Bits of migration

Heysham Obs
This was the first morning which looked like it might produce a bit of land-bird migration, but unfortunately arrived rather late.  There were two unringed Goldcrest (together) around the office for a short time, two northbound Meadow Pipit and a flock of about 70 Pink-footed Geese, all after an c0945hrs start!

Also a few unringed finches in the net (7 Goldfinch, 5 Greenfinch), along with an unringed adult female Blue Tit

No coverage of coastal areas I am aware of

Moth
Parsnip Moth was better than nothing (just!)

Tuesday 1 March and Wednesday 2 March

Tuesday 1 March
North Harbour Wall feeder
Linnet - 13
Goldfinch - 5
Robin - 1

Ocean Edge grass
Pied Wagtail - 7
Mistle Thrush - 2
Linnet - 2
Oystercatcher - 10
Starling - 2

Middleton NR - model boat pond
Coot - 2
Herring Gull - 5 adults, 2 x 3W, 1 x 2w, 4 x 1W
Lesser Black-backed Gull - 5 ads, 1 x 2W
Mute Swan - 1

Middleton NR - no swimming pond
Mute Swan - 2 head bobbing at each other
Tufted Duck - 1 male
Coot -1

Wednesday 2 Mar
A full troll of Middleton Nature Reserve revealed a few extra teal and tufted otherwise little change.
2 adult + 2 immature mute swan
5 coot
8 moorhen
18 tufted
1 male gadwall
2 male pochard
34 teal
0 mallard!
1 little grebe
1 goldcrest

35 linnet - Ocean Edge
128 wigeon - south wall1 great crested grebe - harbour mouth

Lunchtime head count

The following are the result of quick check of Middleton ponds just after lunch. No sign of cetti's.
 2 male gadwall
 2 male pochard
 7 tufted
 2 mallard
 8 teal
 1 little grebe


2 little egret feeding in Half Moon bay rock pools.

Detailed coverage of Heysham NR wetland

Heysham Obs

Heysham NR, mainly wetland area
No Cetti's in residence

Water Rail - 2
Mallard -prospecting pair
Bullfinch - 2 pairs and extra female
Goldcrest - 1
Coal Tit - 1

Just a handful of new birds on the feeder - one Chaffinch, one Goldfinch and two Greenfinch

Cetti's in song

Middleton Nature Reserve
6 adult + 2 2CY mute
5 coot
7 moorhen
1 male gadwall
2 male pochard
5 mallard
7 tufted
14 teal
1 little grebe (fence pond - heard only)
Minimum 2 water rail (western scrape - heard only)

Cetti's warbler no sign mid morning but singing quite regularly at 11:40. In scrub on road side of Fence pond

Red Nab
Wigeon - 136

Office HNR
Pink-footed Goose - 85 N
A few finches on the move with 8 new Greenfinch and 5 new Goldfinch ringed

Odds and ends of minor surprises

Heysham Obs

Magpie - two in-off to wooden jetty (didn't see them until about 300m to NW over the sea) then inland after some hopping about

Little Grebe - one fence pond Middleton getting chased around by a solitary Coot

Water Rail - 2 squealing western marsh reedbed Middleton

Gadwall - male model boat pond (but no sign of the male Pochard - grrr)

Negative on Med Gull - no sign of Czech-ringed bird in thorough check at high tide with an e.g. full quota of Black-headed Gull on Fisher's roof roost.  Fractionally earlier than usual to depart - last seen North Harbour Wall on Wednesday.

Coot - 2 model boat pond, one fence pond

Little Egret - 3 Red Nab

Wigeon - 136 Red Nab

Skylark - 3 NNE over office 1040hrs

Backlog - sorry

Heysham Obs
Really sorry for no updates recently.  Thanks to Malcolm for most of this and Janet for the pic and Janet Greenwood for the Barn Owl report

MONDAY 22nd additions
Ocean edge saltmarsh
11 common snipe, 1 skylark. 33 linnet

Red nab
Slight increase in Wigeon to 138

Harbour
Only birds in inner harbour were 5 roosting 2cy kittiwake.

WEDNESDAY 24th
The big news today was the presence of a male Pochard on the model boat pond (but not here on Thursday!).  Also c5000 Starling roosting on end of wooden jetty

Also on Middleton NR
8 mute swan, including 2 x 2cy, 4 coot, 11 moorhen, 3 mallard, 7 tufted, 26 teal Malcolm

Moths
2 Dotted Border

 
THURSDAY 25th
Barn Owl - one flying around Middleton NR early evening

Ocean Edge high tide
2 Jack snipe
12 common snipe
9 ringed plover
2 reed bunting
7 linnet

Mammal
Nothing in harbour except grey seal. Malcolm

Moths
Two more Dotted Border

Peacock basks in the wall-to-wall sunshine

Heysham Obs
Some nice pics from Janet taken in the harbour area:  Thanks for these





Birds
Kittiwake - at least three 2CY in harbour

Moths
3 x Dotted Border in the trap

Butterfly
Peacock basking on the hilltop meadow on Middleton

Mammal
Grey Seal harbour - see above

Ringing
Only 16 birds caught : 5 Goldfinch, 4 Greenfinch, 3 Chaffinch, 2 Robins, 1 Wren and 1 Blue Tit.
Of interest, one of the Chaffinch was ringed at Heysham in 2011, but not caught again in subsequent years.

Monday 22nd

Heysham Obs
Couple of things from today, neither requiring binoculars

a) Dotted Border (melanistic) in the moth trap

b) The Goldcrest bearing a ring from elsewhere caught at Middleton on a good migration morning on 1st November 2015 was ringed at Gibraltar Point, Lincolnshire on 11th October, as part if a large 'fall' of trans-North Sea birds, therefore a leisurely WNW movement - unusual direction for this species but similar to e.g. Redwing and Chaffinch from Scandinavia

Windy fare

Heysham Obs
The punters were probably relieved the IOM ferry was on a Liverpool day today, giving a modicum of Welsh/Wirral shelter from the SW gale, but it could have been a good day for 'followers'.  So we had to see what was in situ as a short seawatch was pretty unproductive, albeit with poor visibility

Harbour/outfalls area
Guillemot - x 2 at high tide
Great-crested Grebe - x 3 in entrance area
Little Gull - three adults in boating channel off outfalls mid-am
Kittiwake - x 3 2CY in harbour
Herring Gull - mildly leucistic/bleached 2CY with dirty coffee primaries and a virtually clear tail
No sign of any 2CY Shag

Moth trap
A Dotted Border and the first Hebrew Character of the year

Middleton
Looks like the adult Mute Swans have left the two young on model boat pond and commenced prospecting
Jackdaw - 2