Selective migration

Heysham Obs
Difficult one this morning - limited time - late arrival - no other birders/ringers .............and plenty of birds by recent standards..............except a complete lack of Wheatear!  Visibility very limited - no chance of covering the sea.  Times at each site after 1000 approximate


Office area 0900-1000
Meadow Pipit - 312 north
alba Wagtail - 8 north
Reed Bunting - 1 north
Redpoll - 1 north
Chiffchaff - minimum  of 6 around office
Goldcrest - 2 round office


Ocean Edge 1005-1010
Meadow Pipit - 40 grounded, 10-15 over
Chiffchaff - one amongst the rocks


North wall 1015-1045
Meadow Pipit - 60 grounded, 30 flew off plus another 118 heading north
alba Wagtail - 18 north
Rock Pipit - one north
Goldcrest - 4 in the twite sea buckthorn, one in the sea buckthorn at south end
Surprisingly nothing in the gorse e.g. wren, dunnock, robin


South harbour 1050-1105
Robin - two
Goldcrest - 1
Phyllosc - shot out of brambles and over the fence - prob Chiffchaff
Meadow Pipit - 13 north
alba Wagtail - 2 north


Middleton NR 1115-1135
No audible sign of Cettis (not heard yesterday either but this morning's visit was accompanied by a lot of other song
Water Rail - one still in main reedbed western marsh
Meadow Pipit - 24 north


Mammals
Two hedgehog dead on Moneyclose Lane, one from 5 days ago, one from yesterday


Moths
Double striped pug x 2 and Diurnea fagella new for the year


So much for coming to do some work before working away for an evening/early morning!

Afternoon meadow pipits

Heysham obs
Decided to take down mist nets which had been rather slow since dawn and this completion seemed to flick a switch and there was a significant meadow pipit movement following a morning which struggled to reach three figures. Same happened on the lune flight line

Vis mig
Meadow pipit - 327 ne 1315- 1415 then 120 1430- 1500. Followed by 145 n at high tatham 1705-1805
Reed bunting - one north
Hirundine - one disappearing rapidly ne looked like sand Martin
Chaffinch - 3 ne

Grounded
Chiffchaff - 3
Goldcrest - 5

A bit better

Heysham Obs
A rather late start on the vis mig coverage saw a sample hour between 0815 and 0915 at the southern end of the north harbour wall out of the way of anglers.

The last  week or so has seen Reed Bunting in two different occurrence patterns at Middleton - territorial males and a gang of presumed off passage migrants feeding on reed mace seed

Wooden jetty and outfalls
Turnstone - 171
Purple Sandpiper - at least one, possibly two
Common Gull - 141



Vis mig 0815-0915
Sandwich Tern - 2 out far offshore the only semblance of seabird movement
Meadow Pipit - 172 N (and a subsequent trickle over the reserve)
alba Wagtail - 71 N
Linnet - 23 N
Twite - 1 N
Redpoll spp - 4+1 N
Chaffinch - 1 N
Rock Pipit - 1 grounded then N


Middleton NR
Highlighted by a gang of 6 girls and 10 dogs and massive disturbance as they ran around yapping.  Anyone know any polite three word tweets which might signify communication?
Cetti's Warbler - singing from central marsh near fence pond
Little Grebe - visible on fence pond
Coot - two mbpond


Office area
Ringing was again low key with the only sign of migration being 3 Goldcrest, one Chiffchaff and one Robin (& two unringed Blue Tit)
Grey Wagtail - 1 north

Good variety on Middleton but no arrival of summer migrants

Heysham Obs
Another colour ringed grey wagtail sighting today by Stuart sharp after two years of trying within his dipper study area . Seen at killington bridge on the lune east of killington services and seemingly a paired female on territory. Thanks Stuart !  This bird was ringed at Middleton on 20/9 and seemed to winter in the area being seen on several dates in nov and dec up to 24/12 but not since.

Middleton NR (mainly Malcolm - thanks)
Mute Swan 2+1+1 adult + 6 2CY
6 coot
6 moorhen
2 shelduck
1 little grebe
7 tufted duck
4 mallard
9 gadwall
1 teal (male)
Cetti's Warbler heard during brief visit at 0850, then singing about every minute from central marsh at 10:20. Slightly slower rate at 12:20, but back in normal corner.
3 chiffchaff
1 skylark (full display flight/song)
1  green woodpecker
1 pheasant
Vis mig
Didnt seem to get going until midday with 8 meadow pipits over Middleton to north (12:15) and 72 in 20 minutes over Heysham NR 1240-1300 when it went 'dead' again - a mass departure from a nearby off-passage gathering ground?

Ocean Edge
Single snipe
mistle thrush with beak full of worms

Slow going in decent conditions

Heysham Obs
The best sighting received today was at 0028hrs - an email indicating one of our Grey Wagtails was at Melrose sewage works (c210km NNE) on 25th March.  More details needed to see exactly which bird (i.e. which way round the rings were).  Thanks to David and hope to hear back from you soon and we'll get it individualised


Offshore 0830-0900
Pretty dead other than:
Carrion Crow - a straggling line of 17 heading across the bay plus one high to north over Middleton


Vis mig - interrupted as travelling between sites
Meadow Pipit - 95
alba Wagtail - 14 (all along coast)
Carrion crow - see above


Middleton NR
Cetti's Warbler - singing from usual spot along the bank on north side of Middleton western marsh reedbed (near sewage works)
Shelduck - pair model boat pond


Outfalls
In the calmer weather, most of the large gulls 'replaced' by Common and Black-headed:
Common Gull - 225
Black-headed Gull - 75
large gulls - 60
Little Egret - 1


Grounded
Not a lot
Goldcrest - four ringed
Chiffchaff - one at red nab probably a migrant
Reed Bunting - still 5 feeding on reed mace seed on Middleton (whilst three singing males also on territory)

First Gannet and Greylags

Heysham Obs


Offshore one hour early am
Kittiwake - 16+3+3+2 out
Common Scoter - one out
Gannet - 2CY in
No small passerine vis


Model Boat Pond
Greylag - 2

Bit too north-westerly

Heysham Obs
Strong winds today but not very productive ones other than a couple of flocks earlyish morning

Offshore various times
Little Gull - at least six in a gang lifting up then dropping down on the water - all adults (c0840)
Kittiwake - flock of 21 'in' whilst watching the above
Absolute zero else of interest despite regular grillings of the large gulls soaring around the power station/on outfalls

Moth
1 Common Quaker

Kittiwakes and Tufted Ducks

Heysham Obs
Influx of both today in completely different fashions - the Kittiwakes on early morning seawatching and the Tufted Ducks doubling the recent Middleton counts

Sea early morning
Kittiwake - flock of 55+3+1
Common Scoter - 1
Med Gull - 2CY on end of Heysham one outfall lunchtime - spent most of time on water
Large Gulls - 120+ outfalls and harbour area
other bits to be added

Middleton NR
Cetti's Warbler - gave two burst of song just before 1000hrs along bank next to reedbed western marsh
Little Grebe - one on no swimming pond
Tufted Duck - 17
Gadwall - 4
Water Rail - one screaming
Teal - 2

Grounded
Goldcrest - one Middleton , 2 Heysham NR

Ocean Edge
Ringed plover - 5
Wheatear -1

Moths
3 Common Quaker

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