Sunny easterlies

Heysham Obs
Bit too bright and sunny this morning, following a sizeable moon during the night.  Small arrival of Willow Warblers, otherwise relatively slow-going ringing on Middleton but still just under 30 new birds

Vis mig
Tree Pipit - two found in the mist net  the only ones seen/heard!
Grey Wagtail - just two together which avoided the mist net
Grey Heron - 3 juvs together high to SE
Meadow Pipit - at least 2 SE
Swallow - c20, mainly blogging during flying ant session

Ringing at Middleton
New birds included: 9 Willow Warbler, 3 each of Lesser and Common Whitethroat, 1 Reed Warbler, 1 Garden Warbler, 2 Chiffchaff, 2 Tree Pipit

Miscellany
Med Gull - adult anting over Middleton may have been one of the two earlier on the HT roost (roost disturbed prior to arrival and gulls very tricky on the sand straight into the sun)
Bar-tailed Godwit - 113
Grey Plover - 65

Waders 'shepherded' within range

Heysham Obs
An alsation plus owner flushed a chunk of waders up towards the Ocean Edge section of the low high tideline this morning, the rest went the other way, too far to discern but seemingly mainly small calidrids.  They were the only tideline miscreants today.  At last, some waders along this tideline after an early autumn of chronic disturbance

Ocean Edge/Red Nab/outfalls
Med Gull - 2 x ad, 2 x 2CY, 4-5 x juv
Sandwich Tern - ad
Whimbrel - 2
Bar-tailed Godwit - 109
Grey Plover - 68
Dunlin - 35
Knot - 30
Grey Wagtail - 2 south-east - almost certainly the Middleton ones

Middleton NR
Grey Wagtail - 2 SE (one ringed)
Sparrowhawk - young male ringed
Newly-ringed warblers from memory comprised:  6 Lesser Whitethroat, 5 Whitethroat (plus bird ringed elsewhere), 12 Willow Warbler, 3 Chiffchaff, 3 Blackcap, 1 Garden Warbler, 3 Reed Warbler, one Sedge Warbler.  A young Grasshopper Warbler was retrapped.

Middleton evening
About 20 Swallows caught and ringed including one ringed elsewhere - S09xxxx from memory - a bit odd as this sequence would normally have been used ages ago, yet a pristine ring on a juv.  Re-read several times by two people!  Good to have a nice quiet evening without reeling Grasshopper Warblers.  Roost about 40 birds, so still small

Moths
Quite autumnal all of a sudden with 5 x Sallow, 2 x Canary shouldered Thorn, Eudonia angustea, Agriphila geniculea, and Flounced Rustic by far the commonest at 30.  An Old Lady lurked behind the door!

No medals for today's sightings

 Visitors reported an adult Mediterranean Gull on Red Nab

A Wheatear was seen.

That's all folks! 

Friday 12th

Heysham Obs
No Red Grouse flying in-off or more likely off-out.  A large gull on Red Nab whilst on a whistle-stop visit was awkward.  Mantle as per Yellow-legged, bill looked adult but either immaturity or staiing on the tertials, rest of it hidden by rocks.  Then it was flushed and it had 'more' old primaries than the bird the other day and no obvious white P10 spot but it was all very brief before it landed in an even worse spot with just the head visible.  It had moved when JR went down but nothing new to add ie no view of leg colour.  Couldn't find it later in sunny heat-haze

Outfalls/Red Nab
Sandwich tern - adult
Large Gull - see above
Med Gull - 1 x ad, 1 x 2CY, 3 x 1CY

Minimal coverage

Heysham Obs
Not a lot to report today other than 4 x 1CY Meds on the seaward end of Heysham one and a 2CY on REd Nab = all well before high tide.  Moths included a Herald and two White-line Dart

Just been going through the historical north Lancs recoveries from the BTO site.  The first and third I didn't know about - the Blue Tit is odd as we were supposed to have caught it - wonder if it was deemed a misread at the time.  The Goldcrest remains the most inexplicable ringing recovery we have had from Heysham - never mind the odd movement, there are not usually any around by early May with the spring passage over by mid-April

Guillemot

T25440	Nestling	28-06-1985	Badbea, Helmsdale: 58°8'N 3°32'W (Highland)
	Dead	22-01-1986	Heysham 460km   S
Goldcrest
DKC	First-year Male	09-04-2001	Blavand Fuglestation, Oksbol: 55°33'N 8°4'E (Ribe) Denmark
A28540	Caught by ringer	02-05-2001	Heysham Obs 725km   WSW
Blue Tit
K274678	Nestling	01-06-1996	near Turnastone: 52°0'N 2°57'W (Herefordshire)
	Caught by ringer	22-09-1997	Heysham 226 KM N

Ridge of plenty

Heysham Obs
A few weird things going on.  A Green Lovebird was near Ocean Edge caravan park/Nature Park associating with Goldfinch on Monday (per Janice Sutton).  Today we found out that the Heysham NR car park noticeboard was a pokespot, or whatever its called, giving some 'reward' to the hordes waving mobile phones around

After looking a heap of rubbish until the later forecasts yesterday, this morning was rather good with a three net session on Middleton west side producing almost 50 new birds.  The moths also produced three surprises in the form of Phoenix, Pale Prominent and, way ahead of its time, a pristine Pink-barred Sallow

Middleton NR
Decent fall of Whitethroat and Willow Warbler with a few other odds and ends.  A Willow Warbler with an interesting retrap history was caught.  Ringed on 7th September 2014 at Heysham, retrapped at Middleton on 8th September 2014, then nothing until today
Tree Pipit - 2 south
Swift - 2 south
Swallow - 20-25 south
Grasshopper Warbler - adult male retrapped (first ringed as 3J in 2014, no sign 2015, bred 2016)
Sedge Warbler - none seen/heard
Reed Warbler - 2 ringed
Lesser Whitethroat - 4 ringed
Whitethroat - 15 ringed
Willow Warbler - 11 ringed
Garden Warbler - 2 ringed
Chiffchaff - 3 ringed

Red Nab/outfalls/wooden jetty area
Wheatear - 2 on gravel by wooden jetty
Med Gull - 6 x 2CY, 2 x unringed juv, 4 x adult
Sandwich Tern - 1

Showery northwesterly brings forth the old lady

Heysham Obs
A line of showers decided the best route was through Heysham so it rained on and off all day but this did keep the heat haze at bay whilst going through the seagulls

Red Nab/outfalls
Tricky conditions but a few odds and ends
Little Gull - moulting ad /second winter or the ad summer after rapid moult - distantly a few times on the outfalls
Med Gull - darvic with either a dark blue or black background with white (four character) letters/numbers on the left leg, metal below knee right leg was...... as far as I got with a new juv Med - be great if anyone with better eyesight than I could 'nail' this one.  In total:  2 x 2CY, 3 x juv, 2 x ad. possibly/probably more
Sandwich Tern - 1 briefly
Good number of large gulls but no sign of Yellow-legged Gull

Moths
Old Lady a welcome addition to the year list along with a more predictable Copper Underwing. 'Escaped during photography' is something these two have in common!

Too sunny too northwesterly

Heysham obs

Red nab area
Just 7 Meds located in tricky condition - 4x 2cy, 1x juv, 2x ad.
No sign yellow-legged gull

Adult Yellow-legged Gull

Heysham Obs
An adult Yellow-legged Gull with 4-5 old primaries and a single small mirror on P10 was a very restless and mobile visitor to Red Nab for about 10 minutes before heading out into the shipping channel. Underwing views not possible as it always faced into the strong wind in flight.  At the large end of the spectrum with the custard yellow legs contrasting with the deeper orange/yellow legs of nearby LBBGs.  Surely this bird is still going to be doing the rounds for a bit in wing moult but it was certainly not settled on Red Nab and obviously hasn't been there during several recent periods of intense scrutiny.  I'll just go and check now as the tide is starting to move and hopefully get a phone-scope shot if its there.  Apologies for making a fuss over this but they are not common up here and perhaps outnumbered by hybrid look-likes

Morning low tide check
Yellow-legged Gull - adult - see above
Med Gull - 2CY and 2 1CY.  4 x 1CY later, but too late for the surging tide which had covered red nab!
Little Gull - adult summer or certainly summerish at long range

Another small fall

Heysham obs
All second hand info today and not complete

A ringing session at Middleton saw double figures of new willow warbler and Whitethroat, low single figures of the other usual warbler species including the first ever moulting adult garden warbler.    The nets also held single tree pipit and an early grey wagtail - unfortunately the colour rings hadn't been sorted out for this autumn!