Scoter still in situ

Common Scoter - flock of 5 off Heysham Head on drop tide
Ringed plover - 36 heliport roost
Rock Pipit - two half moon bay beach, one by harbour
Lots of Blackbird Hey NR

High tide roost spectacle

The operative word was "high" in the high tide roost - high numbers of Oystercatchers which stretched all along the heliport sea wall along with other waders.  Another "high"light was a young Merlin chasing the Starlings in the horse paddock.

Heliport sea wall
Oystercatcher - 9600
Redshank - 460
Turnstone - 38
Ringed Plover - 36
Snipe - 21

Ocean Edge
Jack Snipe - 2

Horse paddocks north of Heysham Head
Merlin 1CY

 The large Oystercatcher roost. 

Five birds had metal rings but too far away to read the numbers with binoculars.

 Little Egret looking rather elegant in flight

Wigeon at Ocean Edge 

A quieter day

Most of the Blackbirds had gone from the reserve so it was a lot quieter today. Fewer finches were moving overhead and even fewer at the feeder.

Vis 0830-1000
Chaffinch - 20 SE
Greenfinch - 2 S
Little Egret - 1 W

On the reserve
Cetti's Warbler singing again between the pagoda and the alder copse in the scrub on the edge of the reedbed.

More Blackbirds and some old friends

At least 100 Blackbirds from observations around the recording area with at least 60 on or passing through Heysham NR alone.
The "old friends" were a Robin first caught in August 2011 at Heysham, a Dunnock first caught in July 2013 at Heysham and a Cetti's Warbler at Middleton NR which was first caught in October 2015.

Offshore very murky but flock of five female Common Scoter located and Eiders in the mist at low tide at least 520

Shoveler still at Middleton

More later when sound recorder consulted!!!
Well, nothing of any note on the sound recorder - plenty of Robin, Wren, Carrion Crow, Magpie and Blackbird noise and a few Chaffinches plus the odd Bullfinch.

Vis
Pink-footed Goose 2000N over Middleton NR in ten flocks plus flocks of 450N and 20E over Heysham bypass at 0730.
Fieldfare 1
Redwing 16 SE
Starling 47 S
Grey Wagtail 2 E
Chaffinch 21 SE
Bullfinch 1

The Green Woodpecker is still around.

A female Blackcap appeared in the nets later in the day.

A Raven sat for a while on one of the pylons.

Bits

Shag - subadult feeding off the Head
Common Scoter - flock of five off Head and two females off north wall
Great crested grebe - 6
Brambling - one south west over HNR

Red admiral on orange buddleia by office

More Common Scoter and thrushes

Low tide channels
Common Scoter - flock of five (2 Male) close inshore and another Male flew in and landed seaward side of the Eider line

Middleton NR
Blackbird - c40
Redwing - c30
Shoveler - 1cy Male still
Gadwall -18
Coot - Singleton
Mallard - just three
Moorhen - 9 plus

Pics published tomorrow

End of season

There's a definite end of migration season feel now, with few birds over and few in the nets. But there is still a trickle:

Vis 0800-1000
Weather: NWF2, short rain showers at 0825 and 0900, 5-9C, 1022mB, 4/8 cloud
Chaffinch - 10N, 3 S
Coal Tit - 2
Starling - 207N
alba wagtail - 1N
Goldfinch - 1S
Greenfinch - 4S
Meadow Pipit - 3S
Corvid sp - 30E in one flock-
Pink-footed Goose - a flock heard
Carrion Crow - 2N
Skylark - 3S
Bullfinch - 2S

On the ground:
Blackbird - 15
Goldcrest - 2
Coal Tit - 1

Low tide channels
The only thing of note was a distant Red-throated Diver.  No sign of any Common Scoter

Insects
Feathered Thorn in the trap and Red Admiral on the yellow buddleia

No sign of any wasp flightlines today past the office

Mammal
Grey Seal as yesterday

Just a wee bit late

The highlight was the first SINGING Cetti's Warbler for Heysham Nature Reserve (others have contact called or be seen on passage but this is the first one to sing)

Offshore at low tide - perfect conditions for viewing but no Slavonian Grebe

Eider - 510

Common Scoter - 2F together and 1M further out

Great Crested Grebe - 6

Vis 0800 - 0900

Blackbird - 60 moving inland through the bushes, all had gone by 11am

Song Thrush - 1

Mistle Thrush - 2 SE

Starling - 155 N

Redwing 3 N

Fieldfare 3 E

Chaffinch - 10N

Reed Bunting 1 S

alba wagtail - 1SE

Jackdaw - 1N

Raven - 1 "messing about"

Grounded

Blackcap - 1

Goldcrest - 1

Coal Tit - 1

Reedbed 

Water Rail - 1

Moths
Two Silver Y and a Winter Moth graced the office lights

Grey seal off Heysham Head close inshore 

Slavonian Grebe

A Slavonian Grebe was located this morning quite close inshore working its way south diving repeatedly. It was lost behind trees from the Knowlys VP and couldn’t be relocated in the swirling incoming tide
Common Scoter - flock of two m and two f
Great crested Grebe - at least four
Starling - bizarre sighting. One flying erratically over the sea landed for about 30 secs looking quite buoyant before carrying on flying into the Bay (cant think of anything else sensible it could be as it was all dark)

Top ten Ringing totals for the month were saved by the finches caught using Chaffinch MP3 which also attracted migrant Greenfinch.  Other Greenfinch along with Goldfinch and most of the Blue/Great tits were on the feeder.  Migrant Coal Tit were attracted to the Yellow-browed Warbler MP3.

Greenfinch (139), Chaffinch (90), Blue Tit (56), Goldfinch (48), Chiffchaff (44), Long-tailed Tit (44), Goldcrest (40), Coal Tit (38), Redwing (28) and Great Tit (27)

Only remotely unusual Ringing activity: Treecreeper (3), Yellow-browed Warbler (1), Tree Sparrow (1) and Cetti’s Warbler (3 - one Heysham NR, the other two the first new Birds for ages at Middleton where they breed)

Weak weather front blocks not drops

This rather unimpressive month trickled along today with yet another minor first light fall, again mainly Blackbird heading north into the wind and mainly avoiding the mist nets.

Grounded/vis
Chiffchaff - the resident Male Still by office
Blackbird - about 75 seen (50N and 25 grounded)
Redwing - 10 (6N, 4 grounded)
Raven - 1
Chaffinch - c25 north
Coal tit - three together
alba wagtail = 2 north
Bullfinch - 2 north
Goldcrest - 2 grounded
Treecreeper - the recently (22nd) ringed bird and a new one
Starling - 2000 ex roost headed SE
Teal - 2 on the newly cleared area by the boardwalk
Grey Wagtail -1 also on the newly cleared area late morning

Offshore
Didn’t manage to count the Eider but:
Common Scoter - the same two female close inshore and two Male much further out
Great crested Grebe - 8

Rock Pipit
At least one below Heysham Head - pic posted tomorrow