Eider fest and nearby migrants

Heysham obs

Coastal stuff
Eider 507
Kittiwake - 2 adults Heysham one outfall
Twite - 6 - 3 white ringed, two dark blue over pale blue, one dark blue over red
Chaffinch - 1
Linnet- 5
Goldfinch - 10

Model boat pond
Pochard - 1
Tufted - 7

Nearby
7 migrant stonechat Potts corner to Sunderland

Mammal
Grey seal n h wall

Pelagic trickle

Heysham Obs
No seawatching as such today but still Little Gull and Kittiwake noted in short time periods so probably some Kittiwake flocks at least missed in the wind

BEWARE: There is still about 100m of road cones on the bypass and as a result they have kept the whole stretch from the Overton roundabout to the recycling centre roundabout on 30mph.  Apparently loads of people were done either today or yesterday thinking the limit had been lifted as no obvious hazard for the vast majority of this stretch and the signs at the Overton roundabout end look a bit dumped to one side and 'derelict'.  Every respect for their job in necessary 30 mph  limits, but covering the whole of this stretch is taking the xxxx, presumably because they cannot be bothered to move the 30mph signs to a relevant/reasonable distance either side of the cones

Outfalls area (thanks Malcolm)
Wigeon - 67
Cormorant - 14 feeding on Heysham 2
Kittiwake - 3 adults Heysham one
Snipe - 8 Ocean Edge
Reed Bunting - 1 Ocean Edge

Offshore etc north wall very briefly
Little Gull - two adults on sea, both lifting off briefly
Black-headed Gull - 110 Fishers roof
Herring Gull - 72 Fishers roof
LBBG - 29 Fishers roof
Finches - about 25 - at least 3 Twite

Heliport
Seriously disturbed over the high tide according to angler
Peel Energy have promised to get the fencing sorted over the summer at latest as a planning condition of their single turbine application which has been passed.

Small brown moth time

Heysham Observatory
Agonopterix heracliana appeared in the moth trap this morning along with a Dotted Border - the first moths for a bit in what has been a rather slow spring with too much wind and unremarkable temperatures

Thanks to Anne for another Grey Wagtail sighting on 4th March along the Bridgewater Canal at Worsley, Manchester.  Ringed on 11/9/13 at Heysham NR.   The number of reports have quadrupled since we started using red/metal combinations for the left leg as opposed to a mixture of pale blue or white over metal.

Nothing of individual note

Heysham Obs
Counting again today - nothing individual worth noting

Heliport - birds included
Knot - 2250
Ringed Plover - 20

South of harbour
More monoculture on the outfalls - i.e. Black-headed Gulls - never known a winter with so much westerly wind and so little variety
Wigeon - 72 ish
Snipe - one flushed out of OE saltmarsh

Finches
4 unringed Linnet and 2 unringed Twite were caught

More coffee-coloured year-ticking

Heysham Obs
A Barn Owl hunting the western and central marsh areas late morning - must be hungry.  Not an obviously common bird here - reported occasionally by dog walkers but not a feature of recent consultancy vigils, or evening swallow roost ringing here.  Interestingly it came from the direction of the proposed gas fired power station...................further emphasising the incomplete nature of the ecological survey which seemed to borrow far too heavily from a previous wind turbine survey which, of course, was weighted towards vantage point flight registrations, not habitat removal

Definitely no Med Gull along north wall/Fishers roof

Excellent show on the heliport this morning with 3k Knot, 4k Oystercatcher, 19 Ringed Plover and a 'heap' of Redshank etc at the far end I didn't have time to check

Unproductive onshore winds

Heysham Obs
Just a Red-throat to show for about 40 mins staring at the sea this morning on the incoming tide.  Better news on the finch front.  Absolutely no sign of the Czech Med Gull despite careful searching through the Fisher's roof stuff ie BHG cluster at HT.  Gone?

North wall
Red-throated Diver - one flew out
Finches - 45 in total with about 20 each of Twite and Linnet

Heliport
Knot - 3500
Ringed Plover - 11
Rest n/c - no time to go to café end

Wader quiz

How many Knot do you think there are in this photo?

In fact there are 450.  Now have a guess at how many there are in the photo below:

 

I haven't counted these individually so your guess is as good as mine!  This isn't the whole flock that were roosting on the heliport as another the same size was swirling about over the sea.  There were probably in the region of 3000 today plus 2000 or so Oystercatcher. 

 

Nothing much else to report at the moment.

 

 

 

 



A decent bird at last

Heysham Obs
............with apologies to the Cettis Warbler


North wall 0930ish onwards
Iceland Gull - At c0945, 2CY headed south just inside the yellow buoy with 2 x 2CY Herring Gull then headed for the shipping lane where it may have landed.  No sign from 'the other side' however
Kittiwake - tight flock of 11 on sea
Eider - 250+ but rough sea
Finches - 35ish on seed but very flighty


Model boat pond
Pochard - 3 males
Gadwall - 5 (3 males)
Tufted Duck - 7
Mute Swan - imms only


South of wooden jetty
Dead with just 92 Wigeon of note, despite thorough check of outfalls, harbour and wooden jetty

Distracted by emails

Heysham Obs
Meant to do all sorts of things coverage wise today, but the computer took over after a model boat pond check on the way there.  Only report from others was a summer adult Med on the north wall, probably the Czech bird but not certain

The only notable things on the model boat pond were
Large gulls - 72 - still promising with good numbers of 2CY Herring
Black-headed Gull - massive reduction with only 24
Pochard - 3 males
Tufted Duck - 7
Mute Swan - just the imms

Brief visit to top up seed at feeding station saw.
30+ Finches in flight only

Eider slowly increase

Heysham Obs

North wall low tide check
Red-throated Diver - 1
Eider - 320
Finches - flock of 40 in flight by the seed
Skylark - 1 north

Middleton NR
No Teal or Coot
Displaying pair of Kestrel
Mute Swan - 2+6
Moorhen - 4
Mallard - 4
Pochard - 2 males
Gadwall - 5 (3 M)
Tufted Duck - 16
Long-tailed Tit - flock of 10 feeding on reed mace heads