Birds of Cumbria

It is quite unusual to have a seawatch in Morecambe Bay where a majority of the seabirds are unidentifiable. A rather belated arrival in relation to HT (and texts from Rossall) saw a 0640 start but it was really difficult for a lone observer.  Birds were at all heights, some in close, yet it was necessary to use a scope all the time.  The most unusual sighting was a first for me in Morecambe Bay.  Gannet usually fly in curse and swear when reaching the inner bay cul de sac and fly out again.  Today five birds circled and soared up like distant White Storks up to the height of Black Combe, then decided against cutting across Furness and rapidly dropped to continue progress out of the Bay as usual

Sandwich Tern - 91 out, probably many more as distant birds could not be separated from eg BH Gull
Arctic Tern - 6 flew in very high and 13 flew out
Gannet - 26
Razorbill/Guillemot - absolute minimum of 35, possibly well over 50 but the shapes were not safely identifiable even to auk spp
Kittiwake - flock of 9
Red-throated Diver - 3 in, 2 out (plus other shapes suggesting diver  spp)
Common Scoter - flock of 25 in then out
Whimbrel - flock of 16 in
Arctic Skua - dark and int/dark in together low along the Kent channel line at c0700; a suggestion that they had got up off the sea as not picked up on outer bay sweep just before sighting

An attempt to mix a couple of mist nets and seawatching from the reserve produced one Willow Warbler and several of the Gannets and auks by 0830!

Selective goodies

Today was certainly not about numeracy as regards new arrivals with just two new Lesser Whitethroat to show for a early morning ringing sessions, with not a hint of a migrant Willow Warbler!

Arctic Tern - flock of five in
Wood Warbler - one in rapid transit through Middleton NR early am
Marsh Harrier - one flew over Ocean Edge then headed NE, presumably that earlier seen at Sunderland Point
Whinchat - female on hawthorns Knowlys horse paddock
Arctic skua - dm in up Kent channel line
Sandwich tern - 2 in
Whimbrel - 4 in
Med Gull - 2CY briefly Heysham 2 outfall seaward end - a lot of gulls seemingly passing through there
Wheatear - 2

Hopefully more from a check in a few minutes

More warblers

Heysham NR

Willow Warblers continued to trickle through along with a Sedge Warbler, 3 Lesser Whitethroats, 2 Common Whitethroats and a couple of female Blackcaps.

Tank farm

Garden Warbler - first of year for HNR

Middleton NR

Nine species of Warbler here and in good numbers:

Grasshopper Warbler 2

Reed Warbler 2

Sedge Warbler 4

Lesser Whitethroat 7

Common Whitethroat 15

Blackcap 20

Willow Warbler 25

Chiffchaff 7

Cetti’s warbler - 4 singing Male 

Harbour

Guillemot still there.

Rock Pipit flitting about

Vis

Redpoll 5

Corvid sp 3

Whimbrel 6

Heysham Head

Nuthatch on northern side (not very common here)

The wrong kind of music

Sometimes playing a tape hoping to ring Tree Pipit and Lesser Redpoll is counterproductive and this was one of those occasions.  The lower nets caught no birds on the first round despite willow warblers zipping past clearly avoiding the racket.  The equivalent round for the upper two nets saw eight phylloscs and a lesser throat.  It was the only real time period of any multiple action as opposed to the subsequent trickle

Migrants by office/non op land
Willow Warbler - 11 ringed, at least 20 passed through
Chiffchaff - at least one new arrival
Lesser whitethroat - 2-3 new arrivals
Whitethroat - ditto
Redstart - Male
Whinchat - almost certainly two with others on north wall and south end of tankfarm
Wheatear - just two seen
No hirundine passage in morning. 6 House martin north at 12:00

Vis mig
Lesser redpoll - at least four NE
Sparrowhawk - two NE
Meadow Pipit - 2 NE
Linnet - c5 NE

Sea dead again

Heysham skeer
Canada goose 2
Eider c20
Red-breasted Merganser 3

Cetti’s warbler still singing Heysham NR

Middleton Nature Reserve
Cetti's 3
Grasshopper warbler 2

Dead Sea

The tern passage didn't happen today and the highlight was a male Yellow Wagtail on the horse paddock and another one over Heysham NR and a Tree Pipit in the mist net.   Ringing was fairly low key with just 5 Willow Warbler, 4 Blackcap, two Lesser Redpoll and singles of Whitethroat and Tree Pipit

5 Sandwich Tern were seen and A Swallow!

Guillemot in harbour

Wheatear - 2

First light and out

An eleven bird first round then half a dozen dribs and drabs and then that was it as regards landbird migration through the mist nets.  A quick round the houses produced a couple of interesting sightings but nothing to suggest any further effort other than checking the turning tide in about an hour

Lesser Redpoll - eight out of about 10 ringed first thing, one other heard later
Willow Warbler - 7 ringed
Blackcap - 2 ringed
Reed Warbler - singing male Hey NR reedbed new in
Lesser Whitethroat - at least one migrant
Whinchat - male heliport
Arctic Tern - flock of four in, fishing briefly, first thing - appeared to climb up
Sandwich Tern - just four at low tide \
Cetti's Warbler -male still singing Hey NR
Tree Pipit  one NE
Linnet - 4 NE
Meadow Pipit - 2 NE
Wheatear 4 north wall mound

Heysham skeer
Eider c80
Great Crested Grebe 8
Red- breasted merganser 4
Knot just 19
Dunlin minimum 196

Dunlin showing a nice range of plumage stages.

Where are the migrating hirundines!! - none seen last two mornings

Hopefully a worthy update to follow

Punching above the conditions?

Didn't look very promising this morning - you could just about see the other side of the Bay, full moon, clear above and inland and sun on two of the nets quite early on.  A text from Ian at Rossall prompted an early telescope view of the low tide channels and the Pom behaved, making steady progress up the Bay as opposed to spiralling up unseen along the Lune flight-line.   Then the Lesser Redpolls dropped in with each small catch being taken a short distance off site by the spare ringer to continue their north-easterly journey rather than sit around attracting others away from the nets.  A trickle of Blackcap and Willow Warbler augmented a decent ringing session for here

Pomarine Skua - one flew NE above the near channel at 0635hrs after being past Rossall 0612hrs
Arctic Skua - dark morph blogging in Kent channel 0730ish
Sandwich Tern - c30 early on soon dissipated
No other sea passage observed ie no Arctic Terns in c2hrs on and off checked

Vis mig
All about Lesser Redpoll with c35 probably more NE (16 ringed)
Meadow Pipit - 7 NE
No hirundine passage observed by 1045hrs

Grounded
Lesser Whitethroat - at least 7 singing males around, some in transit
Grasshopper Warbler - one presumably on territory Middleton along the golf course edge
Blackcap - 5 ringed
Willow Warbler - 7 ringed
Chiffchaff - 1 ringed
Sedge Warbler - at least 2 singing males Middleton presumably on territory
Whitethroat - singing male by HNR office - arrived about 0900 (IOY)

Miscellaneous
Rock Pipit - pair in harbour nest building
Guillemot - still by waterfall area, despite dredger activity

Insects
Muslin, Powdered Quaker, Herald and Hebrew Character Middleton actinic. 
Large Red Damselfly- 2 Middleton Nature Reserve

Two queen wasps seen

Loads of Orange Tip males around - c20 seen

Muslin Moth

Slightly clearer but the turning tide produces the goods

When the wind is in the east at this time of year and the visibility at least as far as the Kent channel, a seawatch on the turning tide often produces the goods, not the least by kickstarting skuas which have been sat on the sea.  Sea absolutely dead after 0845, possibly due to increased murk to south (per Ian)

Pomarine Skua - light morph in close inshore at 0825hrs flying higher than and ahead of two of the dm Arctics.
Arctic Skua - probably five dark morphs eventually in but not absolutely certain re duplication, so best to record as 3-5
Common Scoter - flock of 22 in
Arctic Tern - 106 in, biggest flocks 30 x 2 40 mins apart
Common Tern - one blogging, following three boats into port
Sandwich Tern - c15 blogging
Red-throated Diver - 2 in
Swallow - 15 in
Meadow Pipit - 5 in
Lesser Redpoll - 12 NE (ADA3086 caught)

Grounded
Not very much cp to yesterday but
Reed Warbler - one ringed by office
Wheatear 7

Holly Blue butterfly seen YESTERDAY near HNR office


  

The perfect migratory landbird recipe providing the alarm works!

In the earlier years, 18th April was on more than one occasion THE favoured major spring migration morning, dominated by Willow Warblers.  Recent years have seen some not very helpful weather at this time, but this morning was pretty good with a lot of offshore murk.  However it needed an early start and the alarm failed; fortunately I managed to wake up at 0520 and realise what was happening, but there was still a 16 or so mile journey via picking up Jean before we could set nets/observe vis mig etc.   On arrival, it was apparent that significant numbers of Willow Warbler were racing through, giving bits of song and the odd hu-eet before heading north-east and inland.

Although the ringing totals were minus about 30 Willow warbler and almost certainly a Redstart, missed during the civil twilight to sunrise mist net round, a reasonable catch of just over 30 birds was made, before it went quiet with the sun blazing on two of the four nets [New birds:  22 Willow Warbler, 5 Chiffchaff, 2 Blackcap, one each of Lesser Whitethroat and Pied Flycatcher].  This is the first year here since 1980 that more than 50 Chiffchaff have been ringed in spring and we have a bit to go yet.

Most unexpected was a heavy Meadow Pipit passage for this time of year - not known this before so late into April so have the easterlies pushed Scandinavian-bound birds over to this side or are we still filling territories in the Highlands of Scotland?  

Vis mig/big sit by the office, minus an hour or so seawatching/coastal coverage produced:
Ring Ouzel - female chased into gorse by a male Blackbird
Redstart - male early on
Pied Flycatcher - female ringed

Tree Pipit - 4 NE
Lesser Whitethroat - three migrants
Grasshopper Warbler - probably two different singing males with an hour between song periods and unlikely backtracking from the general north-easterly progress if it involved just the one bird
Blackcap - two singing males passed through - this species has been in rather low numbers so far this spring
Chiffchaff - at least 8 migrants, one with pollen

Willow Warbler - at least 75 passed through by the office and probably many others over the rest of the recording area
Osprey - a very high northbound bird was almost missed!
alba Wagtail - 4 NE
Meadow Pipit - 249 NE
Siskin - 2 NE
Redpoll - 5 NE
Swallow - 26 NE
Sand Martin - 2 NE
House Martin - 1
Linnet - 24 NE
Sparrowhawk - one probable migrant
(51 species in total)

Sea coverage - not a lot of time spent - quite murky
Arctic Skua - blogging dark morph
Sandwich tern - 13 out, none lingering today
Wheatear - 10

Rock pipit 2 near lighthouse, but also crossing to north wall roundhead.

Additions to Middleton Nature reserve
Coot 1 - "no swimming" pond
Grelag geese 2 Tim Butler pond

Bits

Coverage was a bit patchy today with the impression that early stuff could easily have been missed on the sea

Redstart - Male ringed Heysham Nr
Whimbrel - one North wall
Sandwich Tern - 6
Swallow - 14
Arctic Tern - 2
11 new phylloscs ringed plus one Chiffchaff ringed elsewhere (KLA)
Meadow Pipit - 25 N
Linnet - 6 N
Little Gull - adult blogging early am

Middleton NR
Cetti’s warbler - 5 singing males
Raven - 1
Snipe - 1
Teal - 2

Harbour area - 18:30 - 19:30
Steady swallow passage, minimum total 50
Guillemot near waterfall
White wagtail, one, probably two.
Two "active" Rock pipit near lighthouse