Bits and bobs ahead of the weather front

A clear night followed by a relatively clear early morning with an increasing SE wind, rain by 1100hrs.  Two relatively sheltered nets were used on Middleton west and caught about 50% of the Grey Wagtail passage plus a few night migrants

Middleton NR (only 50 mins vis in two sessions)
Meadow Pipit - sample vis mig of 27 in 30 mins, later 16 in 20 mins
Reed Bunting - 1 SE
Chaffinch - 3 S
Swallow - 4 SE
Grey Wagtail - absolute minimum of 14 SE with 7 ringed
Chiffchaff - 2 ringed
Blackcap - 2 ringed
Goldcrest - 3 ringed
Peregrine - 1 SE

Inshore incoming tide
A bit late again as it was racing in
Knot - absolute minimum of 5,000 possibly as many as 7,000 but really tricky as quite distant and mobile
Med Gull - slight increase in relation to BHG with 9 (1 1CY, 3 2CY, 5 Ad)
Black-tailed Godwit - flock of 12 flew north past Heysham skeer at about 0800hrs (thanks Malcolm)
Small calidrids too far away to speciate

More productive wader watching but the tide races in

About 30 minutes too late arriving at Ocean Edge ironically through dealing with issues related to the foreshore.  The nearest small wader flock held a juvenile Little Stint but these were soon flushed by the tide and a much larger flock they joined further to the south appeared to hold two very small waders but everything was very mobile as the tide raced in.  Bar-tailed Godwits were up to 520 but no time to properly count anything else which looked in the numbers they have been in the last few days.  Rather strange looking at a superb wader gathering with no other observers around!

Ocean Edge/Red Nab etc 1.5hrs before a high spring tide
Little Stint - at least one juvenile
Sanderling - at least one in winter plumage
Bar-tailed Godwit - 520
Little Gull - ad winter sat on the sea off the saltmarsh - seemed to have some staining on the back of the head
Med Gull - just two at this stage of the tide, both adults

Heliport/north wall/fishers just before HT
Redshank - 730 heliport
Turnstone - 33 heliport
Lapwing - 1 heliport
Oystercatcher - 3900 heliport
Med Gull - presumed Czech adult on Fishers
nothing over the sea in 20 mins

Wednesday is a Ruff day

Ruff - juv on grass at southern edge of OE then dropped down towards saltmarsh when flushed by dog
Med Gull - 8 in careful search - 3 x 1CY, 2 x 2CY, 3 x Ad on Red Nab/outfalls or sand early incoming tide
Black-headed Gull - 1100 - hence sudden difficulty locating Meds!
Wheatear - 2

Ringing
Did include 3 Grey Wagtail out of about 7 which flew over - just about the only vis!
Otherwise just low single figures of Goldcrest, a Blackcap and a few finches and Blue tits

Waders to the fore

The routine coverage of ocean edge and the outfalls saw a decent collection of waders with just over 400 each of grey plover and bar-tailed godwit.

Also a single Sanderling amongst the hordes of calidrids (c3000 knot) and two black-tailed Godwit

Only 5 Med gulls could be located - all adults

Ringing saw a small influx of goldcrest and an even smaller influx of chiffchaff.   Odds and ends included single sedge warbler, green woodpecker and treecreeper

7 little egret ocean edge

520 redshank heliport seawall

Vis mig was unremarkable but included a Siskin (rare this autumn) and a flurry of 65 meadow pipit in 20 mins - more vis data to be added

Under the weather

Heysham Nature Reserve

The weather forecast was for sunny intervals but instead it was cloudy intervals between rain clouds and the vis was as intermittent as the showers:

Alba wagtail - 1
Linnet - 1
Pink-footed Goose - 26
Bullfinch- 1
Song Thrush - 2
Meadow Pipit - 39
Chaffinch - 19
Grey Wagtail - 5

Also filtering through were fidgety Dunnocks, small parties of Goldfinches, the odd Blackcap and Reed Warbler and a party of Long-tailed Tits and Blue Tits.
JR

Outfalls etc
Big crash in med numbers - just 6
Little egret - 8
Grey seal - 2

Middleton boat pond
Gadwall - 21

News from Middleton NR later....

Trickle of migrants in very clear north-easterly

Routine coverage today for routine birds.   Vis mig was a bit slower than expected, probably about half as much of everything as each of the last two days

Vis mig
Pink-footed Goose - c320 & others (H) in dark whilst net-setting Middleton plus 150 N plus others "taking off from the Fylde and seemingly heading over the bay very early on"
Meadow Pipit - no more than c70 in total
Grey Wagtail - about 8 (4 ringed)
alba Wagtail - 8
Chaffinch - probably a trickle of migrants
Coal Tit  - 3 noisily southbound
Swallow - 4
Skylark - 2
Reed Bunting - 1 S HNR
Bullfinch - 2 S
Carrion Crow - flock of 5 S

Grounded/Miscellany
Kingfisher - one flew through Heysham NR
Linnet - c100 grounded on Ocean Edge - a big increase on recent weeks
Chiffchaff - 2-3 Heysham NR
Goldcrest - 2-3 around HNR office
Robin - the lack of ticking birds was notable
Dunnock - 2 prob migrant/dispersal flew south over HNR office

Inshore
Knot - c3000 but distant and hard to sort from all the other stuff
Black-tailed Godwit - 2
Ringed Plover - 39
Little Egret - 2
Grey Heron - 1
Kittiwake - 1 juv (no Little Gulls seen around HT at least)
Guillemot - juv in harbour
Med Gull - just 16 seen (4 1CY)

Middleton NR
Ringing this morning:
Goldcrest 4
Willow warbler 1
Blackcap 4
Grey Wagtail 4
Meadow Pipit 2
Chiffchaff 4
Reed Bunting 1
Robin 3

Mammals:
Roe Deer 2 crossed from western marsh into central marsh.

Almost back to normal

Inshore
Med gull - just 16 at high tide
Little gull - 1cy and 2cy heysham one outfall high tide
Grey heron - one red nab
Usual waders along tideline
Kittiwake - just one 1st w
Wigeon - 1 (1st of Autumn on Red Nab)

Vis mig
Pink-footed Goose - c350
Grey heron - 1 S over HNR
Little Egret - 2 together S over HNR
Meadow pipit - 50 per hour ocean edge 0830-0900. Not many seen later
Swallow - 68 S
House martin - 2S
Grey wagtail - 11 SE

Ringing middleton and heysham
Chiffchaff (4), sedge warbler, blackcap, goldcrest (3), meadow pipit (2), grey wagtail (4), otherwise mainly gold and greenfinches

9 tufted duck middleton

Great birding on the morning neap then the pink-feet pile over

Shame we've not been effusively trained as it is a great morning to go all RSPB about our birds.  Nothing rare this morning, but a great spectacle in calm weather:

Overhead ocean edge 0730-0830
Meadow Pipit - c150
alba wagtail - 34
Linnet - 5
Swallow - 9
Grey Wagtail - 2
Wheatear - 4 grounded

Overhead Middleton (not duplicated with above) to about 1015
Meadow Pipit - not on the main flightline - 39 SE
Swallow - 77 SE
House Martin - 3 SE
Carrion Crow - 11 SE
Jackdaw - 9 SE
Pink-footed Goose - 512 S + one flock (H) only
Grey Wagtail - 4-5, one possibly off-passage (1 ringed)
Sparrowhawk - male high and purposeful to SSW
Reed Bunting - 2 SE, possibly others but off-passage birds making this difficult
Skylark - ?one (H)

Waders
Didn't count them all:
Grey Plover - 375 in the sunlight, half in varying degrees of summer plumage - great!
Greenshank - 1 juv
Knot - 2250 (single flock)

Offshore
Sandwich tern - 8 fishing

Inshore outfalls/Red Nab/mudflats
Little Gull - ad & 2nd W & 1st W close views on outfalls
Arctic Tern - ad showing well on outfalls
Kittiwake - 5 juvs and 3 ads as above
Med Gull - 37

Ringing
Four nets set at Middleton produced :
Meadow Pipit - 4   Blackcap - 5   Reed Bunting - 3   Lesser Whitethroat - 1
Grey Wagtail - 1   Chiffchaff - 1   Reed Warbler - 1   Bullfinch - 2
Goldcrest - 1   Great Tit - 5   Blue Tit - 9   Long-tailed Tit - 2   Robin - 2
Blackbird - 1 and   Dunnock - 1

Grey Phalarope

Grey Phalarope
Bit of a 'piece together' this as it was distant and relying strongly on behaviour with two other key features being wing-bars and (at least a virtually) uniform grey mantle.  The head detail could not be seen.  Located distantly in flight off the seaward end of Heysham 2 outfall whence it promptly landed on the sea, before getting up and making short flights/landing again on four other occasions between the outfall and the red buoy.   1145-1155.   The IOM ferry then went past the area and there were no further flights.  I could only just make it out on one occasion on the sea which was quite rough so it may be on the sea and feeding still.  Ringing by the office hampered by sun on the nets.  A few pics from today (first a juv moulting to 1st W Med) and also the Gannet trying to land on the wooden jetty a couple of days ago:

Thanks to Malcolm (top) and Janet (rest)

Other things seen today
Little Gull - usual adult plus the two 1CY until 0900 only, then back again late afternoon
Kittiwake - at least 9 1CY, including 5 behind freight ferry but only one behind the IOM ferry
Arctic tern - ad at least early morning, 2 ad later
Guillemot - 2, including one in harbour
Med Gull - at least 22 (6 x 1CY, 10+ 2CY)
Pink-footed Goose - 196 SE (5 flocks) plus another flock heard later
Pied Wagtail - at least 4 SE
Meadow Pipit - 55 SE
Swallow - 36 S
House Martin - 1S
Wheatear - 6
Carrion Crow - blogging flock of 12 - on the move?
Grey Wagtail - 3-4 SE (1 ringed)
Whitethroat - one ringed (first for a bit and ONLY warbler seen!)
Reed Bunting - 1 SE
Coal Tit - 2 new birds ringed
Dunnock - one unringed bird
Goldcrest - at least 10 ( 4 ringed)

Sabine's Gull

Hadn't a lot of faith in the latest depression - centre too close and too fast and localised with a bit of  N in the wind...but I was wrong.  A couple of close Leach's Petrels were therefore a nice surprise and the Sabine's Gull was even better and when the wind settled in the west during the high tide period there were quite a few odds and ends but unfortunately the second wave of Leach's Petrels did not start until early evening!  The day was characterised by a lot of birds in transit and a frustrating time for anyone turning up with a 'shopping list' and not prepared to remain any length of time, especially during the "quiet" early afternoon.  Thanks to many observers for this selection

Thanks to Janet for a few pics - the outfalls were heaving today with a lot of through-put of individually identifiable birds

Sabine's Gull - juv around seaward end Heysham two and the red buoy area 1105-1145 at least, juvenile flew into the Bay about 1425hrs, juvenile on power station outfalls about 1725hrs (but not an hour later).  So "at least one seen today" 
Leach's Petrel - one out 0750 as viewed from the north wall, one lingering in the harbour mouth, then out at about 0845 as viewed from the back of the harbour.  At least 4 out between 1700 and 1845
Gannet - adult on water flushed by ferry then flew in
Great Skua - one out 1344hrs
Sandwich Tern - at least 7 out
Common Tern - juv outfalls
Arctic Tern - 3 adults on outfalls, at least 4 out (3 at 1345, one 1455)
Little Gull - adult and 2nd W outfalls; two 1CY appeared there from mid-afternoon.  Earlier 5 x juv 
were seen on an early morning seawatch from Heysham Head
Manx Shearwater - one early morning
Fulmar - one early morning
Pintail - 11 out early morning
Common Scoter - 1
Guillemot - one in, one later in the harbour
Kittiwake - 12 on outfalls first thing, two out (6 x 1CY), 29 behind IOM ferry, later 15 on outfalls.  Minimum of 41 birds involved in todays sightings
Med Gull - not counted but 15+
Pink-footed Goose - 18 SE
Wheatear - 3
Gadwall - 13 MNR