Autumn fayre

So which is rarer at Heysham - Leach's Petrel or juvenile Gannet? Apparently the latter but both appeared in similar numbers today.

Thanks to Jim Clift for the photos

Seawatch from 09:10 - 13:00 (High tide 9.06m at 11:13)
Leach's Petrel - 1 out very close inshore at 10:40, 2 out at yellow buoy distance at 12:53
juv Gannet - 1 harassed by juv Herring gulls, later 2 others out, 2CY into Bay, 3 adults into Bay
Common Scoter - 1 drake close inshore flew out of the Bay at 10:20
Kittiwake - ad and first winter behind the ferry
Shelduck - 2 out and 2 in
Wigeon - 4 out
Pink-footed Goose - 375 in 10 flocks (120 at 09:40, 7 at 10:20, 45 at 10:25, 43 at 11:05, 8, 34, 34, 84)
Med gull - Czech ad, 2cy and 1cy at various times along seawall

Ocean Edge
Mediterranean Gull - 9 (3 x 1CY, 3 x 2CY, 3 x ad)

Outfalls
Common Tern - 1 ad (same as yesterday)
Little gull - usual ad

Moss Lane, Heaton
1600 mixed gulls (90% Black-headed) included 2 adult Mediterranean Gulls

Report by JR

Northwesterly pink foot surge

Various reports throughout the day gave

Pinkfooted goose - 590 in 10 skeins in very intermittent watching and missing the late afternoon peak to the north of here - all southish
Common tern - ad outfalls
Little gull - ad outfalls
Med gull - 5 (1x 1cy, 2x 2cy and 2x ad) red nab and area
Wheatear - 2
Rock pipit - 1
Swallow - 1

Thanks mainly to Malcolm for today's coverage

Nice list of October log padders

Sea at various times from 0800 to IOM ferry arrival 1210
Gannet - 12 out - all early on
Red-breasted Merganser - one out
Kittiwake - just the one Ad seen early on i.e. none behind ferry
Red-throated Diver - partial sp adult out
Pintail - flock of 6 out
Sandwich Tern - juvenile briefly off end of outfalls early on, then out
Arctic Tern - either two 1CY briefly or the first bird briefly dragged back in by the ferry - perhaps unusually would not remain on outfalls
Common Tern - adult arrived mid morning and remained on outfalls

Thanks Malcolm

Common Scoter - 2+5 out
Med Gull - at least 9, mainly resting on Red Nab (at least 2 x 1CY, at least one x 2CY, 6 x Ad)
Sanderling - unusually a singleton flew out (NOT a Grey Phal!)
Little Gull - usual ad

Others
Stonechat - inner end of wooden jetty briefly
Wren - two presumed migrants with the above
Meadow Pipit - at least 5 heading SE over the sea!!
Peregrine - one took Redshank from heliport seawall
Wheatear - 3
Ruff - one juv male with Lapwing briefly Ocean Edge grass
Lapwing - grey bird seen again
Goldcrest - quite a lot heard in windblown bushes

Intermittent migration

The forecasted rain belted through much earlier than anticipated and was followed by a slacker period where we, not for the first time this autumn, dodged heavy showers hitting SW Cumbria or just south of us.  Then the wind took over, albeit not a helpful direction for any seabirds.....yet

A grey-backed Lapwing on Ocean Edge foreshore saw no Pallas's Peewit fitting the bill, unlike the charter-plane-launching probable Siberian Oystercatcher on Shetland.  Undoubtedly a bit of leucism.

A 40 foot net was set near the office where it is completely sheltered and the feeder net was also run until the wind got up.  Not a bad catch of 31 new birds

Miscellany
Gadwall - record count of 26 on Middleton
Coot - 1 Middleton
Mute Swan - 4 ads and 2 1CY
Tufted Duck - pair
Moorhen  7
Water rail - 2
Little Egret - 8 on shore
Wigeon - 5 Red Nab
Med Gull - 2 ads
No small calidrids within identifiable range

Grounded
Treecreeper - one ringed Hey NR office area
Chiffchaff - 3 ringed and only a couple of additional birds reported.  None at all on Middleton
Goldcrest - a handful compared to yesterday around Hey NR and 10 ringed
Blackcap - at least one (1 ringed)
Song Thrush - 6 birds grounded then flew high to the east
Robin - one new bird ringed
Coal Tit - no obvious vis mig but two unringed birds caught

Vis mig
Linnet - 6 SE (flock)
Redpoll  1 S
Skylark - 26 SE (flock of 25)
Goldfinch - 115 S
Grey wagtail - 1 SE
Swallow - 1 SW
Meadow Pipit - 68 SE
Chaffinch - 15 S
alba Wagtail - 28 SE

Butterfly
Very late male Large White getting buffeted around

Fungi
A rare foray into this topic - these Fly Agaric were on Heysham NR:

Decent landfall of goldcrests and chiffchaffs

Vis mig
Slow on the coast here with sw cumbria rain and low cloud- bound
Grey wagtail - 1
Alba wagtail - 13
Meadow pipit - 18
Chaffinch - 12
Reed bunting -7
Pink-footed Goose - two flocks of c60 and 63 north

Ocean edge area
Light bellied Brent goose - one south with three shelduck
Wigeon - 5
Little egret - 7
Med gull - 3
Merlin - female

Grounded
Cetti's warbler - unringed bird caught
Goldcrest - various sites revealed 80 to 100 (16 caught in one net set)
Chiffchaff - 20-40
Treecreeper - one heysham head
Blackcap - at least one

Mute Swan surprise

Not much on offer today with the biggest surprise being 8 Mute Swans which flew low over the sands from the south, landed off Red Nab for a few minutes before heading south again!  Odd.

Ringing totals for September
I'll add anything for tomorrow if the rain alarm allows anything to happen.  The rain alarm was a key feature this month along with the realisation that southerly sector winds were manageable at Middleton West up to about 15mph.  Indeed, one of the two mornings of crystal clear flat calm was like watching paint dry and a lot of the ringing was undertaken with the rain alarm being carefully watched, helped by plenty of visual notice of trouble.  We were very lucky compared to the surrounding areas.  New-ringed only:

Goldcrest (111) Chiffchaff (91), Goldfinch (60), Grey Wagtail (59), Greenfinch (53), Blue Tit (48), Blackcap (47), Robin (31), Great Tit (22), Meadow Pipit (20), Chaffinch (19), Dunnock (16), Wren and Reed Bunting (13), Whitethroat (8), Coal Tit (7), Lesser Whitethroat (6), Pied Wagtail and Willow Warbler and Blackbird (5), Reed Warbler and Long-tailed Tit (4) Garden Warbler (3), Sedge Warbler (2), Great-spotted Woodpecker, Cetti's warbler and Treecreeper and Swallow (1) (about 660)

Obviously these totals reflect the lack of opportunities in early September, due to "Leach's Petrel weather" (other than 1st-2nd), with eg few lingering Willow Warblers, the lack of anything much which could be traced from across the north Sea (eg again lack of late Willow Warblers with the Chiffchaffs and Goldcrests).  Blackcap were way below par at the back end of the month, Robin below par throughout, but we did really well for Grey Wagtails considering the lack of opportunity during the main passage period early in the month.  Please do look out for the colour ring combinations.   

Middleton NR (Malcolm)
Gadwall - 16
Tufted Duck - 4
Chiffchaff - 6
Pheasant - 4
Trickle of Meadow Pipit

Ocean Edge/Red Nab
Meadow Pipit - 14 SE
alba Wagtail - 12 in-off
Med Gull - 2 ad
Little Egret - 8 (highest count this autumn?)
Mute Swan - 2 Ad and 6 juv as above - one of the ads metal-ringed, rest unringed
Red Admiral - 5 south

Mammals
2 Roe Deer and a Fox Middleton

Sunbathing and a trickle of migrants

Vis mig recording at middleton and south of here OOA on the Sunderland peninsula plus ringing at the office nets and two nets at middleton.  Not a bad day for crystal clear westerly but no leftovers could be unearthed and the recent migrants do literally seem to have been 99 per cent chiffchaff and goldcrest.

Vis mig
Raven - two east through the ozone layer
Jackdaw - 41 plus 1
Rook - 8
Carrion crow - 16
Jay - 2plus one
Sparrowhawk - 1
Song thrush - 3
Meadow pipit - 42
Alba wagtail - 17
Reed bunting - 2
Redpoll - 1
Chaffinch - 11
Goldfinch - 5
Blue tit - irruptive flock of four - more on Sunderland peninsula
Swallow - 3
Grey wagtail - 3-4 (2 ringed)
Possibly some more stuff in JRs ringing book

Grounded
Chiffchaff - 3 ringed and at least another 8
Goldcrest - 14 ringed and at least the same again unringed
Blackcap - one - the dearth continues
Wheatear - 2

Misc
Green woodpecker recorded twice and aged as juv
Med gull - at least two outfalls

Red admiral - at least 20 south and others around
Small tortoiseshell - at least 7 south
Migrant hawker - 15 plus including two pairs in cop
Common darter - 10 plus

Wrong kind of cloud

A few problems this morning with mist netting delayed at one of the sites.  Once again, we took a chance ringing-wise on the supposed 15mph winds from the word go and, being a SE we got away with it, only for some thick low cloud to materialise which both cut off the vis and failed to drop any new migrants.  The yellow-browed-ometer was pretty much zero given a wind straight from SE England.  The forecast shows a possibility in mid-October of some easterlies but otherwise it looks like a west coast reality check for eastern scarce.  Cue one tomorrow in the light westerly!

Vis mig - very intermittent and only well-recorded when it had virtually stopped!  Middleton records.
Meadow Pipit - 105 SE
Grey Wagtail - 5-7 SE (2 ringed)
alba Wagtail - 27 SE
Swallow - 61 SE
Skylark - 8 SE
Goldfinch - 54 SE
Reed Bunting - 7-9 SE
Greenfinch - 3 SE (over Middleton so definitely vis)
Common Buzzard - 1 ESE
Mistle Thrush - 4 SW
Song Thrush - 1 E
Chaffinch - 16 S

Grounded /ringing
Very little seen away from the ringing area but Stonechat very welcome - they have become really rare in autumn recently
Stonechat - male Middleton
Chiffchaff - 20ish (10 ringed)
Goldcrest - 30ish (8 ringed but many missed on Middleton)
Blackcap - one ringed, none seen in field - scarce at the moment
Robin - 2 lightweights ringed

Middleton pools
Gadwall - the flock of 21 again
Tufted Duck - 4
Cetti's Warbler - just the usual singing male Middleton west - need a new influx to maintain the population I think

No coastal coverage

A good migration day for common birds!

Despite very good coverage of the nooks and crannies to the south of Ocean Edge, the feeling was that we missed something of interest in and around the power stations area.  Key sites were not walked over and a lot of reliance was placed on mist nets.  There was a sizeable earlyish morning fall of Chiffchaff and Goldcrests which appeared in the office nets between about 0740 and 0810, but thereafter very little was about as the original birds seemed to race inland

There was also no time to do any optics-based vis mig eg scanning for more distant Meadow Pipits (or "Meadow Pipits"!), so the figures refer to a fairly narrow corridor within audible range over Heysham NR office.  Some interesting vis mig today, including 'definite' Magpie and Great-spotted Woodpecker and a fair number of Coal Tit

Vis mig over Heysham office mainly 0800-1100
Mistle Thrush - 10+2 S
Jackdaw - 26 S
Rook - 4 S
Carrion Crow - 9 S
Magpie - 2+2 high and purposefully south way above pylon height
Great-spotted Woodpecker - 1 in-off on NW to SE heading - the highest flier I've ever seen here!
Chaffinch - 34 S
Meadow Pipit - 534 SE
Grey Wagtail - 7 SE and probably a different 7 over Middleton (5 ringed)
alba Wagtail - 77 SE
Linnet - 40 SE (inc. silent flock of 27)
Siskin - 2
Skylark - 25 SE
Coal Tit - 41 S in 9 groups
Swallow - 47 SE - all from 1000 onwards - many more along the coast (see Sunderland vis data on Dan's site)
Goldfinch - not possible to document but not many seemingly on vis
Redpoll - 1 SE
Common Buzzard - 2 SE
Kestrel - 2+1 S
Sparrowhawk - 2 S
Dunnock - 2 S
Reed Bunting - 1 SE

Miscellany
Kingfisher - one flew past HNR office
Med Gull - 10 (1 1CY, 2 2CY, 7 Ad)
Little Gull - usual ad

Grounded
Wheatear - 5
Chiffchaff - minimum of 35
Goldcrest - minimum of 35
Blackcap - just ONE!

Ringing
Chiffchaff (20), Goldcrest (18), Robin (3), Grey Wagtail (5), alba Wagtail (4), Blackcap (1), Dunnock (1) and one or two tits

Heysham NR insects
Red Admiral - 7
Migrant Hawker - 3
Large White - 1 male
Speckled Wood - 1

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