Fair weather miscellany

Heysham Obs
Better than yesterday for migrants, but coverage of the early morning was a bit 'stretched' with a short sample of everything.  Thanks for the pics Janet - the decent ones - the wooden jetty is mine

Offshore
Whooper Swan - 4 on sandbank, then north
Common Scoter - female out
phyllosc on north harbour wall

Ocean Edge/Red Nab
Wheatear - 12 early am
White Wagtail - 1 early am
Little Egret - 4

Vis mig
Meadow Pipit - high-flying trickle with about 53 in 1.5hrs
Linnet - 16
Siskin - 2
Redpoll sp - 1
Common Buzzard - presumed migrant very high to north along coast
Goldfinch - 14

Grounded migrants by office
Willow Warbler - at least 5 by office when arrived at 0700hrs 

Moth
Included Small Quaker - a very fresh specimen - not common at all here

Mammal
A huge Grey Seal scared all the seagulls off the wooden jetty!

 Incredible jumping Linnet!

 Dunlin

 Knot

 Wooden jetty at high tide - big mass of Redshank and Turnstone on far right of first section

Clear night clearout

Heysham Obs
Yesterday's 'headwind fall' melted away overnight and predictably replaced by not a great deal (apart from the mixed pickle clearance sale at the local shop)

North wall/low tide offshore
Large gulls - c450, high proportion of immatures, on the offshore skeers
Eider - 260
Great-crested Grebe - 2
Red-breasted merganser - 2
Sandwich tern - 2'

Grounded
Wheatear - just 4 OE foreshore
single Goldcrest, Chiffchaff and Willow Warbler ringed by office

Vis mig
Desperate
Meadow Pipit - 15
alba Wagtail - 5
Jackdaw - 1
Woodpigeon - 13
Lesser Redpoll -4
Linnet - 6
Swallow - 4

Middleton model boat pond
Tufted Duck - 13
Gadwall - male
Little Grebe - 1
Coot seem to have disappeared

Miscellany
5 Little Egret OE/Red Nab
Cetti's Warbler - both singing males - one by no swimming pond the other  singing from brambles between fence pond and fence at west end
Common Gull - 10 seaward end Heysham one outfall
Willow warbler - at least 4 Middleton

Black Redstart

Heysham Obs

Thanks Janet

Female type Black Redstart showing well along edge of Ocean Edge salt marsh. (MD) - all morning and afternoon.
Also 13 wheatear
Please remember that this area is on private land. Access only around foreshore perimeter.
Thanks

Arctic Skua and marine mammal fest

Heysham Obs
A bit of coverage today not without interest, although the sea would surely have been better but for the ring of turbines in the outer bay funnelling stuff to the west of them

Sea on and off to 1030hrs
Arctic Skua - dark morph in at a vast rate of knots at 0925hrs
Gannet - 1+1+1+1+3 out once it cleared

Miscellany
Siskin - at least 4 on the feeders by the office
Wheatear - Ocean Edge: gang of three males moved rapidly inland over the caravans followed by two more later
Ringed Plover - 38 Ocean Edge grass
Dunlin - 10 Ocean Edge grass

Mammals
Harbour Porpoise - one off the north wall at 0740
Grey Seal - one south wall area high tide

Strong west wind

Middleton Nature reserve
Just the Cetti's warbler by the "no swimming" pond (see yesterday for detail) heard singing today. But both territories were only visited briefly. Several chiffchaff singing but no willow warbler heard. (MD)
10 tufted, 1 gadwall and 2 shelduck on model boat pond.
1 little grebe on fence pond
2 swallow (south!)
3 wheatear

Ocean Edge
2 little egret
10 wheatear
7 ringed plover

0930-1000 circuit
Gannet - one wheeling ' over the horizon'
Twite - male giving burst of song north wall with 6 linnet nearby
No wheatear around at this stage

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