A day of little effort so far

Heysham Obs
A slow start and no proper sea coverage

Sea/texting/email checks & responses/phone call 1000-1030
Common Scoter - 3 in
Swallow - 6 NE

Middleton pics - thanks Janet
This is the only known pair of Meadow Pipit left in the recording area

Mammal
Harbour Porpoise x 1

Moths
Herald the best of the three!

Quite a lot out of what appeared to be nothing

Heysham Obs
We have learnt over the years that a calm morning and clear skies at High Tatham with a very slight northwesterly airflow often means conditions at Heysham too windy for mist netting.  This was the case this morning with the added bonus, for a bit of sea coverage, of some cloud cover and the wind being fractionally west of north-west.  Always a good sign when there is a lot of immature large gull movement and there was some half-decent stuff during the hour:

Sea 0815-0915
Arctic Skua - a light morph 'sea-hugger' headed into the Bay at 0830hrs
Pomarine Skua - one light morph heading into the Bay circling and gradually gaining height at 0908hrs.   If this and the above had been reversed as regards distance, there would have been no chance of an identification of a sea-hugger at that range, but the requisite features were easily seen on a circling bird
Razorbill - two together in
Guillemot - one in
Gannet - 1+3+1 in (one of the three was a 2CY).  Unusually all flying at some height when passing the observation area between the windfarm and Barrow
Red-throated Diver - probable 2CY out
Mute Swan - flock of 6 imms flew across towards Barrow
Common Scoter - drake u-turned

Middleton Nature Reserve 15:00 - 16:00
Little Ringed Plover - 2 sightings
Cetti's Warbler 2nd bird (unringed) seen whilst male was singing - "no swimming" pond
4 mute pairs still on nest
2 shelduck
2 gadwall (m&f)
1 little grebe

Moths
Decent catch by recent standards, especially Ruddy Highflyer at its known regular site and male Muslin Moth

Token hour on the sea

Heysham obs
The only migratory action today was predictably a slow-fest over the sea

Sea 0650-0750 thanks mark
Gannet - 6
Arctic tern - distant flock of c20 in

A rather mysterious report of two Pomarine skua seen from a boat in morecambe bay mid morning

Little ringed plover - at least one Middleton
Nothing of migrant interest on Middleton CES

Little egret - 7 red nab-ocean edge saltmarsh a decent count

Calm weather overachievement

Heysham Obs
An hourly sample of a pretty calm sea until a bit of a northerly kicked in for the last 15 minutes was well worth it after the initial impression that I should have taken a tin of paint

North wall 0730-0830
Osprey - one picked up heading leisurely north on a 'flat sea scan' of the inner Bay - miles away but recognisable to the north of Ulverston.  It plunged once into the sea and drifted north until lost against the background.  It didn't fly past the normal seawatching line (looking towards Walney lighthouse), unless it was really high, so may have been a Cumbrian breeding bird on a calm sea fishing expedition?
Arctic Tern - one flock of 11 in (one more than expected)
Common Scoter - 10 in, 5 in, 6 out, 6 in
Little Egret - what was assumed to be this species headed NW across the Bay and seemed to come ashore at Baycliff (Cattle not completely ruled out on rear end views as not picked up very early and couldn't see any yellow foot projection or the bill)
Red-throated Diver - summer plumaged bird heading out was a surprise but they have been regular off Rossall of late
Knot - flock of 300 in summer plumage headed NNW and climbed

Pics from yesterday (thanks Janet)

Ocean Edge
Little Egret - 5 (3 OE saltmarsh channel, 2 Red Nab)

Moths
Pale Prominent is very rare here - not sure how many previous but only 1-2 from memory, also Small Square Spot new for year and a fresh Hebrew Character still

Mammal
At least one, probably two Harbour Porpoise (or one very fast swimmer - not together)

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