Hirundine and Sandwich tern trickle

Heysham Obs

North harbour wall
Sandwich Tern - 32
Little gull - 4 plus 2 distant adults
Meadow Pipit - 2
Swallow - 2

Middleton NR
Grasshopper Warbler - 2 singing male, 3 later
Snipe - 1
Swallow - 16 NE
Sand Martin - 3 NE
House Martin - 1 NE
Willow warbler - 4ish migrants

Heysham NR
Trickle of Willow Warbler (7) and Chiffchaff (2) ringed along with two Blackcap

Moths
Powdered Quaker and Shoulder Stripe (2) 'highlighting'

Misty drizzly 'fall'

Heysham Obs
Not a morning for glasses-wearers in fine drizzle and poor visibility.   Decent numbers of the 'obvious' =Wheatear made you wonder what of the non-obvious might have slipped through.  However, coverage not at all bad and thanks the Bill and Janet for early morning Middleton visits (and Malcolm's and Justine's on previous days)

Middleton early am
Grasshopper Warbler - one presumably singing on territory, the other a probable migrant alongside Ocean Edge
Redstart - male (IOY)
Jack Snipe - late bird flushed from shallow wetland
Willow Warbler - 8+, c40 later on
Stock dove - 2 (Ioy)

Heysham NR circuit
Goldcrest - late female
Willow Warbler - 2 migrants
Chiffchaff - 4 migrants, two on territory

Wheatears
Ocean Edge - 11
North harbour wall - 17
South harbour - 1
PS non-operational land - 3
Middleton - 7

North harbour wall
Meadow Pipit - 6 grounded

A quieter day

More updates to come.

North Harbour Wall 0640-0740
No vis (too windy)
Gannet - 1 out
Common Scoter - 9 out
Wheatear - 1 female on mound

Middleton NR
Willow Warbler - 7 singing
Chiffchaff - 2 singing
Mute Swan - 2 pairs plus the 6 imms
Tufted Duck - 3 pairs
Gadwall - 2 pairs
Little Ringed Plover - 2.  A pair back on territory
Wheatear - 3
Swallow - 2
House Martin - 2 in late afternoon
Skylark - pair

Ocean Edge
Wheatear - 7
Linnet - 30
White Wagtail - 1

Shore to south of OE
White Wagtail - 7
Wheatear - 4

Moths
Included Early Thorn (at last!)

Quality not quantity

Heysham Obs

Thanks to Joanne and Janet for the above pics

Pretty decent morning unless you were into hordes of visible migration!

North harbour wall
Marsh Harrier - cream-crowned bird north at 0802 (IOY) - well into Cumbria
Sandwich tern - 2 offshore

Office area
Willow Warbler - 10+
Firecrest - 2CY male caught and ringed - still showing late afternoon
Ring Ouzel - 2CY male ringed (IOY)
Blackcap - at least 3 males and two females
Robin - two unringed birds caught
Meadow Pipit - 9 NE

Middleton NR
Ring-necked Parakeet - flew north towards Tradebe
Grasshopper Warbler - singing male early morning only (IOY)
Little Ringed Plover - single mobile bird (IOY)
Greylag - 4
Tufted Duck - 8
Gadwall - just two males seen

Wheatear
5 ocean edge
4 non-op land
one heliport

Mammals
Weasel ran across near office
Grey Squirrel below obs tower

Moths
Shoulder Stripe of minor interest

Hopeless

Heysham Obs
Awful weather during the morning/over lunchtime - nothing of interest blown in

Sand Martin - Middleton model boat pond first thing
Wheatear - Ocean Edge foreshore
Common Gull - 89 outfalls

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