Ybw

Yellow browed warbler
Still present next to office calling regularly in association  with chiffchaff but hard to see in wind!  Present in same area to 1735 at least

Chiffchaff - 1
Goldcrest - 6 plus

Messy weather produces two Gems

Thanks Dan

The first one was in the moth trap at nearby Sunderland Point (a Gem) and the second was heard as I was getting out of the car at Heysham NR office - a vocal Yellow-browed Warbler.  Just occasionally birding is easy! 

Grounded
Goldcrest - at least 20
Song Thrush - c15
Redwing - c5
Chiffchaff - one by office, one in what has been christened (not by me) 'chavvy scrub' by half moon bay
Stonechat - two by half moon bay then on to heliport area
Yellow-browed Warbler - one by office from early pm to at least 5pm and, unless it got away in the first hour of darkness, probably going nowhere for a day or two
Water Rail - three calling from scattered locations away from usual areas at Middleton
Blackcap - female by office with tit flock

Vis mig (not a lot)
Grey Wagtail - 1
Skylark - 2
Swallow - two blogging Heysham Head
House Martin - two south Middleton
Chaffinch - 18
Reed Bunting - 6
Redwing - 6
alba Wagtail - 11
Meadow Pipit - 5
Egret spp - two high to north in distant escape flight only over Middleton in am (not large)

Others
Merlin - female with prey north wall and later HNR chasing finches
Linnet - 23 north wall
Med Gull - ad and 1cy behind ferry
Eider - 342 at low tide round skeers - 2/3 male - very good number for this time of year

More odds and ends to come

Single observer decisions!

Plumped for a vis mig session from the concrete road between the western and central marshes at Middleton and that wasn't a bad choice but what was elsewhere?  I'll have another session later, but it is absolutely typical sods law that the main ringing team is not available on the two peak late autumn migration days (today and tomorrow).  

Vis mig Middleton 0800-0930
Skylark - 31 SE
Meadow Pipit - surprisingly plentiful this late with 43 SE
Reed Bunting - 7 SE
Sparrowhawk - 1+1 high south
Grey Wagtail - 3 together then a singleton SE
alba Wagtail - 26 SE
Goldfinch - 24 SE
Greenfinch - 2 SE
Chaffinch - 65 S
unidentified Chaffinchish finches - c60 S
Linnet - 23 SE
Lesser Redpoll - 2 SE
Carrion Crow - 46 S (incl flock of 21)
Jackdaw - just the one flock of 16 S - prefer clearer and calmer weather!
Blackbird - 18 dropping from height from the north and landing in bushes
Redwing - 705 almost all north to south with quite a bit of landing but 'dried up' after 0910 with just the odd singleton
Fieldfare - 16+17+15 S
Song Thrush - just two dropping from height into the bushes
Mistle Thrush - 3 S
Starling - ex-roost stuff early on ignored.  61 S in dribs and drabs, some with RE
Pink-footed Goose.   This was unexpected:  1205 high to NE (not to local fields) in 7 skeins plus 18 S
Raven - 1 high S
Jay - 2 S possibly just local
Woodpigeon - at least 21 migrants to south - lower birds difficult to classify here

Grounded
Blackbird - c30 in the area (plus the vis birds above)
Ring Ouzel - 1CY male on view for 5 minutes before heading for brick building
Song Thrush - 5 in addition to the vis birds
Chiffchaff - one moved rapidly inland
Goldcrest - just 4 within audible/visual range as above
Cetti's Warbler - singing regularly eastern end of central marsh but no others heard
Green Woodpecker - heard once

Others
Kestrel blogging

Outfalls
oiled Great-crested Grebe hauled itself out of to the seawall by Heysham 2 outfall

Partial migrants on the rampage

One of the highest non-Swallow-roost ringing totals for here today without any relationship to a 'fall' of migrants.  Therefore the composition was more 'west coast cat food' than 'eastern promise', exemplified by eight un-ringed Wrens.  There was a decent movement of Coal Tit, but very difficult to document as they were in the corridor of migratory uncertainty ranging from those accompanying 'grounded' roaming tit flocks and noisy 'top of the bushes' single-species movers.  There were certainly no noisy high-flying flocks as on some previous irruptions and, as implied, many of them were mixed in with similar numbers of un-ringed Long-tailed Tit and Blue Tit.

Blackcap have been conspicuous by their absence for several weeks, so five un-ringed birds were welcome, and equally welcome was an un-ringed, presumed male on wing length, Cetti's Warbler in Middleton central marsh.  The first Brambling to be ringed for several years was also trapped on Middleton

Ringing (new birds)
Included:   22 Goldcrest, 15 Greenfinch, 12 each of Coal, Blue and Long-tailed Tits, 8 Wren, 5 Blackcap, 4 Redwing, 2 Lesser Redpoll and singles of Brambling, Chiffchaff and Cetti's Warbler

Redwing Middleton (thanks Janet)

Vis
Redwing 40
Song Thrush 9
Skylark 29
Siskin 2
Meadow Pipit 19
Alba Wagtail 14
Grey Wagtail 2
Chaffinch 9
Raven 1
Jackdaw 6

Middleton
Gadwall - 22
Jack Snipe - flushed by Janet
Cetti's Warbler - new bird ringed Central Marsh
Brambling - 1 ringed
Redwing - grounded flock of 20

Vis
Redwing 25
Wood pigeon 11 SE
Jackdaw 70 S
Corvid sp 100 SE
Pink-footed Goose 30

Heysham Head
Brambling heard

Outfalls etc
Med Gull - 1CY

Ophelias bits and pieces

Shame there were no squalls this morning to spice up the seabirds and send them further into the Bay but we didn't do too badly.  Indeed I posted this a bit prematurely as the day gave new meaning to "the afternoon dropping tide being best for Leach's Petrel".  They do not seem to have a problem with mudflats and therefore low tide and lack of water is not an issue.

Pomarine Skua - juv wheeled in at quite close range at 0845hrs - didn't think there would be any juvs this autumn after my experience of the Arctic breeding season!
Leach's Petrel - one 9ish and one located off the stone jetty at 1130 and seen again 30 mins later off the north wall & see below
Velvet Scoter - male floated in with the tide during the last hour of flow with a rough sea, but hasn't been relocated as yet
Pintail - 7+5 out
Wigeon - 8 out
Shelduck - about 160 out
Med Gull - 7 behind IOM ferry (2 x 1CY, 3 x Ad, 2 x 2CY), ad red nab at same time and three 1CY already on outfalls
Little Gull - ad appeared to come in with IOM ferry but may have been the usual bird wandering

Chiffchaff - one by gate 38!

Later update

Yes well they are not easy to phonescope!  The 1555hrs bird off the north wall and this was followed by three others as seen from the SJ during the last 1.5 hrs of daylight

Eider - 120 off north wall low tide

Spanish sun

"Red Midday Sun" by Malcolm Downham

The day was notable for two things a) a Pochard turned up at Middleton, almost the only one in the whole area and b) the unusual weather courtesy of the outer edges of Hurricane Ophelia.

Heysham NR

Early doors the skies were "normal" and a bit of vis got underway with alba wagtails and the odd Siskin and Reed Bunting then a huge yellow blob formed over Heysham and it went dark enough for the security lights to come on again. It felt rather threatening. Luckily the Saharan dust + Spanish forest fire smoke sucked up by Hurricane Ophelia stayed up in the atmosphere and moved off north. Eventually the skies went grey and rain lashed down for a short while, birds dived for cover. Late morning the clouds thinned enough to reveal a spooky red sun that just about everyone in the UK commented on. Finally the clouds broke up, it became very breezy but balmy with temperatures of 19C.

Vis

Chaffinch - 5

Snipe - 1

Golden Plover - 1 (unusual for here)

Redwing - 3

song Thrush - 6

alba wagtail - 2

Grey Wagtail - 1

Siskin - 1

Reed Bunting - 2

Ringing

New birds:

Greenfinch 3

Long-tailed Tit 1

Wren 1

Goldcrest 4p

Chiffchaff 1

Song Thrush 1

Retraps:

Coal Tit - 4, Goldcrest 1, Chiffchaff 2, Robin 2, Long-tailed Tit 1

One of the Robins was first ringed in 2013 so at 4 years old it's pretty ancient for a Robin whose average lifespan is just 2 years. It's escaped the clutches of the local marauding Sparrowhawk as well. What a survivor!

Red Nab

Wigeon 65

Outfalls

Mediterranean Gull 1 x 1CY

Middleton NR

A male Pochard has joined the 18 Gadwall on "No Swimming" pond - no sign of Little Grebe today.

1 Redwing grounded

5 Alba Wagtail & 14 Meadow Pipit to east 

1 Water Rail calling 

Pochards, which winter here from northern and eastern Europe,  are now classed as "vulnerable"/globally threatened by Birdlife International and are Red-listed in the UK as a species of high conservation concern. Across Europe they have declined by a whopping 60% since 1980.

Here is what the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust have to say about the reasons for the decline:

"Researchers have found that the decline is related to gulls, mink and nutrients.
Pochards build their nests among black-headed gull colonies for protection and there are fewer black-headed gull nesting colonies across a number of European countries, including Norway, Germany and Latvia.
Explosions of plants and algaes in wetlands and waterways, caused by nutrients washing off farmland, has prevented pochards and other birds from diving for food.
The American mink has become a major wetland predator. The species was originally introduced and farmed in Europe for its fur, but escaped and is now considered to be an invasive species in many countries.
Despite the decline in migrating pochards, the number of them breeding in the UK has actually increased and the latest estimate is 653 pairs"

Report by JR



Demolished!

Another little bit of Heysham Nature Reserve history disappears.

This is all that is left of the old classroom. But, kids, never fear - there is a more modern classroom at the Reserve in the new building.

Went up onto Heysham Head for an hour to see if anything was migrating. The light southerly wind was OK but the generally murky cloud didn't seem to augur well. But out of the murk came a few pulses of birds as follows:

0830-1000hrs
(in order of appearance and south unless stated)
Grey Wagtail - 1
Pink-footed Goose - 60 N, 38 S
Chaffinch - 33
Greenfinch - 4
Goldfinch - 4
Mistle Thrush - 5
Reed Bunting - 2
Starling - 13
Brambling - 22 (two flocks of 6 and 16)
Linnet - 4

Grounded
Goldcrest - 5
Coal Tit - 2
Robin - 3 (excludes the singing birds)
Blackbird - 3

Then went on to Heysham NR 1020-1120
Vis - alba Wagtail 1, Chaffinch 4
Blackbirds (9) were targeting the berries, 4 Song Thrushes were "ticking" and eventually one was seen to head off south, Goldcrests (7) were scattered around the reserve.

Report by JR

A visit from Merlin

It was a very mild day (15C) with thick cloud, apparently full of dust from the Sahara, and a force 4 wind from the SW. Disappointingly for National Moth Weekend there were no moths in the trap at Heysham but there is another night to go. At least 4 Goldcrests could be heard below the obs tower where it was relatively sheltered so I put a few nets up to try and catch them and in the hope of catching a Yellow-browed Warbler. Sadly, the latter species was still not around, nor any other warblers.

Heysham NR
Ringing (new birds):
Long-tailed Tit - 5
Goldcrest - 3
Coal tit - 1
Treecreeper - 1 (see mugshot)
Dunnock - 1
Greenfinch - 1
Goldfinch - 2

Retraps:
Coal Tit - 1
Chaffinch - 1 (first caught on 18 July as a juv)
Great Tit - 1 (first caught on 30 June as a juv)
Goldcrest - 1 (first caught on 10 September as a young un)

The Goldcrest that has been around for a month was lighter in weight than the new birds (5.3grams cf 5.7 or 5.8 grams). Whether this means the heavier birds are about to migrate and the lighter bird is going to stick around longer, I don't know but it was interesting to note the difference. All the Goldcrests were males. The average weight for a Goldcrest is 5g (same as a 20p coin) and the heaviest weight is 6g (just less than a 10p coin).

The Long-tailed Tits were heavier than average as well, the lightest was 8g (same as a 50p coin) and the heaviest was 8.6g compared to the average of 7g (per BTO data).

Ocean Edge
A Merlin paid a visit to the saltmarsh and perched on some driftwood for a while, no doubt hoping to catch one of the gang of 25 Linnets that frequent the marsh or perhaps a Meadow Pipit.

Outfalls
Mediterranean Gull - 2

Middleton NR
A Little Grebe was on the No Swimming Pond - first time one has been seen for over a month

Report by JR.

Routine check of coast

A quick look by the model boat pond saw seriously windswept bushes.  The only other effort was a quick check of the outfalls

Med gull - 1cy, 2x 2cy, 3ad
Little gull - ad winter

Out of the blue

A bit of coastal birding in bright and breezy conditions degenerated into texting Lou Cross to see if I had just seen his van going along the Barrow coast road at the other side of the Bay...................then on the same text theme Malcolm informed of a vocal Yellow-browed Warbler near the steps on the SE side of the model boat pond.  No sign of it later but very little was actually calling and it was rather breezy with several potential corridors the bird could have made its way along

Middleton NR
Yellow-browed Warbler - see above
Chiffchaff - 2
Mute Swan - 7
Migrant Hawker - at least 7
Common Darter - 6+

Inshore
Early stages of incoming tide & ferry
Med Gull - 3 x 1CY, 2 x 2CY and a minimum of 6 Ads (inc 8 birds behind ferry as it entered port).  One of the 2CY has a lot of solid black on the outer primaries - not one which has been previously recorded
Little Gull - Ad
Guillemot - one in harbour