Big seagull dearth

Had about an hour to spare today and decided to scan all the likely spots for large Larids but there were hardly any including a notable zero on the model boat pond

Little gull - adult offshore

Pochard - male and female model boat pond

Gadwall - 7 mbp

Just out of the area was an ad med gull on the mudflats by the battery 

Middleton update

A circuit of Middleton Nature Reserve late morning failed to relocate yesterday's Scaup, but Tim Butler pond is largely obscured and it could easily have been missed.
Male and female Pochard now feeding together on model boat (main) pond.
Cetti's warbler  and Water rail calling from western scrape, the former very intermittently.

Mute 4 adult + 4 immature
Tufted 6
Pochard 2
Gadwall 7
Teal 7
Mallard 6
Little egret 1
Water Rail 2
Common Snipe 1
Cetti's warbler 1
MD

Scaup joins the fray

A few diving duck around today which were not here yesterday

Scaup - female Tim Butler pond
Pochard - female TB pond, male Model boat pond
Tufted Duck - 6 MPR, 4 TBP
Gadwall - 7 MBP
Mallard - 4 MBP
Med Gull - adult (not the Czech bird) model boat pond for a short time

Slight increase at Middleton

4 Gadwall and 3 adult plus 1 juvenile mute were additional birds on Middleton Nature Reserve today. Although no sign of the female Pochard.
Mute 7 adult + 5 juvenile
Gadwall 11
Mallard 3
Tufted 6
Pochard 1
Teal 6
Moorhen 6
Little egret 1
Goldcrest 1
MD

The last couple of days

Sorry for lack of postings.   The big news was a female pochard which made a brief visit earlier in the week but for the last two days has accompanied the male on the Middleton model boat pond

Secondly a colour ringed grey wagtail was traced to a juvenile ringed on 23rd Sep 2016 and is the fourth instance of one of our ringed birds remaining to winter in the area

There were 7 gadwall and five tufted duck on the model boat pond today

Thanks to Justine and malcolm for info.

Kittiwake

Jammed in on Kittiwake this late morning - forgot about the IOM ferry and it just happened to be  coming in as I scanned from Ocean Edge

Kittiwake - 1 x 2CY - peeled off and went back out level with old sewer pipe

Middleton model boat pond
Decent number of gulls again with a lot of turnover - anyone with a bit of time and patience has a chance here, with everything that drops in at full frame range

Pochard - drake
Tufted Duck - 4
Gadwall - 5
Mute Swan - 2 + 4
Mallard - 6
Moorhen - 2
Little Egret - 1
Jackdaw - 2

Monday 2nd January - Ringing

Heysham Reserve
A ringing session at the hut feeding area, still limited because of access difficulties, produced the following:
Comprising only 10 new birds along with 21 retraps;
Long-tailed Tit - 6 retraps (including one ringed in 2012 and one in 2013)
Great Tit - 5 retraps
Greenfinch - 2 retraps + 5 new
Goldfinch - 1 retrap + 3 new
Blue Tit - 3 retraps
Robin - 2 retraps + 1 new
Blackbird - 2 retraps
Goldcrest - 1 new

JM

Happy New Year

A short visit today to cover SD36V for the 10km square survey and hope the area held something like a Snow Bunting

No such luck but a couple of half decent sightings:
Red-throated Diver - one flew out on the incoming tide
Med Gull - Czech bird did one patrol of the north wall
Linnet - 8
Great-crested Grebe - 3

Model Boat Pond
Mute Swan - bit of a battle as three extra adults were soon chased off by the resident pair and four young
Gadwall - 5
Pochard - the male makes the year list
Tufted Duck - 4
Mallard - 2
Little Egret - 1
Decent turnover of seagulls but nothing of note in 30 minutes

Waxwings

 Five Waxwing were seen by Peter in Plover Drive (Mossgate estate) area late morning. These flew off in the direction of the bypass, but could not be relocated.
Czech ringed Mediterranean Gull on North wall

183 Wigeon remained at Red Nab at high tide (some had already flown out).

Watched tide (9.27m) cover Ocean Edge salt marsh.
91 Common Snipe
2 Jack Snipe
3 Linnet
MD

Heliport highish tide count (unsuitable for consultants - only 20 minutes allocated)
Ringed Plover - 43
Redshank - 175
Turnstone - 31
Oystercatcher - 4100 (block 50s and about 600 flew off from near naze south)
Knot (careful count) - 920
Dunlin - c60
Lapwing - 15

28th Dec - 2nd Warbler

The very last bird of the winter bird survey of Middleton Nature Reserve was a Chiffchaff (collybita). This was not far from where yesterday's Cetti's was signing in the western scrape - no sign today.
Also at least 3 water rail squealing.
MD