will be higher than Willow Warbler this year for the first time ever

Most of the new birds were a fresh gang of finches finding the seed again after a few days where the stock was empty - unlike many other places these days, we seem to have a bottomless pit of Greenfinches with some excellent recoveries providing the incentive to ring them.

A too late in the tide check of the outfalls produced 9 Med Gulls with the usual habit of 1CY remaining to feed over the tide reflected in 7 of them being of that age class

White-spotted Pug in the moth trap

Overnight rain produces a few warblers

Heysham Obs

Outfalls
Med Gull - at least 16 (7 1CY, 3 2CY, 2 3CY, 4 Ad)

Middleton
Mixed catch of about 50 new birds, mainly warblers and a noticeable influx of Common Whitethroat from about 0830 onwards.  First Garden Warbler of the post-breeding season and 5 unringed Lesser Whitethroat notable but Sedge and Willow Warbler numbers unremarkable

A Common Sandpiper was heard in flight and 6 Swift flew south

Gull lift-off

Far more gulls this morning now we have a decent onshore wind 38 Med Gulls reported before I got there (18 juv, 15 ad, 5 2CY). A quick check of Red Nab added 2 x 3CY. The darvic -ringed adult 2P96 was on Red Nab - hope the earlier observer(s) found some ringed birds (info on pager)

Ad Little Gull seen at 1015ish but not reported by earlier observer(s)

Hopefully the new glasses next week will allow telescope use to be comfortable not an eye-straining ordeal. In the meantime, as this mornings observer(s) indicated, there are a lot of birds to be seen and we know what happened last year when the big influx started......

News of a couple of bypass verge Pyramidal Orchid earlier this year - right at the Heysham end

Low numbers of roosting Swallow at Middleton - no more than 100 plus a few Sand and, surprisingly House Martin (one of the latter ringed)