Put in the effort and.....................

Heysham Obs
..........you miss the best bird on a loo break.   Some decent odds and ends this morning, notably a Roseate Tern with comparative Arctic terns and a Pomarine Skua heading for the ozone layer

Sea 0645 onwards
Roseate Tern - one flew past with a small gang of Arctic Terns at 0840, showing requisite structural, plumage and flight mode features (Andrew and Bill)
Pomarine Skua - thank you Grey Heron (see below). One light morph adult giving good underpart views as it circled high north-east and seemed to head inland, gaining height, just north of Heysham Head
Arctic Skua - in contrast to the above, two dark morphs in at 0910hrs were 'water huggers'
Arctic Tern - 192 plus 9 distant 'commic' thought to be this species in by 1100 hrs
Grey Heron - one tried to fly across the bay, realised there was no lift and struggled badly before returning inshore with gull entourage and headed north.  Got out of the car to see what happened (it landfilled at Heysham Head) and decided to scan the skies for a bit and picked up the Pom Skua - how many other things are missed high overhead - this happened a few years ago here with a high Osprey whilst scanning for a Common Crane seen flying high to the south from Leighton Moss
Little Egret - two purposefully north across the bay towards Grange
small Auk spp - seemed to be a Puffin but not enough seen for a county description bird, although it was in Cumbria where it isn't a county description bird?!   One for the bin.
Guillemot - 2CY flew in at close range
Black-headed Gull - again purposeful inbound flocks of 2CY - 20+34
Whimbrel - 4+3 in

Mammal
Harbour Porpoise early on
Grey Seal late afternoon

Other miscellany
White Wagtail - 1 wooden jetty area
Whimbrel - one Red Nab
Ringed Plover - on territory by wooden jetty

Arctic terns

Heysham Obs
None of your touchy-feely biodiverse seawatching today - it was all about one species other than a gang of 13 Kittiwake

Arctic Tern resume
Three migratory flightlines of them today on the dropping early morning tide

Kevin picked up 80+50 off the slag tips wondering whether to go overland

The Stone Jetty produced three flocks in the Kent channel heading slowly in and feeding (110,70,50)

Heysham rather belatedly (I thought there would have been a few birders there this morning!) saw a very concentrated passage on three lines with the bigger gangs in the Kent channel and smaller flocks close in shore with the odd small flock between the two along the edge of the exposing sandbank. However, it all dried up at 0915 with only 5+4 between then and 0945

There was absolutely no evidence of any backtracking birds which might have led to duplication

Grand total between us: about 680

then a further 63 in four flocks as the tide turned at about 1130, then none for next 20 mins

Grand total, assuming no birders covering other times are not hiding somewhere:

about 743

Others
Kittiwake - flocks of 13 adults sat on the sea then headed north towards Grange
Swallow - 15 N+6 N
Sand Martin - 1 N 
Black-headed Gull - c240 in in dribs and drabs all morning - mixture of ad and 2CY
Common Sandpiper - 1 Ocean Edge

Mammal
Grey Seal

Unexpectedly good seawatch

Heysham Obs
A really good example of why you have to at least go through the motions with checking the sea, especially along the low tide channel(s).   An intended ten minute scan of the channels and skeers, based on yesterdays gloom and doom seemingly repeated (thickish cloud in the mouth of the bay), was punctuated by the first gang of Arctic Tern and ten minutes became over an hour.    

A bit of advice to several very short-stay 'seawatchers' at Heysham.  Stuff tends to appear in flurries and indeed there was nothing between 1040 and 1055 in what seemed a 'busy' watch this morning.  Don't follow my example (the originally intended ten minutes) and give yourself at least half an hour.

North wall 0955-1100
Arctic Tern - 196 in (flock max 35)
Black Tern - 2 (with different AT flocks)
Whimbrel - 20+1+15
Arctic Skua - 2 dark morph together landed on sandbank for 20 mins before flying in - another dark morph flew in later
Sand Martin - 1
Swallow - none!

Middleton NR
Whinchat - one female western marsh
Cetti's Warbler - two singing

Just OOA
Whimbrel - 52 on a scan of the Lune skeers and mudflats from Sunderland toilet block

More blocking unhelpful cloud to the south

Heysham Obs
What a shame there was not a seawatching vigil yesterday instead of about two hours at the most.  The fare today was dreadful due to the blocking cloud and full marks to the observers for persevering and at least coming up with a close dark morph Arctic Skua at 0945hrs. 

Sea
Arctic Skua - dark morph in at 0945hrs

Spotted Flycatcher
Singles by Heysham NR dipping pond and in Heysham Head churchyard

Swallow
c30 per hour in am (Middleton and HNR)

Middleton NR
No sign LRP
Gadwall - pair
Cetti's Warbler - two singing males were either very mobile today or their number has doubled.   Heard from four separate locations am and pm.
Warblers:  Lesser and Common  Whitethroat, Reed and Sedge, two Grasshopper (western and central marshes), two Cetti's, Blackcap, Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler could all be heard at the same time from the concrete road between the west and central marshes - the Garden seems to have moved on

Four tern species

Heysham obs
The tern passage this year seems to be homing in on a rich feedng area in the narrow channel just beyond the first sandbank rather than on the outfalls.  In this respect, they are homing in on the area where most of the gulls are feeding.  Slightly more challenging to observe this area and a scope needed and also a low tide visit.   However, it was still possible to identify a single leisurely feeding Common Tern amongst the more hyperactive cohesive passage flocks of Arctic and this was the star record of the morning on recent status!!

North wall to 0915hrs then 1025-1050
Common Tern - 1 feeding for at least 15 minutes 0900-0915
Sandwich tern - just 4
Black Tern - 1+3+9+7 through pretty rapidly with just a bit of feeding in the channel
Arctic Tern - more leisurely than the above species - 107 through by 0915, 5+24 later
Little Gull - at least 2 and quite probably three 2CY gradually heading in with Black-headed Gulls
RB Merg - 5
Swallow - just 15 'noticed' - mainly along the seawall itself
Chiffchaff - singing male
Wheatear - 2

Ocean Edge/Red Nab
Common Sandpiper - 1

Middleton Nature Reserve 17:00 - 18:30
2 shelduck
2 gadwall (m & f)
2 little grebe
1 little ringed plover
1 Cetti's warbler
c12 swallow feeding

Heysham Head 20:00
5 swift feeding

Big black cloud over the bay at dawn

A rather odd synopsis this morning with calm conditions and a large black cloud over the bay dropping a fair sprinkling of night migrants but doing absolutely nothing for any sea passage and observers had all left by the time the wind kicked in

Grounded
Garden warbler - one ringed and one singing near ocean edge
Spotted flycatcher - 2 ringed and two at the only likely site checked - Heysham head churchyard
Sedge warbler/Whitethroat - low single figures ringed
Reed warbler - two singing male hey nr
Whinchat - FIVE Heysham barrows (thanks Pete)
Wheatear - 3 ocean edge

Sea
Sandwich tern - 2
Arctic tern - 2
Swallow - just 36 N
Lesser Redpoll - 8 north but surprisingly none over the reserve
RB Merganser - 6
Great-crested Grebe - 1

Middleton
10 species of warbler this morning in song with the Garden Warbler still in the golf course corner

Heysham NR
A Siskin flew north

Two Swift lingering over Heysham Head

Earlyish bird catches some of the terns

Heysham Obs
.........or misses a load given the 0700 start.   The usual start to the seawatch at low tide involves checking around the skeers from the Near Naze vantage point and going, for the umpteenth time to no avail, through the masses of large immature gulls.  It is also a good vantage point for the low tide channels and also any hirundine passage, as the birds tend to cut across to Heysham Head

Sea 0700-0900
Arctic Tern - 9+7+22+16+12+11+85 in - the latter seemed to descend on to a low tide channel to join feeding Black-headed Gulls then spiralled up and headed off NE.  Then the plug pulled with none 0730-0900
Sandwich Tern - only 6 seen
Black-headed Gull - a very unexpected inbound passage/feeding movement totalling about 450 birds, mainly breeding adults - where are these from?
Mediterranean Gull - Ad or faintly marked 3CY with the above
Little Gull - 3CY and 2CY together with the above
Common Sandpiper - one below north wall for a short time
Whimbrel - 2 in
Swallow - at least 510 in with a very concentrated passage 0720-0750
House Martin - 46 in
Sand Martin - 5 in
Lesser Redpoll - 9 in
Linnet - 14 in
Eider - 65
Red-breasted Merganser - flock of 7

Grounded
Nothing obvious with no Wheatear or any much in the mist nets
3 wheatear Ocean Edge
1 whimbrel No.2 outflow

More odds and ends

Heysham obs
No real favourable airflow this morning and it became a typical fine sunny calm morning with just a trickle of vis mig redpoll and a handful of warblers

Sea
Nothing

Vis mig
Lesser redpoll - 10 plus
Swallow - trickle

Grounded and miscellany
Garden warbler - singing male Middleton
Reed warbler - at least one belated arrival at Middleton main reed bed
Cetti's warbler - two singing males

Bits and bobs

Heysham Obs
The only concerted evidence of migration this morning was a typically 'two-way' small wader passage during the hour's seawatch.  A probable Reeve flew 'in' as per languid flight and what I could see of it but views not good enough for this 'rarity' as not picked up early enough in the flight sequence

The hibernating butterflies have had a rough time this spring and are looking rather tatty as they have some decent weather at last.  Thanks Janet - taken today:

Sea 0705-0805 early stages incoming tide
Arctic Tern - flock of 13 in
Sandwich Tern - 2 out
Common Scoter - c25 u-turning in distance
Dunlin - 400 out, 200 in (possibly small numbers of eg RP with them)
Sanderling - 5 in (flock)
Ringed Plover - c60 in (2 flocks)
small distant waders - c300 both ways
Swallow - 1 in!
Black-headed Gull - flock of 28 2CY out
Eider - about 25 out in dribs and drabs
Whimbrel - 2 in

Middleton NR
8 Sedge Warbler and two new Grasshopper Warbler ringed but little evidence of any migration eg no hirundines
Garden Warbler - one ringed Middleton NR (IOY)

Mammal
Grey Seal bull off north wall

Some excellent creepy crawly pics from Janet yesterday on Heysham Nature reserve

Not much happening

Heysham Obs
Surprisingly little this morning compared to e.g.  nearby Cockersands (lots of Wheatear etc) and the west side of the Kent Estuary (good Swallow passage line), despite reasonable coverage

Sea -  x one hour before the tide
No Sandwich Tern in these conditions at this stage of the tide most unexpected
Gannet - 4
Whimbrel - 5
No Wheatear or hirundines 

Heysham NR
No obvious migratory movement perceived, but territorial signing Whitethroat by the office increased by four and three Willow Warblers without tapes in the CES nets hints at some movement but it was too windy to run any migrant nets.  Yesterdays tank farm Grasshopper Warbler was not heard.  The first CES visit of the season was completed this morning.  A reasonable catch, for this site without tape lures below the Obs Tower site:
Retraps - 10 locally ringed birds, hopefully breeding here.
New birds -  three Willow Warblers,  and one each of  Lesser Whitethroat, Dunnock, Blackbird and Robin