Lesser Whitethroat new in

Heysham Obs
A very short seawatch produced just 3 Red-throated Diver and a bit of Swallow passage (c20/hr)

Lesser Whitethroat new in at Middleton where both male Cetti's Warblers were singing

Speckled Wood new for the year at Middleton (& male Brimstone seen)

Vis mig over the office included 2 Lesser Redpoll and c6 Swallow

Routine westerly seawatch

Heysham Obs
Arrived a bit late today - surprised to see no other seawatchers given the good conditions.  Highlight was two Fulmar (really hard to connect with these days) passing an inbound Arctic Skua and the mainstay, as usual in these conditions, being Gannet.  Note no sign of yesterdays seawatch fare in very different conditions

Sea 0750-0940
Gannet - 80 out (max flock 21)
Fulmar - 2+1+1 out
Kittiwake - 25+13 in, 7 out
Arctic Skua - dm in 0816
Sandwich Tern - one in
Swallow - 11 in

Decent selection from a crystal clear morning, except in the mist nets

Heysham Obs
One of those mornings when there was a ground frost but attempts to scan the outer bay/channels were thwarted by a heat haze, notably what looked like a Great Northern Diver.

Offshore 0715-0815
Sandwich Tern - loose gangs of 6 + 9 in
Black-headed Gull - several small flocks purposefully in = 45 total
Red-throated Diver - absolute minimum of 14 on water or flying in, also 7 "birds" on the water in the heat haze which looked like this
Diver spp - see above (not a Cormorant!)
Common Scoter - Presume the same flock of 70 blogging but then flew out
Whimbrel - one flushed from the seawall by gate, then flew towards harbour - it or another north 20 mins later (IOY)

Vis mig north wall 0715-0815
Redpoll - 5 heard
Meadow Pipit - 6 heard
Alba Wagtail - 3 heard

Ocean Edge/Red Nab
Greenshank - one with a few Redshank along the inner wet bits of mud/saltmarsh off Pontins - memo - check this more often (IOY)
Ringed Plover - flock of 71 on mudflats
Dunlin - 16 with above
Purple Sandpiper - this was lucky - one with 5 Turnstone on Red Nab then flew towards wooden jetty where there were loads of other small waders (presumably Turnstone/Redshank mix) - unfortunately no time to check
Wheatear - 7
White Wagtail - 1

Middleton Nature reserve (0830 -1000)
8 mute
2 mallard
4 tufted
1 teal
2 adult little grebe feeding 2 chicks (fence pond)
1 Cetti's warbler (male singing fence pond)
2 grasshopper warbler (reeling)
2 sedge warbler
numerous willow warbler and (less) chiffchaff
2 swallow

Cold block

Heysham Obs
Not as windy as forecasted this morning and a fair amount of singing going on.  However, a check of Middleton, with 30 minutes within audible range of anything singing in the marshes, only produced one of the two singing Cetti's Warblers (the no swimming pond bird), no Grasshopper Warbler and just a single singing Sedge Warbler of 'new' interest.  A Water Rail called from the western marsh reedbed

Miscellany from the 'rounds' (0715-0745 coastal, 0750-0820 Middleton)
Little Egret - 8 Red Nab
Carrion Crow - one flew north across the Bay
Cetti's Warbler - singing male by no swimming pond Middleton
Sedge Warbler - snging male east end of fence pond Middleton
Wheatear - just one Ocean Edge
White Wagtail - 2 together Ocean Edge
Water Rail - one called once from western marsh reedbed
Little Grebe - adult seen fence pond

No sign of any waders along the tideline towards the Lune Estuary other than Curlew and Oystercatcher, no obvious vis and no sea passage

Mammal
Harbour Porpoise off north wall

Below par

Heysham Obs
Impressions from coverage of the first two hours suggested that this was pretty well a zero migration morning and the 'new stuff' arrived after the main coverage yesterday.  Some bits and bobs unearthed by Janet with the major surprise being Little Grebe with chicks so early - the first confirmed breeding for about three years I think!

Middleton NR
Grasshopper Warbler - three singing males which were not there yesterday morning
Little Grebe - pair with at least two young on 'fence' pond

Deceptively friendly! 

 



Offshore for 15 mins 0640-0655
Red-throated Diver - 1 out

Red Nab/outfalls for 5 minutes
Raven - 1
Little Egret - 7 ish
Wheatear - 2

Mist netting by office two hours from dawn
Willow Warbler - 2
Goldfinch - 4

No vis mig perceived in very limited coverage

Much better than expected

Heysham Obs
If you get up and put some effort in even in rubbishy north-easterlies with high cloud, it sometimes pays off, even when only available until 0900hrs.  Quite a few bits and bobs later for Janet on Middleton:

Pollinated Blue Tit!

Purple Sandpiper north wall rocks with turnstone 0900
Sedge Warbler - one Middleton pm - see pic - early for here (no morning check for gropper today)

Sea 0635-0720
Common Scoter - flock of 8 in then out
Red-throated Diver - 6+8 in, joined up and seemed to land on the sea off Stone jetty area.  One out
Arctic Tern - flock of 7 in (IOY)
Sandwich Tern - two together in

Ocean Edge/Red Nab
Osprey - one NE at 0730 putting every seagull up in the area!  Not sure exactly where it came from as not noticed until all the Red Nab stuff I was watching lifted up.  No colour rings seen/photographed!!
Little Egret - perhaps a record count of 9 on Red Nab
Wheatear - just 2 at 0730
No whale vomit

Vis mig
Lesser Redpoll - 4 ringed by 0800
Meadow Pipit - only 5 seen heading NE
alba Wagtail - 3 NE

Grounded
Not a lot perceived early on - one Willow Warbler ringed by 0800

Mammals
Harbour Porpoise -1 seen once off the north wall
Hedgehog - healthy individual by office

Vomit sensation and a diverse trickle

Heysham Obs
http://travel.aol.co.uk/2016/04/13/couple-find-whale-vomit-worth-50k-lancashire-beach/?icid=maing-

Was going to walk along there this morning but the spring tides had removed all the breeding waders, so didn't bother!

Vis mig
Meadow Pipit - 16
Lesser Redpoll - trickle with about 12 caught (one ringed elsewhere)
Sand Martin - 10
House Martin - 1
Carrion Crow - flock of 3 purposefully SE

Grounded
Wheatear - 9 Ocean Edge
Redstart - male ringed Middleton
Low double-figures of Chiffchaff and Willow warbler arrival

Miscellany
Two female Cetti's Warblers were caught this morning in the territory of the fence pond male.  This was also caught and found to be the bird ringed there last October
Tufted Duck - 4 pairs model boat pond
Little Egret - 5 outfalls/Red Nab

Ringing at Middleton/Heysham
New birds:  Cetti's Warbler (2), Blackcap (6), Willow Warbler (6), Chiffchaff (8), Siskin (2), Lesser Redpoll (c11), Redstart (1), Goldfinch (2), Greenfinch(2), Wren (1)

Butterflies
First Small White of the year

Bits of grounded stuff but the easterly lost

Heysham Obs
Unfortunately the south-easterly wind had gone this morning so expectation on the sea was reduced to very little (should have been here yesterday evening?).  The intermittent drizzle produce the usual expectation of the more obvious grounded stuff,  but no mist netting possible to get a handle on any less obvious odds and ends slipping through the bushes

Grounded
Phyllosc - 'out of habitat': 2 in north wall sea buckthorn, one ocean edge foreshore by slipway (looked like Willow warbler but all only seen briefly before they moved on)
Wheatear - 7 Ocean Edge, 2 north wall sandworks, 3 heliport area
Blackcap - singing male briefly north wall sea buckthorn and one by Heysham NR office (first there this year)
Greenfinch - male north wall sea buckthorn - unusual!

Offshore low tide check
Little Gull - adult in summer plumage-ish following the dredger with Common Gulls
Sandwich Tern - gang of 4 blogging
Red-breasted Merganser - 7
visibility very poor for checking skeers and seaward ends of outfalls but nothing obvious of note

Vis mig
one Meadow Pipit!

The vagaries of migration

Heysham Obs
The start of a 'seagulls on the skeers' check as per yesterdays posting was interspersed by northbound specks passing through the scope.  Time to go into vis mig mode and what an excellent hour by recent standards/coverage before it all seemed to dry up at 0915.

**A female Hen Harrier was seen heading for our recording area over the sea by Barry Dyson from Lane Ends area at 1310hrs

North wall 0805-0930
Meadow Pipit - 177 plus c60 flying dots presumed to be this species
Yellow Wagtail - what a bonus and an early one at that - a calling 'cadbury's flake' male north at 0905hrs.  To put in perspective, there were no records in the recording area last year
Marsh Harrier - rather distant female/imm (with yellow 'headlights') being mobbed by gulls as it laboured north about at least a mile out at about 0855 - why was it doing this is over the 'sea' in a strong wind - not the first time this species has been seen taking the 'maritime route' in adverse conditions!
alba Wagtail - 21
Swallow - 2
Sand Martin - 3
Linnet - 27 plus a tight flock of 8 presumed this spp
Siskin - heard once (one bird?)
Common Gull - 57
Black-headed Gull - 16
Red-breasted Merganser - just 4
Large Gulls - c450
Eider - mostly hidden by skeers - not counted

Outfalls area low tide
Med Gull - yesterdays 2CY with blackish head?
Common Gull - an additional 38 to the above
Little Egret - 2

No evidence of any grounded passerines north wall or ocean edge (eg no Wheatear seen)

Middleton Nature reserve - late afternoon
6 mute
3 coot
4 moorhen
8 tufted
3 teal
1 gadwall (male)
1 mallard
1 Cetti's warbler (singing male at fence pond)
2 swallow (singles north

Low tide scrutiny

Heysham Obs
The low point of these spring tides exposes many otherwise covered food-rich skeers which are visible with a scope off the north wall.  The low tide channels are also quite productive.  Contrast this with high ide on a calm day when there is often zero.  More time to check than yesterday and some interest slowly winkled out.    A duffish day for migration though.

Offshore and overhead north wall - one hour
Lesser Redpoll - c13 north-east (& 2 HNR)
Meadow Pipit - c17 NE (& 3 HNR)
alba Wagtail - 6 NE
Linnet - 8 NE (& 2 HNR)
Mainly Herring Gull imms - c480 on skeers and sandbanks, more than yesterday
Scaup - female in 'second' channel
Red-breasted Merganser - 16 - definite influx
Eider - many 'behind' skers but looked to be 250ish
Med Gull - 2CY (not the bird of the other day)
Carrion Crow - one in-off then north (also 2 SE over Heysham NR)

Middleton NR
Cetti's Warbler - 2 singing males
Willow Warbler - 8 singing males

No Wheatears seen early am at Ocean Edge - 2 by 9.30

Male brimstone Heysham Nature reserve 2pm