Southerly rubbish

Gannet - 3 out
Brent Geese - still in situ
Common Scoter - c7 distantly in as viewed from OE

Better than expected

A better than expected sea-watch from Heysham North Harbour Wall this morning (0630 - 0940 hrs) (Peter Crooks) with not a lot seen after then by the follow-up observers!

Coastal/offshore
Arctic Skua - 1 dark morph flew in at 0810 and landed on the sea before continuing into the bay 5 minutes later.
Common Scoter - mid-distance groups of 4, 3 and 7 were completely overshadowed by flocks of c.250, c.70, and finally c.1000 swirling about on the horizon and landing on the sea at very long range.
Gannet - 81, including 32 in a single scan across the Bay
Kittiwake - 3, then flocks of c.60 and c.85 suddenly appearing at mid-range (descending from higher?), then forming tight 'kettles' and gaining height, but seeming not to fly further into the Bay.   Later 40 similarly
Guillemot - 1 in
Sanderling - groups of 4 and 7 flew out, then 9 flew in/across the Bay
Fulmar - 2
Red-throated Diver - 1
Sandwich Tern - 6
Light-bellied Brent Goose - 2 Red Nab/OE saltmarsh
Dark-bellied Brent Goose - one with above

Willow Warbler singing in bushes near parking area at end of NH Wall

Cetti's Warblers (thanks Malcolm)

WEBs "nightmare"
1,500 Dunlin decided that they would leave the incoming tideline and fly on to Red Nab where they unfortunately met a repeat performance from the "B and B":

They then tried to land but then veered off over the Bay and seemed to 'climb'.  Looking at the Lune counts they were quite low for the WeBS today - I had far more on the Sunderland mudflats this early am and presumably these were some of the same birds?  Problems with WeBs counts at migration time - these birds could just not be registered as anything as they had gone well before high tide

If any of the Ocean Edge people are reading this, please could you have a bit of a blitz on tides and quicksand -  a couple of girls and a dog from the site were actually jumping up and down miles out near the old sewage pipe and one of them had difficulty extracting one of her legs from the mud and they only just missed being cut off by the channel which runs alongside the seaward side of the saltmarsh .  This channel has deepened and become more "obvious" further out to at least the old sewage pipe over the last few months and is clearly a serious potential hazard, including quicksand.  Need to be off the shore two hours before high tide if you intend to cross this channel on your way back and not face a lengthy detour via eg the beach by the old Pontins site.  See how quickly the recent car has disappeared.

Scattering of interest, mostly in Cumbria!

Rain and a south-westerly this morning

Arctic Tern - one early on
Arctic Skua - distant light morph in, picked up by two separate observers about 1005hrs
Gannet - 5 out
Common Scoter - 54 out in three close bunches
Brent Goose - the gang of three were still around on the usual routine ie Red Nab then OE saltmarsh at high tide

No evidence of any hirunding or landbird migration

Spotted flycatchers.....eventually

A few bits this morning but definitely not worth an early start in what was "a nice calm sunny morning" at that time.

Egret spp: quite possibly a great white heading very distantly into the bay
Spotted flycatcher - three heysham head when cloud arrived, nowhere else checked at this time
Brent goose - the three still there on the same routine
Marsh Harrier - female type north east early am over middleton
Sandwich tern - two blogging
Swift - 15 heysham head
Swallow - c50 northbound or blogging
Sand martin - 1
House martin - 1
Whitethroat - 6 ringed
Cetti's warbler - central marsh breeding male retrapped on CES
Reed warbler - singing male in bramble hnr, at least three middleton
Wheatear - 3 small ones oe foreshore
Large gulls - 2500 on skeers

Grey seal - 1


Five 4-spotted Chaser Middleton NR

Itsy bitsy not a lot

The easterly did not really kick in until after 0900 and the start of the morning was cold clear with a full moon and a light northerly - a good recipe for staying in bed i.e. subtly unfavourably different to yesterday

Worthy of note....
Gannet - 2 out
Arctic Tern - 8 in
Sandwich Tern - 2 blogging and one bizarrely dip-feeding over wet mud next to Red Nab for 30 minutes
Brent Goose - the two pale and one dark-bellied birds still Red Nab but hidden in the back channel until the tide moved

More phonescoping practice! (Pete)

Swallow - c130 NE with a significant number in-off at OE
House Martin - 5 NE
Lesser Redpoll - 1 NE and one ringed
Willow Warbler - 4 or so ringed, one in-off over the mudflats at OE
Wheatear - 3 big and one enormous bird arrived together on OE foreshore 10ish
Large gulls - 2000 + checked on low tide skeers
Cetti's Warbler - possibility/probability of extra singing male Middleton
Mallard & 6 young Middleton (also Gadwall, Tufted Duck and 3 x nesting Mute Swan)

Insects
Broad bodied Chaser - teneral Middleton (thanks Malcolm) (IOY)
also Common Blue or Azure seen

Black goose fest

Spent most of the time going through 2100 large gulls on or around the skeers to the south of Heysham head - wish these were closer - very hard to find even eg a 'winger' amongst the masses.   Nothing could be found amongst the 99% imm Herring

Arctic Tern - flock of 16 in as soon as I got there at 0650 and that was it
Sandwich tern - 3 bloggers
Canada Goose - 3 'in' - rarer than Brents on seawatches!!
Swallow - just 5 in an hour
Black-tailed Godwit - flock of 5 2CY (or certainly non breeding plumage) in
Whimbrel - 2 in

Dark-bellied Brent Goose x 1
Pale bellied Brent Goose x 2 - still at Red Nab with the above

Whimbrel - 2 red nab

Visibility not good enough to see the scoter line of yesterday

Grounded
Better than yesterday but didn't seem to be any ringers about today
Whitethroat - one north wall (and more eg Heysham MNR than yesterday
Willow Warbler - one north wall
Garden Warbler - singing males Moneyclose lane and Heysham NR
Wheatear - 6

Dont give up

All the decent stuff was courtesy of Chis ringing me from Knott End about a summer plumaged Great Northern Diver which had flown and seemingly landed on the sea general heading 'in'.   No sign but distracted a bit by other things!

Sea 0645 onwards on and off
Sandwich tern - 7 in
Swallow - c40 in
Osprey - one flushed everything on Red Nab and all the power station gulls at 1000ish and headed north just inland of PS
Pale-bellied Brent Goose - 2 Red Nab later Ocean Edge saltmarsh as the tide came in
Dark-bellied Brent Goose - one with the above

Common Scoter - absolute minimum of 750 flying into the bay 1000-1030 with some almost certainly missed as I switched from OE heat-hazed views to the NHW
Wheatear - three big males OE
Lesser Redpoll - flock of 4 north
House Martin - one in
Raven - one in-off then east at OE
Whimbrel - 2 Red Nab and area

Moth
A very early Burnet Companion on Heysham Nature reserve (thanks Janet)

Mulleted

c2000 Grey Mullet feeding on algae on the incoming tide on Red Nab (pic later).  Seawatching included yet another Puffin or two and a distant inbound Marsh Harrier.  The "cold air heat-haze" was causing problems with many of the auk spp i.d.

Mullet (thanks Malcolm)

Sea 0700-0930 & 0955-1020
Puffin - one in 0900ish then probably the same out close inshore before landing on the sea off the wooden jetty at 1000ish
Marsh Harrier - one in 0855 (struggling with gulls in tow - seemed to be on a SE to NW line across the Bay (didn't pass Rossall) but an odd decision!)
Arctic Tern - 66 in
Guillemot - 4 in
Guillemot/Razorbill - c10
Auk spp v distant - c10
Goose spp - 2 in
Sandwich Tern - 3
Gannet - 5
Swallow - 60+
Sand Martin - 2
House Martin - 2
Swift - 3

Inshore
Wheatear - 3
Whimbrel - 1 red nab
Common Sandpiper - 1

Office area
Ringing included a female Redstart

More seabird unpredictability

Lighter winds this morning and it seemed to knock the regular things with faster wingbeats on the head - common scoter, red-throat and auks but there was an unexpected calm weather passage of Gannet and Kittiwake.  Also a late start which may have cost a Pom or two on Rossall observations, but it was a good morning for skuas to start climbing to go overland before reaching the north wall

Offshore 0730 to 0900 thence very intermittently to 1215
Osprey north along coast then circling high over Heysham head 0810ish
Goosander - redhead north - very tricky year list species under the belt
Arctic Skua - dm in at 0739 and one chasing Sandwich terns then in at 1200
Arctic Tern - 124 (61+43+20)
Sandwich Tern - c25 blogging, mostly south of harbour

Kittiwake - 26 (8+10+5+3)
Gannet - 15 (6+6 (definitely different) + 2+1)
Ringed Plover - 14 in
Dunlin - 20 in
Swallow - c75 N
Swift - 2 N

Grounded (too late an arrival on a morning like this)
Willow Warbler - gang of 11-12 sandworks vegetation
Whinchat - female OE foreshore
Wheatear - just 2
Garden warbler - singing male by obs t pond
Heysham Head wood warbler and spot fly search saw 48 dogs and a singing wren

Inshore
Whimbrel - 4 Red Nab until....................

B and (St) B Oystercatcher botherers

Insects

Four-spotted Chaser - first of year on Middleton (thanks Malcolm)

Oddities!

A Cuckoo on a seawatch and a flock of Pintail sat on the tideline, the latter more unexpected than the former for here, especially this time of year!

Sea 0650-1015 (all in unless stated otherwise)
Swift - 6
Auk spp - 7 & 4 out (2 definite Guillemot and the rest probably this spp)
Red-throated Diver - 5
Common Scoter - 61
Gannet - 4
Arctic Tern - 168 (biggest flock 77)
Pintail - 12 on tideline
Whimbrel - 2
Cuckoo - 1 in at 0810
Lesser Redpoll - 2
Swallow - just 16