Chiffchaff fall and other bits and bobs

A very difficult morning to compartmentalise and numerate as it was weather disrupted with a lengthy two hour mist net closure, yet pulses of vis mig were passing through at every slight break in the weather.  A Lesser Whitethroat, seemingly very healthy, had obviously decided that staying at Heysham and Middleton without putting on any real fat reserves was a better idea than dodging eastern Med lime-sticks.  It was ringed at Middleton on 2nd September at the usual 'back end' of the passage, and was retrapped about 1km north-west at Heysham NR today, a date which, had it been a new arrival, almost deserves a "possible eastern origin" cliche!  Given the intrusion of 'Leach's Petrel weather' and other unsuitable days, the Grey Wagtail colour ringing programme this autumn reached a respectable sample of 70 today.  Please do look out for these. 

Grounded migrants
Chiffchaff - minimum of 35-40 Heysham NR with 13 ringed, loads missed during the lengthy rain break (eg 15 following a single tit flock) and at least 6 around the nets as they were being reopened which then dispersed as the weather cleared.  A further 9 were recorded late afternoon at Middleton NR
Blackcap - at least three
Goldcrest - surprisingly absent after yesterdays influx with only 3-5 unringed birds Heysham NR and 2-3 at Middleton
Song Thrush - 1
Lesser Whitethroat - one off-passage see above

Vis mig
Coal Tit - at least 7 flew south
Meadow Pipit - c70 in bits and pieces HNR, 46 over Middleton late pm
Lesser Redpoll - 3
alba Wagtail - first significant movement of the autumn with at least 25 over Heysham NR, 35 in 30 mins over Ocean Edge and other ones and twos casually recorded
Grey Wagtail - 5 SE (3 ringed)
Swallow - ONE SE
Chaffinch - c20 S
Skylark - 1 SE
Reed Bunting - 1

Misc
Little Gull - ad stage 2 outfall
Med Gull - just the one 1CY located outfalls area
Cetti's Warbler - one Middleton
Bullfinch - 7 Middleton

Dragonflies
Migrant Hawker - 14 Middleton, at least two by HNR office plus low single figures of Common Darter

Mammals
Grey Seal by outfalls, Grey Squirrel by reserve entrance

Dog's dinner coverage

The problem this morning was not oversleeping as the only known observer (no ringing today), but the usual breakfast with the sliding door open revealed some pretty decent vis mig at home at High Tatham, including a definite Redwing (as opposed to the usual early "Redwing" misidentification of a migrant Song Thrush).  So I gave it 45 minutes before starting out to put a shift in at Heysham/Middleton.

Vis mig 0800-0900 Middleton
Although the grounded stuff was ok, the vis mig was terrible for the first 40 minutes, then the floodgates opened
Meadow Pipit - 91 SE (all but 5 after 0840)
alba Wagtail - 16 SE
Chaffinch - 22 S
Swallow - just 3 SE
Mistle Thrush - 4 SE
Skylark - heard twice
Reed Bunting - 2
Goldfinch - at least 57 seemed to be vis mig plus about 40 blogging - far more conspicuous on the ground than eg yesterday

Grounded Middleton
Lesser Whitethroat - 1
Chiffchaff - 2+ with LTT
Goldcrest - c20
Cetti's Warbler - singing male western marsh reedbed area
ALL the grounded done in situ whilst doing the vis mig - no 'groundwork' put in so probably a gross underestimate of what was around 

Bits and bobs vis/grounded during the rest of the morning whilst in transit
Meadow Pipit - 35
alba Wagtail - 8
Grey Wagtail - 2
Reed Bunting - 1 
Wheatear - 2
Goldcrest - 10+ around HNR office
Chiffchaff - one HNR office area
Swallow - 11 SE

Ocean Edge/Red Nab
Little Gull - usual Ad
Med Gull - 7 visible on Red Nab but others may have been hidden (1 x 1CY, 3 x 2CY, 3 x Ad).  Additional 1CY seaward end Heysham one

No attempt made to address the waders in bright rather glaring light and the tide not far enough in

Rather slow for a south-easterly

Disappointing this morning with nothing like the vis mig over my house (High Tatham) and grounded stuff limited to just a few Goldcrest.   So the ringing at two sites, Heysham and Middleton was a bit on the slow side, especially Middleton.  However, the inshore area was given a fair grilling on the incoming tide with 2CY Meds, as usual, coming out of the woodwork as the tide started to shift stuff hunkered down on the outer SW corner of Red Nab

Vis mig
Meadow Pipit - no more than 40 noted
Grey Wagtail - just 3 (1 ringed)
Common Buzzard - one struggling east followed by another which swung north-east
Chaffinch - 4 S
Swallow - eventually a relatively decent total of 56 S
alba Wagtail - just 5 or so SE and no influx on O Edge
Pink-footed Goose - 39 SE
Red Admiral - 4 S

Inshore south of harbour
Little Gull - two adults, one on the mudflats whilst the usual one was on Heysham one
Med Gull - 14 - 7 2CY, 3 1CY (3 following ferry in), 4 Ad
Knot - fairly accurate block count of 5950
Dunlin - very distant and not counted or possible to see identify else small with them
Bar-tailed Godwit - c450
Grey Plover - c430
Kingfisher - 1
Shelduck - 144
Wigeon - still just one Red Nab
Little Egret - 4

Ringing included: 10 Goldcrest, one Blackcap, one Chiffchaff and, as is typical in September, two unringed first winter Dunnock.  Perhaps a good time to say that Robin migration has been really below par this month with just one ringed this morning.  Two Pheasant in full flight narrowly avoided a Middleton mist net!

Grey Seal off outfalls

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