At last!

This produced some varied sightings highlighted by a long overdue confirmed first record for the obs - two Great White Egret flying north over the eastern end of Middleton Nature Reserve at about 1015hrs.  Seen by Janet and Malcolm just after Janet had put her camera in the car - cue rapid action and a creditable shot given the circumstances.  One previous report from an angler of a big heron with a yellow beak going back a few years

The as-seen-on-TV mutt known as Mukka flushed two Jack Snipe from the model boat pond:

Vis mig initially from Heysham Head them Middleton when it was realised that it was calm enough for a short spell of ringing
Great White Egret - 2 north 1015ish
Whooper Swan - 2 S
Pink-footed Goose - 8+1
Jackdaw - 9+5
Chaffinch - 47 (early am)
Brambling - 2 (early am)
alba Wagtail - 4
Goldfinch - 9
Meadow Pipit - 7
Redwing - 2
Grey Wagtail - 1 or blogger
Skylark - 5
Song Thrush - 2

Grounded Middleton NR
Goldcrest - 20+
Blackcap - 3

Chiffchaff - 1
Reed Bunting - 2

Ringing in just two rounds of two nets at Middleton (all new):  Reed Bunting (2), Robin (1), Chiffchaff (1), Blackcap (2), Goldcrest (12)

Miscellany
Cetti's Warbler - singing male usual place Middleton
Common Scoter - flock of 10 female/imms off Heysham Head

Tuesday 18th October northwesterly routine

A break from bush bashing in a brisk WNW wind which did not seem to hold any seabirds of note - notably a big fat zero behind the IOM ferry

Red Nab/outfalls incoming tide
Med Gull - 2CY and adult
Little Gull - adult briefly end of outfalls

Heysham Head café area
Chiffchaff - 1
Nuthatch - 1

Bit of a trawl

Heysham Obs
After being delayed as someone decided the rush hour ended at 0900 and imposed traffic control on Caton Road by the refurbishing Shell Garage to unload the contents of a huge lorry with a crane, finally made it after a pre-10m tide errand to Sunderland Point was delayed as Jean located a Yellow-browed Warbler calling in the first garden south of the toilet block!   Cue a bit of subsequent coverage of the recording area!

Heysham NR (including quarry and bushes below obs tower)
Chiffchaff - one
Goldcrest - low single figures

Ocean Edge
Rock Pipit - 1
Skylark - flock of 5 south

On quiet days waders sometimes use the seawall at high tide (thanks Janet):

North harbour wall
Linnet - 6 on seed

Heysham Head
Loads of common stuff in the sheltered trees near the churchyard including:
Chiffchaff - singing male and probably one other
Goldcrest - 5 ish
Nuthatch - 1

Insects
Dipped out on Ivy Bee next to the café at Heysham Head
3 Red Admiral Heysham Head and the following pics taken by Janet down the dog track end of Heysham NR:

Sunday 16th October

Heysham dipping pond area and webs

Yellow-browed Warbler - one appeared with very large LTT etc flock and headed north along the bushes by the dipping pond - assume same as two days ago
Long-tailed Tit - at least 16 with all seen unringed
Coal Tit - at least three
Chiffchaff - alder wood

Webs
Rock Pipit - 2 ocean edge, one north wall
Little Egret - 5 roosting on sunny slopes grpyne at high tide (ooa - seen from)

Black Redstart

Heysham NR/non-op
Black Redstart - 1CY found in between Heysham Nature Park and Heysham Nature Reserve but in an area out of bounds to the public but visible around the old green 'Nissan hut' looking through the fence from the Nature park.  No phone-scoping here!
Ring Ouzel - one with a noticeable band and one without - arose separately from the same cover just to the east of the construction compound and flew into the tank farm - one via the mist nets if they had been set!
Blackbird - c15 on reserve
Redwing - 2 on reserve
Song Thrush - 3 on reserve
Chiffchaff - 2 on reserve
Goldcrest - pretty non-existent - 5 with tit flock
Brambling - at least one over early am (two birds together but only one call)
Chaffinch - 25 S
A huge flock of LTT-dominated tits but also including at least 4 Coal Tits seemed to hoover everything except two long-staying Chiffchaff up and head off down the dog track.  Not all additional birds seen properly
No sign/sound of yesterdays calling Cetti's Warbler

Gate 38 and wooden jetty
Meadow Pipit - 6 by wooden jetty
alba Wagtail - 15 by wooden jetty
Nothing in 'firecrest cover'
Shag - 1CY on wooden jetty - on lower tier and very nearly missed!

Heysham Head
Only did churchyard and area as r.s.p.
Pink-footed Goose - 45E
Goldcrest - 10
Treecreeper - one
Nuthatch - one - seemed to be more in gardens
Tawny Owl - one called x 3!

Middleton NR
Vis:
Redwing 17 ex roost mainly
Fieldfare 5
Song Thrush 2
Snipe 1
Brambling 1

Ringing (rained off at 10am)
Redwing 6
Blackbird 1
Blackcap 2
Reed Bunting 3
Chiffchaff 2
Goldcrest 8
Long-tailed Tit 1 plus 2 retraps
Goldfinch 1
Blue Tit 1
Robin 1 retrap

Reduced coverage not without interest

Heysham NR grounded
Quite a bit of stuff by the dipping pond-reserve entrance
Yellow browed Warbler - calling about 100m down dog track,
Cetti's Warbler - calling behind dipping pond
Treecreeper - in the taller trees
Chiffchaff 2
Blackbird - 11
Song Thrush - 2

Ringing at Middleton saw mainly tits with a handful of odds and ends with them

Vis Heysham and Middleton - poor is an understatement given the conditions:
Redwing 17
Fieldfare 4
Alba Wagtail 6
Snipe 4
Chaffinch 16
Greylag goose 14S and 7 N (most unusual at this time of year)(
Woodpigeon 8
Blackbird 8
Raven 2
Skylark - 14

 

Then off to Easington for a nice relaxing twitch after the morning madhouse and before the after work hordes. Parked by the entrance and was watching the bird within seconds! (Siberian accentor not requiring a plane charter)

Flagging!

Heysham Obs
Two observers and one ringer produced 2-3 new Yellow-browed Warblers and we were a bit disappointed!  There just wasn't the number of birds around today with the possible exception of Chiffchaff on the wastelands to the south of Ocean Edge.  The Yellow-browed Warbler caught at Middleton had a fat score of 4, indicating off passage but couldn't obviously be related to any we had found previously.  It is perhaps significant that NONE of the birds ringed this year (eight) have given any indication of their presence prior to capture and all the 'in the field' finds have been away from the nets, notably Middleton

Vis over MNR/Pontins :
Redwing 11 E
Skylark 7 E
Brambling 1 SE
Pink-footed Goose 244 N
Meadow Pipit 16 SE
Lesser Redpoll 3 E

Grounded MNR/Pontins :
Yellow-browed Warbler 1 (either moved c300m or two birds)
Siskin 2 then E
Blackcap 5
Chiffchaff 5
Goldcrest 5
Meadow Pipit 4
Blackbird 13

Heysham Head (too windy?) :
Tree Sparrow 1
Goldcrest 4
Meadow Pipit 1
Chaffinch 2 E

Outfalls/Red Nab
Med Gull - 1CY
Wigeon - 114
Black-tailed Godwit - 2

Ringing Middleton
Yellow-browed Warbler (1), Coal Tit (4), Redwing (5), Goldcrest (4), Chiffchaff (2), Wren (1), Reed Bunting (1)

Vis mig Hey NR
alba Wagtail - 14 SE
Redpoll spp - 1 SE
Meadow Pipit - 16 SE
Brambling - 1 SE
Chaffinch - 14 S
Mistle Thrush - 1 S
Jackdaw - flock of 33 west then NE
Carrion Crow - 3 S

Grounded HNR
Poor
Song Thrush - 6
Blackbird - 2!
Goldcrest - 11
Chiffchaff - 1
Redwing - 1!

More YBWs and three Crossbill

Heysham Obs
Ringing today was split between Middleton (having an 'off' day) and an attempt below the old Obs tower which was rather successful.  Question:  how many Yellow-browed Warblers would we have recorded if we had been able to use our office net site this autumn?  As it is, this attempt saw our first ever example of two in a mist net on the same day (John Mason) in an area which was well-searched and blanked yesterday by two observers

The third YBW bird allowed the comment "almost certainly the same as the previous day" for this first time during this influx.  Heard calling along the northern boundary of the reserve from the alder copse boardwalk, so necessary to check it wasn't someone messing with playback as this was a 'known site' from yesterday!  It wasn't.

Three fly-over Crossbill heading SW were the first of the year I am aware of.

Grounded and intermittent vis mig Heysham NR 0740-0900
Goldcrest - c20
Yellow-browed Warbler - 3 (one for second day and the other two ringed)
Chiffchaff - 3
Redwing - 16
Song Thrush - 5
Blackbird - just 10
Rook - 4 north
Jackdaw - 26 N
alba Wagtail - 11 S
Meadow Pipit - 14 S
Skylark - 2 S

Middleton
Redwing - just 10 ringed first thing
Otherwise seemingly dead apart from
Jackdaw - c40 N/NE
Reed Bunting - 1E

Outfalls area
Wigeon - 126

No Yebwas at Middleton NR

Yet another Yellow-browed Warbler at Heysham today (yawn!) but none at Middleton where there was, however, a slight boost in Chiffchaff and Blackcap numbers.  Fewer thrushes though.

Keep an eye open for Ivy Bee amongst the hordes of social wasps and drone flies etc on ivy.  One was seen at Sunderland Point 3 days ago and there is a report from Heysham on the database but these are two of only ??three in the north west

Heysham Head :
Song Thrush 7
Blackcap 3
Chiffchaff 1
Goldcrest 4
Mistle Thrush 1 then N
Meadow Pipit 4

Nuthatch 1
Coal Tit 2
Heysham Head visSkylark 5 N
Redwing 6 NE
Meadow Pipit 36 E
Lesser Redpoll 3 E
Rook 4 NE
Pink-footed Goose 49 N
Grey Wagtail 1 E
alba wag 5 E

The Legendary 'Tank Farm' (no general access)
Goldcrest 1
Chiffchaff 2
Blackcap 2
Redwing 5
Song Thrush 5
Bullfinch 1
Meadow Pipit 11 E
Grey Wagtail 2 NE

Grounded Heysham NR
Yellow-browed Warbler - noisy one in the willows near the alder copse, then moved to and 'went quiet' in the alder copse before calling again once.  A Yellow-browed or Pallas's seen very briefly near the dipping pond but we couldn't dig it out again and it may have been the small silent silhouette which shot across the road into the dog-walk screening.  Not a peep from it in an hour or so and only the  size/jizz, underparts (white with no obvious yellow anywhere) and a bit of a supercilium seen.
Coal Tit - 6+4 through rapidly south
Chiffchaff - 2-3
Blackcap - 2
Song Thrush - 6
Blackbird - 11 - all near dipping pond
Redwing - 1
Goldcrest - 20

Vis at Middleton 0630-1030
Meadow Pipit 11
Redwing 30
Pink-footed Goose - flock of 49
Jackdaw 43 ( and 70 more seen later at Overton)
Alba Wagtail 1
Goldfinch - a flock of 24

Ringing at Middleton
Redwing 2
Wren 3
Goldcrest 7
Reed Bunting 5
Pied Wagtail 2
Blackbird 2 new, 2 retraps
Blackcap 4
Blue Tit 2
Grey Wagtail 1
Long-tailed Tit 3
Dunnock 1
Chiffchaff 5
Goldfinch 9
Linnet 1

Three more Yellow-brows!

Yellow-browed Warblers
1) By the ex-observation tower pond Heysham NR - an area not checked yesterday along with another bird and two distant calls I would have liked a better view of.  No access possible.
2) Ringed Middleton (pic)
3) Found by Malcolm along the SE perimeter willows on the golf course; access from Middleton

Heysham NR
Chiffchaff - 2
Brambling - flock of three over first thing
Song Thrush - c12
Redwing - just two
Blackbird - 15
Goldcrest - 15
Blackcap - 1

Vis Middleton
GreyWagtail 3
Redwing 28
Brambling 1
Pink-footed Goose 31
Siskin 1
Jackdaw 9
Alba Wagtail 5
Song Thrush 2
Skylark 7
Meadow Pipit 47
Great spotted Woodpecker 1

Ringing
New: Yellow-browed Warbler 1, Robin 1, Redwing 4, Grey Wagtail 2, Goldcrest 6, Blackcap 3, Blackbird 3, Water Rail 1, Reed Bunting 4, Chiffchaff 2, Coal Tit 1, Long-tailed Tit 1, Blue Tit 2