A bit of coming and going

Heysham Nature Reserve
Treecreeper 1 ringed - far from common here
Chiffchaff 6 located along dog walk track

Middleton Nature Reserve
Redwing c20 in one hawthorn
Still plenty of Migrant Hawker and Common Darter active between showers.

Rock pipit, still 2 feeding near lighthouse. Here’s one of them:

Wheatear

And a “few” Knot on the seawall.

Thanks for these pictures Kevin

Yellow browed Warbler

A very slow start to today with nothing at the Middleton ringing site in the twilight zone - could have stayed in bed another hour!  It livened up a bit late morning with a few Chiffchaff and Blackcap as the cloud covr increased.   A Yellow-browed Warbler was located by Jean on Heysham Head by turret/bracken area - top of steps up the hill after going through the arch approx SD408615 - at 1500hrs and seen by Shaun at 1630hrs

Vis mig
Meadow Pipit - 54
Grey Wagtail - 4
alba Wagtail - 4
Skylark - c5
Reed Bunting - 6
Woodpigeon - 65
Chaffinch - 3
Jackdaw - 5
Tree Sparrow - 2
Pink-footed Goose - 40

Grounded
Chiffchaff - c10
Blackcap - 3
Yellow-browed Warbler - 1 (see above)
Goldcrest - not many - c6
Treecreeper - two Heysham Head - having a good year!

An odd day!

This was a strange day.  It was open house as to what might happen in crystal clear cold northerlies although Pink-footed Goose movements above and Goldcrest below seemed predictable.  However was expecting a reasonable amount of small passerine vis but it didn’t really happen, unexpectedly so in the case of Meadow Pipit

Vis middleton NR dawn-1100
Meadow Pipit - SIX SE!
Chaffinch - c10 SE
Alba Wagtail - 4 SE
Grey Wagtail - c8 SE
Carrion Crow - 10 S
Song Thrush - 2 plus 1 E
Reed Bunting - c7 S
Pink footed Goose - c420 S
Goose sp - flock south heard not seen could have been distant Barnacle on call
Skylark - c7 S
Long tailed Tit - irruptive flocks of 11 and c9
Goldfinch - c5 S

Grounded
Willow Warbler - one heard
Garden Warbler - lingerer with F3 ringed
Chiffchaff - just four ringed
Blackcap - just the one ringed
Goldcrest - no more than 10-15

Middleton Nature Reserve - mid afternoon (MD)
Although not hot, the bright sunshine today allowed plenty of insect activity.
Dragonflies:
Black Darter - one, possibly two mature females along west bank of main pond (these pics are same insect)

Common Darter  33
Brown Hawker 1
Migrant Hawker 9 - including female ovipositoring

Butterflies:
Red Admiral 1
Comma 1
Painted Lady 1
Speckled Wood 1

Little Grebe - at least 2
Cetti's warbler - male singing from central marsh

This Grey Wagtail in Heysham garden was ringed on Middleton Nature Reserve 19/09/19,

Yellow browed Warbler heads a varied morning

Middleton NR: After a single call of what appeared to be this species from the direction of the sycamores along the SE golf course edge, one was caught in a small tit flock in the nearest net about an hour later

Of equal interest was a late Lesser Whitethroat showing brownish tones on the head.

Actually six species of warbler ringed this morning at Midd with a new Cetti’s and late Willow Warbler accompanying the usual Blackcap and Chiffchaff

Another Willow Warbler was ringed at Heysham NR.  No big numbers of Blackcap and Chiffchaff today with 8 each ringed and Goldcrest were conspicuous by their near-absence (4 ringed)

Ringing totals for September top seven were:  Blackcap (112), Chiffchaff (81), Grey Wagtail (75), Blue Tit (66), Meadow Pipit (50), Robin (47), Goldcrest (43)

Vis mig today - no 100% concentration on this!
Grey Wagtail - c9
Meadow Pipit - 140
Shoveler - 2 east
Wigeon - 3 east
Snipe - 2 east
Carrion Crow - 7 south
Jackdaw - singleton high to north
Siskin - 1
Skylark - 7
alba Wagtail - c20
Pink-footed Goose - 365 south
Swallow - 3
Chaffinch - 2  

Sunday - so far

Wheatear 3 - Ocean Edge foreshore
Meadow pipit 2 - south

Little gull and Guillemot

Rock pipit 1
Meadow pipit 2
Ad Little Gull Heysham No.1 Outfall this am briefly, just after Red Nab was covered by tide.

Juv Guillemot on the flow tide this pm. Driven ashore to the SE corner of skeer by the surging spring tide. Contender for photograph of the year! (MD)

Friday - still not much, but a bit better

Strong west wind and driving rain wasn't helpful, but there was some movement (MD)
Rock Pipit - 1 moving east along the sea wall between outflows and Red Nab.
Green Sandpiper - again east, but over the sea, just out from sea wall.
Wheatear 1 - Ocean Edge foreshore
Meadow Pipits 4 - battling south
Common Snipe 2 - saltmarsh
Mute Swan 2 adult sheltering on water over saltmarsh

Thursday - not much

First of the Wigeon returned. 5 today on Red Nab
Little Egret 6

Chiffchaff day

Limited coverage today to mist netting and vis at Heyshsm and Middleton

More tomorrow but the day included:

Whitethroat - late bird Heysham NR

Chiffchaff - 22 ringed, mainly Heysham

Blackcap - about 12 ringed

Grey Wagtail - just two over and one ringed

Reed Bunting - 7 migrants ringed at Middleton

Middleton Nature Reserve -early afternoon
House Martin 1
Gadwall 16
Tufted 1
Little grebe 3 (1sp)
Plus this shoveler like duck, with dubious pedigree (MD)

Still plenty of dragonflies when the sun cam out. Brown and Migrant Hawkers plus Common Darters.

24th Sept

Very little happening. Shelduck numbers are starting to grow, 56 on Red Nab.