Seawatching cameo

Heysham Obs
At last a seawatch which over-achieved, albeit just a half-hour session possible as the wind edged fractionally back to the west and increased.  Possibilities the next couple of days, including incoming tide in the evening for e.g. Manxies..............but where are the dedicated seawatchers with time?

North wall 0730-0840 (murk and the initial stages of clearance) (Mark), 0840-0900 (nowt as the immediate post-clearance had too much NW), 0940-1010 (surprisingly good) (Pete)
Arctic Skua - light morph out at 0830, ?same in close inshore at 0948, dark morph distantly in at 1004
Great Skua (Bonxie) - one out very close inshore, including over the wooden jetty 0954
Manx Shearwater - flock of three in at 0949
Gannet - 11 in Mark's session, 2 more 0955, one behind iom ferry
Razorbill -singleton in, close inshore at 1000
Fulmar - one behind iom ferry (at last!)

Mammal
Grey Seal 1005 off north wall

Gulls and moths

Heysham obs
An evening visit to do the ces in the only calm weather suitable for Middleton

Outfalls and red nab late pm
Med gull - two 2cy
Common gull - 201
Large gulls - 720!
Wheatear - one large female and one small male

Middleton sheet and light with John and Justine
Oblique carpet the pick of a decent little catch unless one or more of the micros comes up trumps in daylight tomorrow

At last!

Heysham Obs
A very short seawatch - indeed the first scan - revealed a pair of Common Scoter heading into the Bay.  There did not seem to be much prospect of anything else so the seawatch lasted 5 minutes!

North wall 0930ish-0935
Common Scoter - pair in
Great Black-backed Gull - to add to yesterdays census - pair nesting Fisher's roof
Lesser Black-backed Gull - two young Fisher's roof - at least 2-3 days old

Ocean Edge/outfalls
Starling - one carrying food into power station SW corner (very few nesting attempts recorded EDF site)
Wheatear - female on grass - big one
Red Nab consisted of 5 in yellow high vis, two in orange high vis, one in donkey jacket and one in anorak examining the culvert and not a lot of roosting gulls etc. but most of the displaced birds were in view from Ocean Edge
Oystercatcher - 420
Curlew - 32
Shelduck - 2
Common Gull - 178

Insects
Some okish weather by recent standards this afternoon - cold but sunny!
The trap held a single Ingrailed Clay but the new bulb is now in - these 160 blendeds seem to lose the MV element over time and the old, bulb was getting very yellow

Justine had the second Grapholita lunulana for Middleton

Janet had 5 x Burnet Companion on Heysham NR plateau and the following pics:

Thursday 28th May

Heysham Obs
Roof nesting gull census today comprising buildings on
a) the power station non-operational land  (LB 14 nests, GB 1 nest)
b) Fisher's Roof and adjacent building at the harbour (LB 82 nests, HG 35 nests),
c) Centrica building along the North Harbour Wall (LB 15 nests, HG 7 nests),
d) Ocean Edge caravan park reception building (LB 10 nests, HG 1 nest) and
e) Middleton industrial estate (LB 41 nests, HG 17 nests)

Therefore a total of 163 Lesser Black-backed Gull nests, 60 Herring Gull nests and 1 Great Black-backed Gull nest. 

There were probably more nests on the Centrica building but it was difficult to see the rooftops properly.

Gannet - two far offshore

Common Gull - 194 outfalls

More coverage

Heysham Obs
An evening seawatch was not quite the cutting edge but did produce a belated year tick

North wall evening seawatch (Jean & Pete)
Manx Shearwater - 17-18
Gannet - 13 , including two fishing birds

Outfalls/Red Nab evening
Med Gull - 2CY
Common Gull - 193, all but one a 2CY
Large gulls - 370 Red Nab
Sanderling - 3

Office area
Spotted Flycatcher - one on fence by mist net ride - very unexpected so late in the spring passage

Moth
Small Square Spot new for year

Back into action

Heysham Obs


Today
Outfalls/Ocean Edge
2CY Med Gull outfalls
5 x Little Egret Red Nab and area contrasting with one Grey heron
Wheatear - two large females Ocean Edge grass

Middleton NR (thanks Janet)

Heysham NR plateau sheltered NW section
Burnet Companion - 2
Common Blue - 36
Crambus lathoniellus - 6
Scoparia pyralella - 1
Azure Damselfly - 1
No sign of the morning's Pyrausta spp in what was a very windswept area this pm

Moth trap
Heart and Dart debut for the year plus a worn highflyer spp which might possibly be Ruddy (occurs here in very small numbers)

Yesterday
2CY Med Gull outfalls

Hopefully the incoming weather will produce a decent seawatch when at least one of us is available and re-dress the ridiculously deficient year list

What no seawatching

Nice holiday in Belarus marred by an almost unbelievably unfortunate unavailability of all the local sea watchers this week - great weather for a few long tails and, since Sunday, best seawatching weather for ages

Highlight in Belarus was 20 minutes of lynx - usually really tricky

From Malcolm for Friday 22nd at Middleton:

Little Ringed Plover  1
Grasshopperhopper Warbler 1
Swift at least 10 over main pond by 12.00, none earlier in day.

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