No distractions in a strong north-westerly

Heysham Obs
A cursory glance at the outfalls early on before the useless sunny north-westerly kicked in produced:

Common Tern - ad
Little Gull - at least one, prob two ads
Tern spp - briefly seen very distantly in the main channel, almost certainly juv Arctic but not sure (NOT yesterdays Little without a size c/p)
Med Gull - at least 8 casually noted

Moth trap
An invasion of Agriphila tristella but a bit more interesting was the first Grey Chi of the year.  Amazingly up to date with MapMate records and synches with Graham, our county 'hub', despite running into the thousands of records so far this year.  Don't leave it too late - too much to do all at once at the end of the year if you are an active moth-er, then Christmas intervenes and the wheels come off the documentation - been there done it in previous years.  This would be a shame during the current three year Macro Moth Atlas (2014= year one)

A windswept outfalls visit produces a Little Tern

Heysham Obs
A visit to the outfalls was in order today after a scan revealed a very distant Little Tern -a very rare bird in these parts in especially autumn and a lingerer on the outfalls unprecedented


Outfalls and harbour area 0900-1030
Little Tern - juv on Heysham one outfall throughout
Common Tern - At least one moulting adult and an imm (not juv) Heysham one outfall
Sandwich Tern - ad Heysham 2 outfall
Little Gull - just the one today - the non-obviously moulting ad
Med Gull - 30 - minimum of 19 1CY and minimum of 11 of other ages (2 x 3CY, 2 x 2CY, rest adult or 3CY)

Clouded Yellow at Middleton NR

Clouded Yellow in flight. MNR

Brimstone. MNR

Moth at MNR

Bits and bobs on the sea

Heysham Obs


Red Nab/outfalls at various times mainly incoming tide
Med Gull - 26 (19 1CY, 2 3CY, 5 adult, no 2CY)
Little Gull - 3CY and two adults, one as yesterday, the other with 'no obvious wing moult' at long range
Arctic Tern - juv am
Sandwich Tern - moulting ad pm


Sea 0830-1000
Great Skua - one out
Whimbrel - 4 out
Gannet - 3
Curlew - 650 out

Mist netting in the eye!

Heysham Obs
After a very wet morning in a lightish easterly,  from 1315hrs it was flat calm, high cloud and no sign of any incoming rain.  Put a mist net up for about an hour as there were quite a few warblers around.  The eye must have been very slow moving as we didn't get the westerly hooley on the south flank until about 1700hrs.  Bizarre!

Seawatching tomorrow am?

Outfalls/Red Nab area am
Black Tern - moulting adult flew in and landed on the rocks then sneaked off on the incoming tide whilst I was watching elsewhere
Little Gull - adult outfalls/Red Nab with about half the primary feathers moulted i.e. about 5 old primaries
Med Gull - 9 x 1CY, 2 x adult
Whimbrel - 1

Heysham NR
Whitethroat - low double figures and none seen appeared to be ringed
Lesser Whitethroat - at least two
Chiffchaff - new one ringed

Insects
Clouded Yellow this afternoon in the balmy weather in the "eye" - on fleabane NE corner of reserve

Ringing
11 birds in an hour, mainly unringed finches (2 Bullfinch)

Saturday 9th August

Heysham Obs
Scraping the barrel a bit for interest on a clear blustery day and top spot fell to Homeosoma sinuella, the second record for the reserve

11 juv and two adult Med Gulls around the outfalls after at or just after high tide - not the best time!

In contrast to yesterday, not a single warbler was heard during the 10 minutes or so topping up the feeder. 

Quality vis mig and record numbers of Common Whitethroat

Heysham Obs
Sacrificed the latter part of a very crowded music session at the Hill Inn for some early morning coverage of what looks like the last of these sorts of morning for a bit (but some possible sea-watching coming up or at least some weather which might spice up the variety on the outfalls).  THREE birds obviously on vis - see below!




Vis mig
Wood Sandpiper - one high to SE at 0615hrs
Flava Wagtail - one (not an adult male) fairly low to the SE at 0820hrs
Grey Wagtail - one high to SE




Grounded
Unremarkable in the relatively clear conditions apart from one species - Common Whitethroat where record numbers were present and 56 ringed between Middleton and Heysham in a very limited number of nets (4 x Midd, one line of  3 x Hey).   Other fare included five Lesser Whitethroat but very few Phylloscs or Acros.   Just over 100 birds ringed in total.

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)