Sunday Sea Watching

North Harbour Wall

Sea-watching from 6.30 to 10.00am produced:
Marsh Harrier - 1 flew into the Bay at 7.40am, but very distant
Arctic Skua - 3 flew into the Bay - a dark morph at 8.10am, a light morph at 8.45am
and another dark morph at 9.00am.
Gannet- c70, though difficult to be certain as many were flying in, as others were flying out.
Auk sp - 3 flew in, all distant
Arctic Tern - 2 flew out
Fulmar - 2 flew out

Thanks to Pete Crooks for the above records

Records received from Malcolm today,  thanks very much.

Middleton NR
Mute Swan  2+1 adult and 6 2nd CY
Mallard  3
Shelduck 4 (2pr)
Moorhen  3
Coot  2
Skylark 2
Wheatear  1
Little Ringed Plover  1
Grasshopper Warbler  1 reeling in central Marsh

Ocean Edge
Wheatear  4
Linnet  6
Ringed Plover  4

Stage 1 Outfall
Common Gull  37 2nd CY

CES Morning

Advantage was taken of the only morning with winds light enough for mist netting to complete the second Constant Effort visits at both Middleton & Heysham sites.

Catches were low, 13 & 14 birds respectively, with a high proportion already ringed, suggesting local breeding birds.

Of the 20 nestboxes on the reserve, just over half are occupied by Great Tits, 5 by Blue tits and 4 not used. A good occupancy rate.

Moths:  virtually absent from the hut trap lately but should be picking up very soon, especially if the weather warms up a bit. A single moth was in the trap thus morning but only glimpsed as it shot out of the window!

Yesterday 
Four Spot chaser on the pond at Middleton over the road from the boating pond

 

ajd

Evening Sightings

Two of the main recorders and contributors to this blog are out of the country for a period.  Consequently, postings here may be rather sketchy for a while - please bear with us.

Malcolm has made the most of a lovely evening and reported the following:

Ocean Edge

Wheatear  10

Little Egret  1

Linnet  16

Dunlin  58

Red Nab

Whimbrel  1

Harbour South Round head

Wheatear  1


ajd

Another below par seawatch

Heysham Obs
Not quite right this morning with no hefty squalls, just some layered high-ish cloud which eventually cleared. A better day, however, than yesterdays disaster when I got absolutely soaked retrieving moth traps early morning and then, when we wanted some heavy showers, not a drop of rain fell for the  rest of the day

Sea 0550-0740
Arctic Skua - light and dark morph lifted off the sea and headed quite leisurely into the Bay at 0610
Great Skua (Bonxie) - one wheeled in very quickly at very long range (any other skua spp would have remained exactly that) at 0622
Gannet - 7 out
Canada Goose - rarest birds of the morning - 5 flew north at about 0720
Dunlin - 85 out
Whimbrel - 2 north
Swallow - just one north!
So nearly two hours without addition to the patchwork challenge (I still need Fulmar, Common Scoter, Manx Shearwater, Common Tern and any identified auks!!)

That's me for 10 days or so - my first holiday at migration time for a bit - hopefully others will find some stuff of interest as the sea looks promising e.g. Thursday early am

Monday 11th May

Heysham Obs
Just 11 Wheatear on Ocean Edge with a couple of brief and blank looks at the sea

House Sparrow hits a new 10k square

Heysham Obs
A female House Sparrow joined the select list of species to have graced SD36V this morning - this square is 99% sea/intertidal.  The rest was a bit dire but perhaps missed some early morning stuff

North wall 0640-0910
Swallow - 100 NE
House Martin - 6 NE
Sand Martin - 1 NE
Wheatear - probably 5 'in-off'
House Sparrow - female grounded briefly at the end of the mound
Arctic Skua - dark morph in, very distantly, at about 0655
Sandwich Tern - two on posts
Gannet - adult u-turned then blogged for a bit
Much reduced numbers of Turnstone

Ocean Edge foreshore
Wheatear - 11 - looked different birds from yesterday - very flighty like new arrivals and soon disappeared
White Wagtail - 1

Mammal
Grey Seal harbour mouth

Quiet day

Heysham obs
Early golden rod pug in the moth trap topped the bill!    Next best 9 wheatear ocean edge foreshore with two whimbrel on red nab. No obvious seabird records but morning tide unfavourable

Nice sunny morning dribs and drabs

Heysham Obs
The hint that there might be some Dotterel around (located at Cockersands in the afternoon) was provided by quite a noticeable day for Whimbrel movement for here.  A decent drop of Wheatear on to Ocean Edge, but grounded migrants otherwise seemed a bit sparse, especially given good coverage with mist nets

Nice ringing recovery of a Goldcrest.  Ringed in Essex on 9/10/13 as a 1CY female, caught Heysham NR on 8/4/15 and, as suspected by the tail, obviously an adult probably on its way to completing its second long-distance migration (303km).  The vast majority of captures are of birds in their first autumn or first spring migrations

Middleton NR
Mute Swan 2+2+6 - pair on Tim Butler still sitting
2 shelduck
6 gadwall
1 Tufted Duck
4 mallard
1 heron
3 poss 4 singing Grasshopper Warbler

Thanks Janet
Ocean Edge/Red Nab/outfalls
24 wheatear (mostly females)

White Wagtail - 3
Little egret - 3
Turnstone -190

Vis mig
Swallow - 190 north - mainly over Middleton 0900-1000
House Martin - 21 (as above)
Sand Martin - 2 north
Wheatear - 2 in-off north wall
Whimbrel - 17+14+7+4 north, at least 3 off-passage
Arctic Tern - flock of 6 north
Sandwich Tern - 20 blogging early on soon melted away
Jackdaw - three purposefully north
Carrion Crow - big cluster on Heysham NR may have included migrants
Grounded
See above for Wheatear
Garden Warbler - one ringed Middleton
Sedge Warbler - single figures of migrants
Whinchat - female moved rapidly inland Middleton
Blackcap - 2 unringed birds Heysham NR
Willow Warbler - conspicuous by absence with only one ringed

Mammal
Harbour Porpoise off harbour (probably the same three days ago)

Gadwall take the mickey

Heysham Obs
Two Gadwall in their wisdom decided that it would be a good idea to fly into the Bay hugging the sea heading straight for me.  Two blackish ducks looking too small to be Eider (4+ miles) - surely Common Scoter at last - flashes of white but definitely 'all dark' (2+ miles) - mmmm! then the reality as they swung laterally and headed inland.  Never seen Gadwall from here on a seawatch before, but they are an everyday occurrence on the Middleton part of the Patchwork challenge.  The rest of the seawatch highlights were also 'been there, done it' for this year, even the often annually tricky Brent Geese

North harbour wall 0850-1000ish
Arctic Skua - dark morph seen heading 'in' far offshore before it seemed to land on the sea (0900)
Dark-bellied Brent Goose - two headed in close inshore at 0936hrs
Swallow - 18 in
Gadwall - see above - two males?
Sand Martin - 1 in
Meadow Pipit - I NE (very late)
Med Gull - 2CY on outfalls
Dunlin - 150 out
an earlier seawatch recorded at least one Sandwich Tern but no details yet and there may be more from Phil, who watched for a further hour from 1000.

Ocean Edge/Red Nab
Interestingly (or not!), there were no Curlew on the wind and rain-swept mudflats yesterday morning, yet in more gentle conditions today there were 17 scattered around off Red Nab
Oystercatcher - 490 Red Nab just before high tide
Common Gull - 188 (two adult)
Black-headed Gull - 86 (more than yesterday)
Little Egret - 3 around
Dunlin - 68 roosting on Red Nab two hours before high tide
Whimbrel - 3 as above
Wheatear - 11
White Wagtail - 3

Heysham Skeer
Knot - a murmuration of about 900 or so at 0500hrs as reported by a local fisherman

Moth
Brown House Moth the only capture summing up recent mothing times!