Far too calm and sunny

An underwhelming end to the month unless you are into 'Beautiful morning isn't it?' greetings from the punters on Ocean Edge and lots of the likes of Orange Tip butterflies!   Garwa and Grawa serenading from either side of the office was about as good as it got - Garwa are only passage migrants here.  Sea passage much reduced from yesterday and attempts to pick up Ian's north-east-bound-over-the-sea heading your way Hooded Crow ending in abject failure

The ringing totals for April represented a reasonable effort with out any 'big' mornings due to being late arriving on the 18th.  250 birds were ringed; almost all Willow Warbler (107), Chiffchaff (42), Lesser Redpoll (38) and Blackcap (25), next best the last six of the record spring Robin migration early in the month and six Lesser Whitethroat.  Unusual ringing activity for here comprised a Pied Flycatcher on 18th and a very early out of habitat Reed Warbler in the office nets on 19th.  

General miscellany from sea/coast/land
Arctic Tern - 31 in (two groups)
Gannet - ONE (!) in
Sandwich Tern - just 17, mainly buoy-bound
Guillemot - one in, one as usual in the harbour
Turnstone - incredibly low numbers for this time of year with just 30 on the wooden jetty
White Wagtail - 3 north
Lesser Redpoll - 2 north
Swallow - 28 - an improvement- north
Sand Martin - one north
Wheatear - 4 OE foreshore
Jackdaw - two high flying migrants
Garden Warbler - singing male by office and two other singing males on Heysham NR circuit - all presumed migrants
Grasshopper Warbler - singing male in tank farm also yesterday
Green Woodpecker - one call from reserve - two calls yesterday - not logged for the day - not present before so late into breeding season but surely an unpaired extralimital bird?

No migrants in the mist nets other than a Lesser Whitethroat and possibly a Goldfinch

The bad news for moth trappers and the like is that there seem to be a lot of queen social wasps around this year (up to 8 at any one time on my cotoneaster flowers) and the small number of boxes on Heysham NR had three nest starts on the roofs which is unprecedented - also 8 Great Tit, three Blue Tit and a few nest 'starts'

Mammals
Grey Seal and very distant view of probable Harbour Porpoise fin

Just passing through

Bird interest was all at sea today with Terns, Gannets and a skua passing through:
Arctic Tern - 86 heading into the Bay
Little Tern - 1 flew out past Heysham Harbour
Sandwich Tern - 31 blogging. Two mating on one of the buoys.
Gannet -71
Arctic Skua - 1
Great crested Grebe - 10
Red-breasted Merganser - 7

Vis was minimal:
Tree Pipit - 3
Redpoll sp - 3 heard
Swallow - 3
Whimbrel - heard in the morning and 2 seen in the evening.
Wheatear - 6

The Guillemot was still in the harbour.

A trickle of Willow Warblers moved inland in the hour and a half after dawn, with 4 adults returning to their breeding site at Middleton. Whitethroats are making an appearance now. A Grasshopper Warbler reeled in the tank farm and one was ringed at Middleton NR.

Cumbrian Bonxie tops a varied seawatch in flat calm conditions

Seawatching mainly undertaken by Pete Crooks this morning with me arriving in time for the skuas produced a nice little selection in pleasant conditions

Red-throated Diver - 8 in and 7, not necessarily the same, out
Great Skua - one flew in on the far side about 0835hrs (IOY)
Arctic Skua - light morph flew in including a brief landing at 0730hrs
Gannet - 1
Common Scoter - flock 20
Carrion Crow - one in-off
Sandwich tern - c15 blogging
Arctic Tern - rather odd!  Flock of 63 see quite close inshore but high, heading in from OE side, not seen NHW side (flew overhead?), then about 30 mins later a very distant flock of about the same size and presumed this species flew out on the far side (poor visibility inland for overland migration this am)
Guillemot - one on and one in harbour
Whimbrel - 2 OE side, one past NHW

No landbird migration during this seawatch other than the crow!

Harbour Porpoise - ad & juv close inshore (IOY)

A few odds and ends seen by Janet between Ocean Edge and the south harbour - thanks for these:

Seabirds during a North of west wind

A short and then slightly longer midday seawatch with Steve Dodgson was unexpectedly productive as Hannah had rewritten the west of north wind rules (also unusual reports of inland Arctic Terns during winds with not a scrap of east in them)

Arctic Skua - medium range dark morph then close light morph in (first LM of year).  Two very distant skuas were reported flying out mid afternoon
Kittiwake - flock of 6 (one 2cy) in
Common Scoter - flock of 3 in
Red-throated Diver - sp bird in at long range
Fulmar - one rapidly out
Guillemot - one harbour mouth (same as below? )
Gannet - ad out then u-turning

Miscellany
Wheatear - 4
Whinchat - Male
Great crested Grebe - three displaying pairs in low tide channel
Guillemot - one by waterfall

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