Cetti's singing in the rain

Heysham Obs
.................but not a lot else this morning other than a Rock Pipit by the 'slipway' on Ocean Edge and a couple of Red-throats offshore


Offshore
Red-throated Diver - 2 'in'


Ocean Edge
Rock Pipit - one by slipway - flew towards saltmarsh
Pied Wagtail - 10 grounded OE foreshore
Meadow Pipit - 4 as above


Middleton
Cetti's Warbler - 4 bursts of song in about 5 minutes 0840ish edge of main reedbed western marsh
Tufted Duck - 7 model boat pond
Gadwall - 2 model boat pond
Shelduck - singleton briefly model boat pond
Mute Swan - 6 imm as above


Moths
Common Quaker (7), Hebrew Character (1)

Ocean Edge foreshore coverage

Heysham Obs
A Reed Warbler 1CY ringed at Middleton at the end of July was caught by a ringer at Setubal. Portugal, in mid-October, perhaps rather later than might be expected to still be in Iberia.  A Greenfinch ringed in late autumn was found dead a few days later at Arnside, a rather odd direction

OE salt marsh (thanks Malcolm)
3 snipe
1 rock pipit (same location as
yesterday)
2 wheatear

At least 200 large gulls hanging about in the updraughts above the outfalls but nothing unusual in the area

A decent selection but minimal migration

Heysham Obs
The best bird today was the continuing presence of our singing male Cetti's Warbler on Middleton where it was quite vocal early on, then shut up after 0900hrs.  Also on Middleton, a vocal Water Rail in the main reed-bed was welcome, a trilling Little Grebe on the fence pond even more so,  but half a dozen pheasants did not bode well for the forthcoming mist netting season.

Vis mig
Meadow Pipit - 30 per hour first half of morning dropping to 15 per hour
Redpoll - at least 5
alba Wagtail - 15
Reed Bunting - 1
Carrion Crow - 3 north

Middleton NR  (Malcolm/Pete/Justine)

Water Rail - one squealing

Mute Swan - 2 pr + 6 2CY

4 coot

4 moorhen

5 mallard

10 tufted

7 gadwall

2 teal

1 little grebe on fence pond 

1 lapwing on peninsula  

6 pheasant

1 male Cetti's Warbler  (heard only)

1 chiffchaff

3 meadow pipit (1 parachuting)

1 reed bunting

1 small tortoiseshell

 

Ocean Edge   

1 rock pipit

4 meadow pipit

1 wheatear

 

Red Nab  

1 little egret

 

Red Nab bushes  

2 goldcrest

2 long tailed tit

1 bullfinch (m)

 

60+ turnstone on rocky foreshore in front of south wall roundhead.

 

More blocking weather

Heysham obs
Lots of large gulls on or around the outfalls in wind and temperature looking a decent recipe for a white-wingers rather than summer migrants.

Offshore
Kittiwake - 3 plus 2

Middleton
Gadwall - 7
Mute swan - 6 juv mod b pond, pair usual nest site
Tufted duck - 4 mod b pond
No song from Cetti's warbler in poor weather and little else singing, similarly no water rail calling

Moths
Early grey, common Quaker, Hebrew character

Bullfinch mystery

Heysham obs
Bullfinches are surprisingly unpredictable here with quite a bit of perceived migration and scattering of unringed birds even in the breeding season . Today's events were however unprecedented at this time of year

Bullfinch - three unringed 2cy caught together (one male)
Wheatear - male ocean edge
No other evidence of migration reported

Kittiwake flock

Heysham obs
Seawatch am for one hour
Kittiwake - 25 on sea
Pink footed goose - 11 north
Eider - 173 on

Butterfly
Comma Middleton

Whooper on the challenge list at last

Heysham Obs
First of all a correction - the type of netting which trapped yesterdays Wheatear was garden 'pea netting' type stuff - the mesh was too small for a monofilamant net and therefore part of the spoil used to create the small bund aloing the edge of the caravan site

Sea 0915-1015
Whooper Swan - 4+2 NW
Carrion crow - flock of 7 north

Thanks Janet

Pied Wagtail - 15 N
Meadow Pipit - 13 N
Common Gull - 92 on outfalls/harbour mouth

Moths
2 x Hebrew Character

Late news yesterday
Pink-footed Goose - c100+200+100 N
Whooper Swan -  32 N (flock)

The perils of monofilament nets

Heysham Obs
Ringed a new species for the year today (Wheatear) - the circumstances were not great, but fortunately the bird was found by Malcolm, not the local mutt/carrion crow.  It was tangled up in discarded monofilament (fishing) net - 'discarded' presumably means 'net which has been set then trashed by stormy weather and left to drift'.  So these nets can be a bit of a menace for tideline foragers and a very good reason to support your local beach clean and emphasise to them that, given a choice, its best to leave a big and obvious plastic bottle than "invisible" monofilament netting


The day was highlighted by two separate north-east-bound Common Buzzard - definitely migrants - and the continuing vocal performance by the Cetti's Warbler at Middleton


Meadow Pipit - c30 north
Stonechat - female Middleton NR
Wheatear - 2 Ocean Edge
Goldcrest - at least 5 on Heysham NR and two by Gate 38
Common Buzzard - singles NE at c1110 and 1125
Cetti's Warbler - in song regularly this morning and favouring the  vegetation around the western end of the 'fence' pond and can be easily heard from the road to sewage works near the end
Reed Bunting - flock of 7 feeding on reed mace heads at Middleton
Water Rail - 3 squealing Middleton
Teal - pair model boat pond
Gadwall - 5 (3 males) model boat pond
Tufted Duck - 4 model boat pond
Mute Swan - 2 ad & 6 2CY model boat pond
Song Thrush - 2 migrants Middleton - flew inland
Redwing - singleton Middleton flew inland




 

Sandwich Tern

Heysham Obs
A nice early record for here of Sandwich Tern comprising a flock of eight which flew from the Barrow direction and did a circuit before flying out




North wall and area 0800-0930 (Ian Walker)
Sandwich Tern - flock of 8 as above
Pink-footed Goose - flock of 6 NW
alba Wagtail - 60 N
Meadow Pipit - 30 N
Robin - 4 probable migrants




Middleton NR (Ian, Malcolm, Pete)
Cetti's Warbler - singing again at Middleton along bank along north end of western marsh reed-bed, then next to nearby 'fence' pond where it showed well until late morning
Water Rail - two in big reedbed
Mute Swan - two pairs + 6 2 CY
Mallard - 6
Gadwall - 2 pr
Tufted Duck - 8
Teal - 3
Moorhen - 7
Coot - 1
Little Grebe - at least one
Chiffchaff - one non-singing bird


Ocean Edge area
Wheatear - 3
Snipe - 1


Insects
Small Tortoiseshell Ocean Edge, Peacock Middleton


 (particularly tatty) peacock.
Malcolm

Partial eclipse partially visible

Just at the eclipse's maximum the clouds rolled back to enable a brilliant view of the partial eclipse.  A few seconds later the clouds rolled back again over the crescent sun.  It was so quick that there wasn't time to grab a camera and take a photo, unfortunately.  It went as dark as it does when thunder clouds are over, Robins began ticking and Blackbirds made a lot of clucking noises like they do when they are about to roost, 8 Magpies gathered together and other birds went a lot quieter.

The female Stonechat at Red Nab stood still long enough for a photo though.  Sorry about the quality but the photo was taken on full zoom. 

 

Middleton NR

Cetti's Warbler - singing male along the bank between the reed bed and western marsh - two bursts of song in quick succession then shut up - hopefully its on territory there

Water Rail - at least one western marsh reed-bed and one central marsh

Little Grebe - now TWO on the no swimming pond

 

North Harbour Wall 0750-0855

Vis

Meadow Pipit - 19 N and NE

Redpoll sp - 1 N

alba Wagtail - 7NE

Chaffinch - 2 N

Carrion Crow - 1 NE

Greenfinch - 2NE

Linnet - 1 NE

Reed Bunting - 1N

 

Grounded

Wheatear - 1 male

At the feeder

Linnet - 2

Ocean Edge grounded

Stonechat - female

Wheatear - 2 males

 

Heysham NR

The only semblance of night migrants caught were two Song Thrush and a Robin - no Goldcrests seen/heard

Insects

Bog standard 'nuisance fly' in the office for the second day - very early for these