A Tale of Two Cetti's

Cetti's warblers singing from two locations on Middleton Nature reserve this morning. Northern edge of the pond just west of the model boat pond, plus resident bird near Fence pond. Several alternating visits to these two locations strongly suggest two, rather than one highly mobile bird. (MD)
Other MNR records
6 mute
6 coot
2 moorhen
10 tufted
3 gadwall (1 female)
3 mallard
1 little grebe
1 water rail
2 Cetti's warbler
2 willow warbler (singing)
5 chiffchaff (singing)
4 wheatear
3 swallow (north)

Heysham NR
A rather desperate ringing session from dawn this morning proved what was expected after a night of heavy cloud and continuous drizzle - no grounded migrants and little early vis.
The only Goldcrest trapped was a bird ringed yesterday and only one Chiffchaff was ringed.
The remainder of the catch consisted of finches at the hut feeders, but did include an adult female Bullfinch.

NHWall
A number of brief visits during the morning produced no sightings of note.

Sandwich Tern

Heysham Obs
Coverage mainly around mist nets this morning with just a small sample of vis mig and short late morning visit to outfalls area

Vis mig
Lesser Redpoll - 2 caught - one a control D848 sequence
Siskin - at least one N
Meadow Pipit - sample of 51 NE in 20 minutes
alba Wagtail - 5 as above
Linnet - 13 as above
Reed Bunting - passage male caught

Grounded
Meagre fare with fat scores suggesting many of the newly ringed 5 Goldcrest and 3 Chiffchaff were not new arrivals

No Wheatear seen (early morning and late morning coverage of Ocean Edge)

Outfalls/offshore
Big influx of large gulls with good numbers of imms - a good white-winger recipe - 280-300 around outfalls
Med Gull - 2CY tideline
Common Gull - 35 ish
Black-headed Gull - 6
Sandwich Tern - one flew out along the shipping lane .

Moths
March Moth a surprise in the context of this year!

Low key coverage

Heysham obs
Just half a dozen each of pied wagtail and meadow pipit grounded ocean edge along with three wheatear. No further coverage other than topping up feeders!

Meagre fair for the fool

Heysham obs
2cy med gull new in on the outfalls

A good count for here of five little egret

Just one wheatear ocean edge

Another pollinated chiffchaff ringed along with a couple each of lesser redpoll and goldcrest

Decent early morning coverage, routine reward

Heysham Obs
Spring has sprung with the first annoying fly of the year in the office

A Swallow flying north over Middleton early morning was the only new species for the year but bits and bobs were going over for most of the morning, with quite a significant northbound Carrion Crow movement early morning worthy of mention

Grounded
Wheatear - 6
Chiffchaff - at least 5 new birds
Goldcrest - 10ish around the office area

Chiffchaff showing pollen-stained feathers above the bill - typical of some of the newly arrived migrants at this time of year

Vis mig office area/north wall to midday (north or north-east unless stated)
Redpoll - 1
Meadow Pipit - 205 including a sample of 60 north in 30 minutes from north wall
alba Wagtail - 26
Grey Wagtail - 1
Goldfinch - at least 14 vis mig
Reed Bunting - 1
Linnet - 6
Jackdaw - 1 high to SW
Carrion Crow - 17 purposefully high to NE (6,2,1,3,2,3)
Swallow - one north over Middleton early am (per Justine)
Sand Martin - 2

Offshore
A few Common Gull on the move with 25 north in 30 minutes
Eider - 214
Great-crested Grebe -1

Middleton
Cetti's Warbler - singing male usual area
Tufted Duck - 5 mbp
Gadwall - male mbp

Wet morning, sunny aftenoon

The following records are from a quick walk around Middleton Nature Reserve mid afternoon (MD)
Three separate sightings of single buzzard. Probably same individual doing the rounds.
6 mute
8 tufted
3 mallard
1 male gadwall
1 common snipe
1 Cetti's warbler (just one burst of song)
2 chiffchaff
c20 meadow pipit grounded

Barn Owl over Central Marsh this evening (ref Justine)

A bit more action in the limited time available

Heysham Obs

Seawatch etc. 0830-0900 north wall
Red-throated Diver - 2 in
Ducks - an 'ill-disciplined' flock of 10 dark things heading north-west miles out looked like Common Scoter
Rock Pipit - one on seawall - looked like littoralis but only seen very briefly
Twite - the only finches seen were four on the fence by the sandworks - all un-ringed - disappeared whilst sea-watching.  No food left at feeding station
Eider - 160 and counting - 35 in four flocks flew in during the half hour spent seawatching and joined the usual flock off the skeers
alba Wagtail - 5 north
Meadow Pipit - at least 11 north

Ocean Edge (low tide)
Nothing notable

Middleton Nature reserve
9 tufted
1 male gadwall
1 little grebe
1 water rail
1 Cetti's warbler (singing 11:45 fence pond road side)
1 chiffchaff (fence pond)
1 kestrel over to NE

More quick checks

Heysham Obs
Migration appeared to be at a standstill today but we didn't exactly give it much chance outside

Model boat pond
Tufted Duck - 9
Gadwall - male
Mallard - 6
Coot - 4
Mute Swan - 2
Teal - pair

Middleton Western marsh
Cetti's Warbler - sang once then observer left!

Offshore low tide
Eider - 180
Great-crested Grebe - 2

Ocean Edge
No migrants
Little Egret - 2

Sand Martin battles north

Heysham Obs

Just a single Wheatear Ocean Edge

Sand Martin north whilst watching the Eider flock

Eider - increase again to about 280

Meadow Pipit - not even a perceptible trickle

Saturday Wheatear plural

Heysham Obs
At least 4, probably 5 Wheatear landfalling and moving inland on Ocean Edge

11 Linnet north wall

Meadow Pipit - trickle - about 20 seen with the 20 minute sample count producing 4 of these!