The osprey and the loo

Heysham Obs
Patchwork Challenge going pear-shaped in the last two days.  This morning's saga comprised dropping off some Lead-coloured Drab for the Belted Beauty workshop people to see at Pott's Corner, needing the loo, so atypically driving right past Middleton NR at 0950 heading for Heysham NR office.  Osprey flies north-east over Middleton at 0955!

Not a lot else today with no change from yesterday as regards additional sightings at Middleton and a single gannet far offshore was the only flicker of additional avian interest

Moths
Shoulder stripe and the three commonest orthosias in low single figures

Clear sky trickle livens up late morning

Heysham Obs
Undoubted highlight, two Green Sandpiper together Middleton flying about before heading SE - a bad personal miss of this barely annual visitor for the Patchwork challenge!  Lesser Redpoll with brand new ring from elsewhere (Z318 sequence)

Vis mig
sample count from the north wall 0635-0705
Meadow Pipit - 41 (plus 13 in 30 minutes 1030-1100)
Linnet - 27
alba Wagtail - 7 (2 grounded white for a short time)
Redpoll - 1
Mute Swan - 2 on sea

Heysham NR
Redpoll - 3 flocks flew over whilst putting the nets up - 10 birds plus 6 Lesser caught
Meadow Pipit - just 15
Linnet - 4
Chaffinch - 2 NE high
Rook - single adult high and purposefully to the east (in-off on that line - odd!)

Grounded HNR/OE
Stonechat - female by office
Wheatear - 6 scattered around plus 7 (in one
compact group at OE, including 3 female - suspect they had just come in 10:20)
Chiffchaff - 2 ringed and at least 6 other migrants
Goldcrest - just the one seen/ringed
Redwing - 2 grounded on tank farm then flew high inland

Middleton NR
Shelduck - 2 mbp
Cormorant - 2 mbp
Greylag - 2 briefly mbp then inland
Water Rail - squealing
Gadwall - 14
Tufted Duck - 17
Teal - 2
Mallard - 4
Coot - 4
Mute Swan - 4 ad, 6 2CY
Willow warbler - 9
Chiffchaff - 8 (& 4 unspecified WW/CC)
Blackcap - 1
Swallow - 1 north
Skylark - 2 singing male
Meadow Pipit - 37 grounded

9th April

Heysham Obs
Most of the stuff still hiding in a notebook - post later!

Hey NR Office vis
Meadow Pipit - 84
Redpoll - 1

North Harbour Wall vis 07:00-10:45:
Meadow Pipit - 139
Redpoll - 8
Linnet - 54
Goldfinch - 4
alba wagtail - 9
Woodpigeon - 3
Swallow - 5
Carrion Crow - 15

Grounded
Wheatear on non-op land and 3 Wheatear on North Harbour Wall (2 female, 1 male)
Two Goldcrest and single Blackcap ringed

Middleton NR
No sign/sound Cettis warbler
Water Rail definitely on breeding territory from behaviour in main reedbed (response to playback - standard survey technique)

Moths
Acleris hastiana

Crumbs under the clear sky

Heysham Obs
Coverage was pretty good today and great for butterflies and year-ticking various flies and the like..........but bird-wise it was a real scraps under the table effort after the last two days, but not without interest, notably a Goldcrest 'control' EPR198

Grounded office area etc
Goldcrest - 15 ringed plus one control
Willow Warbler - at least 3 singing males early on (2 ringed)
Blackcap - 2 singing males early on
Chiffchaff - no evidence of any migrants - odd
Wheatear - just one

Vis mig
Meadow Pipit - 255 NE
Redpoll - 12 NE
Woodpigeon - very prominent early on but uncertain of status - definitely at least 14 migrants heading north
Goldfinch - 11 NE
Carrion Crow - definite passage birds comprised 4+2+8 north
Reed Bunting - 4 NE
Swallow - 3 NE
Linnet - 23 NE
alba Wagtail - just 2 N E

Miscellany
Cetti's Warbler - 2 bursts of song western marsh
Snipe - 2 Middleton
Gadwall - 3 pairs Middleton
House Sparrow - male gate 38 (again)
Bullfinch - unringed bird caught
Wren - as above
Great Tit - as above
Eider - 180

Mammal
Day-flying small bat spp by dipping pond

Insects
Brimstone (6), Comma (2), Peacock (2), Small Tortoiseshell (1) Heysham NR transect
Lots of drone flies for the first day.  Moths included Shoulder Stripe

Ringing coverage

Heysham obs
Ringing by the office today saw large numbers of meadow pipit early am with up to 60 grounded at any one time and 200 plus an hour at least early on overhead - grand total estimated to be in excess of 500

The absence of chiffchaff was inexplicable but ringing included 7 goldcrest and, a typical early April feature, four unringed female chaffinch

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)