Tufted Duck

A 1cy Male Tufted Duck off the harbour mouth was a new species for SD35Z!

Med gull - at least 33 today including ANLT and four juvs
Little gull - ad outfalls near HT
Sandwich Tern - 3 red nab
Guillemot - one in harbour early evening

Nothing seen in intermittent seawatches

Seawatching

A small petrel was seen very briefly but enough to see it wasn’t a Leavh’s (or a house Martin, green sand, Black Tern etc!) and looked like a Storm Petrel.  A great wadge of poor visibility soon after locating it knocked the record on the head

Most of the early morning seawatching was from the stone jetty between 8 and 11(thanks Nick)

Sea 0815 to 1245 (Heysham unless stated)
Arctic Skua - two off sj, one in at lunchtime
Fulmar - one sj
Kittiwake - flock of 5
Gannet - 11 or so off Sj
Sandwich tern - two
Guillemot - one sj
Little gull - ad heysham two before ht
Med gull - ad, 2cy and 1cy outfalls/Red Nab

Landbird wise totally dead as also confirmed by Colin on Walney - the forecast doesn’t look too good  with only next Thursday looking possible in the next fortnight and Thursday is always the most difficult day for coverage.

Wet webs

Sandwich Tern - 11 red nab including distant one with white darvic, four flew out this evening
Turnstone - 112 red nab plus 109 heliport but no Pirple Sand
Redshank - 495 heliport plus c150 south of harbour
Little Egret - 10!
Med gull - 19 by wooden jetty this on ores includes the 3x2cy and 1x1cy on red nab at ht
Eider - 9 inshore
Rock pipit - one near wooden jetty in evening

No migrants reported

Pics will be posted tomorrow

Moths included Agriphila geniculea again but haven’t managed to record our speciality Agriphila latistria this late summer

Even better tidal display

However - it isn't really what we are about this time of year and the forecast for the foreseeable future has migrant mediocrity written all over it and doesn't look like providing the back-up ringing to getting up early to catch and colour ring a handful of Grey Wagtail.  We'll see - could really do with a howling gale if it is going to be unhelpful weather

Purple Sandpiper - adult moulting out of summer plumage on Red Nab - disappeared behind a rock and I lost it in the incoming tide mayhem - loosely with Turnstone
Sanderling - c6 Red Nab
Dunlin - 500 Red Nab then flushed by tide
Med Gull - 25 by the wooden jetty feeding on tube worms this evening (ANLT amongst them)

Rhomboid Tortrix in moth trap I think is new for year

Good early morning neap tidal display

Inshore
Spotted redshank - Juv oe creek then along inner shore to south
Grey plover - 369 many in summer plumage
Dunlin - 1870
Bar-tailed Godwit -  411
Sandwich Tern - 4 red nab
Med gull - 3x 2cy 1x Juv Red Nab, then 9 by wooden jetty in evening including metal ringed Ad and German green ANLT (thanks Malcolm)
Shag - 2cy by then on wooden jetty
Cormorant - 135 wooden jetty at least

Vis 08:00-10:00
Reed Bunting 1
Swallow 18
Dunnock 1
Grey Wagtail 1
Meadow Pipit 1
Chaffinch 2

Ringing
Very slow
Robin 2 up to 10am and several blank round

Middleton NR
Teal 8 (2 Tim Butler 6 no swimming ponds)
Tufted single male still in eclipse
Gadwall 15
No sign of Coot, but they are sometimes elusive.
Water Rail - one calling from low ground between main pond and Tim Butler pond. Presumably a new arrival.
Common Snipe 1

Southern hawker on golf club strip. Probably same insect as previous sighting.
Common darters ovipositing, including in remnants of new ponds.

More Ringing in the crystal clear

This was a very odd day where there was just about one of everything but absolutely no numbers other than perhaps Swallow.   Despite a clear corridor there seemed to be zero cross bay vis mig!

Tree pipit - one se

Grey wagtail - 5 ringed

Singles or twos of Whitethroat, blackcap, willow warbler, lesser whitethroat, chiffchaff and a few robins ringed.  Jay also ringed!

Vis mig 
In addition to the Tree Pipit and Grey Wagtails -
Chaffinch 16
Swallow 21
Linnet 2
Meadow Pipit 1

Mainly Ringing on Tuesday

A triple session at all our main sites saw an unremarkable return with further confirmation that most warblers had cleared out and there was little evidence of passage from elsewhere.   Best was a single Tree pipit

Vis
alba wagtail 1
Meadow Pipit 5
Swallow 8
Linnet 2
Chaffinch 1
Grey Wagtail 2
Coal Tit 1
Starling 34 - probably ex-roost but all went SE

Low key coverage

Two sandwich tern and just five med gull on red nab at high tide

Whitethroat caught in feeder net run for a short time by office this pm
Along with a Male Greenfinch first ringed in 2013

The Moth trap held typical autumnal species including Treble Bar

Out of the Blue

A shock today at Middleton where the first substantial Blue Tit flock for many years ended up in the net.  This is early days for migratory/dispersing flocks - usually peaking around the last week of September - so hopefully its not a precursor of the rest of the autumn as they can lead to a precautionary reduction in mist nets and all the rarities slip through the dense scrub unrecorded

Note the blackberry stains on the bags from the eight Blackcap ringed earlier:

Alan back at base with 60% of todays otherwise unremarkable ringing in one net on one round! 

Middleton NR WeBS
Mute Swan (4), Coot (2), Moorhen (12), Gadwall (10+), Tufted Duck (1), Grey Heron (1), Cormorant (1).  In addition
Common Sandpiper - one main pond
Green Sandpiper - one Tim Butler pond

Vis mig this morning 0730 on wards  SEish unless stated otherwise
Grey Wagtail - at least 6, poss 8
Swallow - 215
Meadow Pipit - 20
Chaffinch - 4
alba Wagtail - 5
Linnet - 1
Goldfinch - 60
House Martin - 16
Sand Martin - 18 (late for these numbers but similar to others seen locally)
Pink-footed Goose - flock of 11 NORTH!  IOA

Ringing Hey/Midd
Blue Tit (20), Grey Wagtail (3), Willow Warbler (2), Goldfinch (3), Greenfinch (1), Wren (2), Linnet (1), Blackcap (8), Reed Warbler (1), Whitethroat (1), Great Tit (2)

Saturday 1st Sept

Vis mig at the office at HNR during am
Meadow Pipit 24
Reed bunting 1
Yellow wagtail 1
Grey wagtail 5
Alba wagtail 7
Swallow 57
Redshank 5
Chaffinch 9
Carrion crow 1
House Martin 1+

Grounded Heysham NR/foreshore

Wheatear - 2
Willow Warbler - 2
Whitethroat - 1
Sandwich Tern - juv Red Nab roost

Middleton
Southern Hawker - not common here - photographed Middleton today (thanks Malcolm)