Stonechat highlight

The Stonechat passage is getting going with some decent counts already south of here and today's is our second so far - another female, but this time on Heysham barrows

Iceland Gull - 3CY still Fisher's Roof
Red-throated Diver - one in wp quite close in feeding in a low tide riffle
Eider - c90
Stonechat - female Heysham barrows by old go kart track

Malcolm's email from Middleton (thanks)
Cetti's singing from western scrape this morning. I was really pleased! No other Cetti's singing from other areas, so perhaps this one has been having a reconnoiter and decided to return to its old haunt.
4 Reed Bunting, including one singing male.
Buzzard being mobbed by crows.
The pair of mute that claimed the "no swimming" pond, decided to oust the pair from the model boat pond last week. That leaves us with only two pairs and a vacated "no swimming" pond. I have gone down to the reed mace there a couple of times, but no sign of bittern.

Mute 2 pair
Coot 2
Moorhen 5
Little Grebe 1 ("no swimming" pond)
Gadwall 5
Tufted 3
Mallard 7
Teal 4
Water Rail 3
Common Snipe 6
Cetti's Warbler 1
Common Buzzard 1

Sunday sightings

Other than an invasion by Arctic mutts (husky club) at the excellent Half Moon Bay Café and a Cetti's warbler singing from possibly a new area/new bird at Middleton, routine stuff today

Iceland Gull - seen several times, roof area in the morning and flying about later in the afternoon

Siskin - flock of 5 by the office feeders

Eider - perfect viewing conditions offshore but a complete seaduck monoculture - just 104 Eider and no RBM at low tide

Meadow Pipit - 2 grounded north harbour wall

Cetti's Warbler - singing male by pumping station (but none in the usual area for a few days now)

Signs of migration

Middleton NR
Female Stonechat near Tim Butler Pond.
2 Skylark over.
Cetti's Warbler singing near the bridge over the dyke.

On the Model Boat Pond:
1pr Mute Swans
1pr Teal
3prs Gadwall
1pr Mallard
1pr Tufted Duck

Tim Butler Pond
1pr Mute Swan
1pr Teal
1pr Moorhen
1 Coot

Fence Pond
Water Rail - 2

Reedbed
Water Rail - 1 at least. Has been using the new pools as well.

Heysham Harbour
Iceland Gull still there

Low tide channel
56 Eider (36 males, 20 females)
1 Red-breasted Merganser

Heysham Head
3 Siskin over
3 Meadow Pipits over

Distant scaup and Iceland gull remains

The first sweep of the distant channels by heysham alerts as the tide turned saw a frenzy of feeding activity by oystercatcher on rarely exposed skeers.  The channels held seaduck, mainly Eider but also a flock of welcome Scaup and something which appeared to be a female goldeneye but not certain at the range.   Oddly no Rb mergansers seen

Iceland gull - another mid to late afternoon success with bread after abortive attempts earlier in the day.

Scaup - two adult drake and three female

Gadwall - 6 model boat pond

Eider - 121

Seabits

A short seawatch this morning produced:
Red-throated Diver 2 - wp/2cy plus adult moulting into sp
Kittiwake - flock of 17 ad and 1 2CY in then on
Eider - building up - 104 in channel just south of Heysham skeer

Iceland Gull - 3CY on Fisher's roof early am, then disappeared only to reappear there midday!  Two loaves of white bread wasted on it - no response

6 Gadwall model boat pond

Nice pic of a male Bullfinch HNR from Janet:

1st March Iceland

Today it was patrolling the north wall -Med-style at one stage for Jim Clift and Len Knowles - thanks for the pics.  Most of us have had to put up with views from a different 10km square!

A little bit of bread...........

This bird looked too far away to be tempted off a distant roof, but it didn't need the takeover of a bakery to produce these shots of the 3CY Iceland Gull.  Nice one Janet

Also a new 3CY Med coming to bread by Half moon bay café

 

The 3CY Med:

 

 

The Kellyanne conway guide to white-winged gull identification

This bird has been a pain and the viewing conditions on the first two days even more so.   We just cannot find its feeding area to get decent views - it just appears on the roof miles away.  Today in calm weather the identification 'clearly' pointed towards a 3CY Iceland Gull - the first thought after a couple of seconds after it was initially located two days ago!  However, I don't understand why brief views on the south side of the roof yesterday showed a coffee coloured mantle and wing coverts contrasting with white flight feathers!  Here is the best pic by a long way (and it was) taken so far by Janet

Plenty of Wigeon today - at least 205.

Iceland Gull

"Better" views consisting a slightly less shaky scope and sleeping rear end views, where the bird looked broader than nearby Herring and LBBG gulls, in retrospect led to an error and a mistaken change of identification.  Large 3CY Iceland can be tricky at long range and poor viewing conditions.

The other key sighting was a single Sanderling at the bottom of the OE saltmarsh slipway - not the first time a singleton has been located here in winter

Seagull perseverance pays off

Inspired by Bill Aspin's latest Fishmoor video, decided to head off in the awful weather for a big seagull trawl of Heysham

Almost the first bird seen on the long range scope views (especially through rather a lot of rain) was a 2CY Iceland Gull.  It was not very settled however in the wet and windy conditions and repositioned itself several times before flipping over to the other side of the roof.  This is awkward to see but you can get very good views if you get the geometry right.  Jean managed this from the catwalk near the harbour waterfall before it slumped down showing only upperparts and head.  This was enough to confirm a not atypical late winter 'washed out' 2CY with a dark iris

Awful phonescope record shots into the wind and rain; one here:

 The model boat pond held 8 Gadwall (4 pairs) and 5 Tufted Duck