Passage eases off

Very light NNE winds. Mainly overcast.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Visible migration and ringing report from Jean:

A much quieter day. There was still a trickle of migrants but nothing like the Redwing rush of yesterday.

Vis 0730-1030 NE F1-2 part cloudy with an occasional light shower

Redwing 74 N

Fieldfare 3 N

Song Thrush 1

Mistle Thrush 1 E

Canada goose 2 N with 

Barnacle Goose 1 (might be a “fence hopper”)

Teal 8 E

Snipe 

Grey Wagtail 2

Chaffinch 11 (20 at Heysham NR)

Bullfinch 2 SE

Siskin 1+

Lesser Redpoll 1 

Jackdaw 59 S

Skylark 2 N

Starling 6 S

Ringing was equally slow but there was quality rather than quantity:

Grey Wagtail 1, Redwing 7, Blackbird 1, Reed Bunting 5, Lesser Redpoll 2, Chiffchaff 2, Goldcrest 1, Chaffinch 1, Great Tit 1, Wren 1 retrap

Saltmarsh area high water 10:50

The tides have now quickly swung to spring tides. Some very high tides over the next four days.

Mediterranean gull 1 adult flushed by the tide and flew off east.

This is what you get when you photograph
a white bird against a white sky.

If you manage to find a bit of undisturbed shore, not easy, the birds sit out high water.

Two Grey Plover on east side of saltmarsh 

Juvenile Cormorant on foreshore

Heysham skeer - low water 17:45

Great Crested Grebe 8

Red-Breasted Merganser 7

Turnstone c40

I can't decide what this one is eating.

Knot c 2,500

Some of the Knot murmurating

It was a beautiful sunset

Sunset over the wind farm,
I suppose it is the 21st century's equivalent of
"Sunset over the gasworks".

Winter thrush day

Light winds from NE. Some cloud, sunshine and a few light afternoon showers.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Visible migration report from Jean:

It was winter thrush arrival day but things only got going after 9am. Gangs of Redwing got bigger as the morning went on but the really huge numbers were in places other than Middleton NR, apparently several thousand travelling high above the M6!

Vis 0730-1130 

NE F2-3, part cloudy, 7-13C

Redwing 327 NE

Fieldfare 95 NE

Mistle Thrush 5 NE

Song Thrush 6 N

Jackdaw 137 S

Carrion Crow S

Snipe 1 W

Pink-footed Goose 282 S (flock sizes: 42/140/100)

Grey Wagtail 9 SE

Alba Wagtail 2 E

Chaffinch 4 SE

Reed Bunting 4

Linnet 1 SE

Meadow Pipit 1 SE

Lesser Redpoll 1

Goldfinch 2 SE

Starling 5 SE, 1 NE, 5 N

Skylark 1 SE

Ringing summary from Alan

Coal Tit AVE8006
Ringed Trowbarrow Quarry, Silverdale as nestling 1/10 on 20/5/20
Caught: Middleton NR today 
Quite a few irruptive coal tits this autumn including a flock of 15 this morning 

There were still at least 100 thrushes on and around the reserve in the early evening, mainly Redwing, but also Mistle and Song Thrush plus Blackbird. No Fieldfare seen.

One of this evening's Redwing.

Pink-Footed Goose - 490 + 150 south 16:10 & 16:15

Ocean Edge area mid morning

No sign of any thrush movement, just a couple of hundred metres west of Middleton Nature Reserve!

Mediterranean gull 2 unringed adult 

Great White Egret one SE at 10:10

Wigeon c80 flew into Red Nab from estuary direction

Some of the Wigeon flying in.

Heysham Nature Reserve- brief visit only

Flock of 15 coal tit

35 or so Blackbird

One Chiffchaff 

Better, but some frustration!

Cold NNE wind. Sunshine till about 10:00 after that mainly overcast with showers.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Visible migration and ringing report from Jean

07:30 - 11:00

NNE F1 3/8 cloud increasing to 8/8 with showers from 10am

Redwing 4

Pink-footed Goose 515 N (flocks of 445/50/20)

Linnet 2

Chaffinch 6

Reed Bunting 2

Goldfinch 17

Greenfinch 1

Bullfinch 1

Skylark 3

Meadow Pipit 1

Pied Wagtail 1

Sparrowhawk 2

Grounded/grounding

Blackbird 3

Song Thrush 1

Snipe 1

Gadwall 18 - arrived high from the east late morning. 3 flew to the shore and the rest landed on the pond at Middleton 

Ringing

Lesser Redpoll 4, Reed Bunting 4, Goldcrest 3, Wren 1 (plus 1 retrap), Chaffinch 1, Coal Tit 1, Blackbird 1, Blue Tit 2 (plus 1 retrap), Long-tailed Tit 1 retrap.

Pete also had:

2 Whooper Swans over the sea, 

110 Wigeon at Red Nab, 

2800 Knot on the shore.

Mid afternoon (MD)

Mute 4 adult 4 x 1cy

Coot 5

Moorhen 8

Gadwall 19

Teal 11

Mallard 6

Little Grebe 2

Water Rail 2 ( heard only)

Common Snipe 1

Redwing 7 blogging

Cetti's Warbler 2 singing

Chiffchaff 1 calling

Ocean Edge - high water 09:15 (MD)

On shore

Dunlin c150

Bar-Tailed Godwit 2

Dunlin and Oystercatcher feeding out from saltmarsh.
 The SeaTruck was passing the wooden jetty,
with Black Combe behind.

Pink-Footed Goose c750 north 09:10

Just a few of the Pinkfoot

Mediterranean Gull (this is the frustration!) - 1 adult plus 1 x 2nd calendar year on shore with a group of BHG. Both had white darvic rings, unfortunately just, only just, out of reading range, before they were spooked and headed off south.

Both the Meds can be seen on this shot.

There seemed to be a few additional Wrens on the saltmarsh.

This is a slightly different Wren pose.

This young mute was practicing flying on the main pond at Middleton.

Taking off was hard work

but landing looked like fun

Dreary weather and neap tides equals, not much

Southerly winds with the morning rain, swinging round to west and freshening. The rain eased off mid afternoon.

No ringing possible this morning, but yesterdays session on Middleton included:

Cetti's Warbler 1 - this with the Yellow-Browed Warbler were the only warblers seen yesterday. Not a bad double!

Goldcrest 5

Lesser Redpoll 9

Treecreeper 1

All I have so far is from my check of Heysham skeer at low water 15:00. I say Heysham skeer, but on these low tides only the inner skeer is exposed.

Little Egret 5

Knot c1500

Turnstone 20+

Dunlin 15

Plus the ubiquitous Oystercatchers and just a few Curlew and Redshank

Typical view on these neap tides.
Herring gull in foreground,
Knot and Oystercatchers in background.

As there is little to report, I thought I'd share a bit of local natural history (MD).

The skeer was formed at the end of the last ice age, from material deposited from the melting glaciers. Now it just consists of rocks of various sizes sat directly upon the bed rock. But originally it would have been mainly clay, similar to the boulder clay that forms the low cliffs at Half Moon Bay. The deposits formed vegetated islands, including oak trees. The islands remained till late medieval times, possibly destroyed by the great storm of 1703.

The middle and outer skeer are now mercilessly scoured by the spring tides and storms, but the inner skeer is better preserved, and some of the ancient tree roots still survive. This picture shows the area that I am going to discuss. It is around the medium sized pools lacing across the middle of the picture. These pools are c500 metres out from the slipway and perfectly safe to walk out to.

This picture is on the edge of one of the smaller pools

The material above the red line is silt. The area between the red and yellow lines are roots, the longest about 2 metres. The area below the yellow line is a fibrous strata, that appears to be compacted organic material. Areas like this are normally covered in silt, but this patch should now remain uncovered for a while at least.

Both the roots and the fibrous strata are riddled with holes up to 2.5cm diameter.

These holes are formed by piddocks. These are a bivalve mollusc, the larvae enter cracks in the wood. The shell is effectively a biological drill bit. It constantly rotates, albeit very slowly, and creates a hole that it lives in permanently, safe from predators. Unfortunately, not safe from being silted over, this picture shows two empty piddock shells, victims of the last silting over.

And this is one of those shells, showing the cutting edges. Piddock can bore into rock!

All the above images were taken today. I spotted this area as I was passing, I'm sure I could have found more with a thorough search. The roots must be at least 400 years old, but won't last forever. Each exposure results in more erosion, decay and piddock attack. 

Some good stuff, but the best one got away!

A cool start till the warmth of the sun kicked in. Then a pleasantly warm, mainly sunny, day with Light westerly breezes.

Middleton Nature Reserve

Pete's description of the one that got away, plus the next best bird:

Frustrating morning at Middleton NR today. Early doors saw the usual Robin objecting to us parked up in its territory and ticking and bits of song from surrounding bush tops. A great white Egret flew high west at 0755. Then as checking Ringing data was aware of a bird flying close overhead then landing top of a bush about 8 m away. Robin again- no something not quite right about the call - looked up and chestnut cheeks and a further two quiet ‘tick’ calls but couldn’t see the rest of the plumage due to the recently rising low sun. Then it was off giving one audible tick in flight before towering west and behind a tall willow. When I realised what it was, tried to call Jean Roberts but she had gone 50m up the track to the very socially distanced other ringer (we have west side of the track and east side ringers during Covid) to tell him about the GWE. So left with an inadequate single observer Little Bunting which I won’t be submitting. If only the GWE hadn’t gone over Jean would have been nearby and seen/heard it. Everything seemed to be in a rush today - the single Yellow browed Warbler (fortunately multi observed/heard) must have been reading Billy Whizz of the Beano as it raced west to east through the site as did an irruptive LTT flock. Very near misses are so frustrating - the west coast doesn’t swim with rarities so you have to make the most of your limited opportunities. Grrr

Visible migration report from Jean:

Over Middleton NR today 0730-1130

Redwing 7

Fieldfare 15 - not absolutely sure about these as they were seen distantly to the east

Song Thrush 2

Whooper Swan 4 ( same as Dan’s)

Pink-footed Goose 231 in 6 flocks (Probably some overlap with some of Dan's)

A nice shot by Jean, of some of the Pinks
passing the waning crescent moon

Great White Egret 1 (not vis as such, probably from Ashton Hall roost and heading to the shore)

Lesser Redpoll 11

Siskin 2

Chaffinch 4

Greenfinch 4

Goldfinch 4

Linnet 2

Pied Wagtail 5

Reed Bunting 5

Carrion Crow 41

Jackdaw 33

Collared Dove 1

Great Spotted Woodpecker 1

Later in the afternoon there were 13 Redwing grounded on the east side and at 15:15 at least 100 thrushes including Fieldfare and Redwing flew south over the golf course. The impression was that they had been flushed/spooked from nearby.

Plenty of insects in the sunshine  (including HNR and south shore):

Dragonflies- Common Darters 10+ Migrant Hawker 4

Butterflies - Red Admiral 1. Comma 1. Small White 4. Speckled Wood 10+

Heysham Head - report and pictures by Dan H

07:45-10:15

Pink-footed Goose 301 SSE (96+121+84)

Chaffinch 15 NNE

Meadow Pipit 4 SE + 5 NE

Tree Sparrow 5 SE

Mistle Thrush 4 NNE

Whooper Swan 4 ads SSE

Almost certainly the same four Whooper also seen by Jean

Great Spotted Woodpecker 4 NNE

Skylark 4 NNE

Redwing 2 NNE

Goldfinch 2 NE

Brambling 1 NE

redpoll sp 1 NE

Siskin 1 NE

Reed Bunting 1 E

Deck notables

Chaffinch 7 then E

Siskin 6 in wood then N

Rock Pipit 6

Goldcrest 5

Song Thrush 5

Coal Tit 3

Reed Bunting 1 

Blackcap 1 f

Less notable

Greenfinch 12

Linnet 10

Knot milling around

Nothing new, but something old.....well, elderly

Very heavy overnight rain finally stopped about 08:30. After that mainly dry with sunny spells. NW winds.

This is an indication of the amount of rainfall last night. The pressure of the draining ground water created a fountain from the Ocean Edge ground water drain terminal.

Again only my records so far (MD). Heysham Nature Reserve and saltmarsh covered. No warblers or Goldcrest seen or heard.

There was an increase in finches (mainly Greenfinch plus some Chaffinch) grounded on Heysham Nature Reserve and a few Blackbirds. The Blackbirds feeding on hawthorn.

The Greenfinch feeding on blackberries 

Jean provided these interesting details from recent ringing sessions:

A Blue Tit retrapped on 8 Oct on Middleton, was first ringed at Middleton NR as a juv on 8/9/2014, (6 years 1 month from ringing date) so a good age for a Blue Tit, as the average age of a Blue Tit is 3 years. The oldest ever recorded was 9 years 8 months so ours still has a way to go. 

It was retrapped in October 2015 then in May 2016 and we hadn't seen it since then until Thursday. It hasn't been retrapped at Heysham NR so who knows where it was in the meantime, maybe the golf course or the dog walk track. 

Another Blue Tit caught on the same day was ringed as a juv on 31/8/2018 at Middleton NR but hadn't been seen since.

An oddity on Thursday was a Wren with a crossed bill. It was a young bird so I hope we catch it again and see how long it survives with that deformity. 

Another oddity was a young Blue Tit with fault bars across its primary coverts. These show as paler lines as the feathers lack barbules in that area and consequently are weaker than the surrounding portions of the feathers. Fault bars like this form when nestling food is in short supply while the feathers are growing eg during bad weather when the adult birds can't find enough food for the young for a day or two. 

Arrow highlighting the fault bars

Likely southern migration - birders not the birds

 Subtitle- an everyday story of ordinary stuff

Wind just north of west to start with, moving to NW. mainly dry till early evening then a few short thunder showers.

Not many birds around and even fewer birders. I suspect the Lincolnshire Lammergeier may have influenced the latter. Just my stuff so far (MD)

Ocean Edge

Lots of common passerines sheltering from the cold WNW wind below the east bank of the saltmarsh, 

Starling c50

House Sparrow 18

Linnet 13

Meadow Pipit 4

No Rock Pipit again.

Greenfinch 7

Dog walk and Heysham Nature Reserve 

Two transects of the non operational land failed to locate the Black Redstart - but it is a large area with lots of habitat out of sight. It could easily still be around.

A couple of checks around the dipping pond Also failed to locate the Yellow-Browed Warbler. But there was a large mixed tit flock mobile around the reserve. This included at least three Goldcrest, no warblers seen, but the foliage was dense.

Coal Tit - at least 4 with the feeding flock. Another three set off south on three occasions. Each time heading high, reaching about 300m south, then banking back and ending up in the same bush. It appeared a battle between instinct and comfort.

Juvenile Wood Pigeon 
There are several breeding pairs in the area.

Middleton Nature Reserve

Wildfowl as yesterday except no sign of Little grebe

Cetti's Warbler - unusually, I manage two brief glimpses of two different birds on the central marsh. I accidentally flushed one which then flew towards the fence pond. Immediately a male gave two bursts of song from a bush behind me, then flew to another bush. I managed this distant shot before it disappeared again.

The bird is circled. You'll have to open the image to see any detail.

Even then it's underwhelming, 

but as good as it gets with this species.

Large Reed Bunting passage plus Black Redstart

 A cold clear start after overnight rain. The wind ENE to NE all morning. Then drifted around to NW by lunchtime. Dry with long sunny spells.

Middleton Nature Reserve (PM. JR)

Visible migration 

 450 pink feet

30 Redwing

5 song Thrush

8 Blackbird

1 grey wagtail

16 linnet

c40 Reed Bunting - this is more than the total autumn passage count in some years

10 Snipe

8 meadow pipit

2 Swallow

24 Skylark

I siskin

2 lesser redpoll

1 chaffinch

5 alba Wagtail

2 Dunnock.  

Grounded included 10 Goldcrest and two Blackcap

Ringing:

Goldcrest 9

Blue Tit 8 new, 4 retraps

Reed Bunting 7

Blackcap 2

Wren 1 new 1 retrap

Dunnock 1

Robin 1

Lesser Redpoll 1

Great Tit 1

Bullfinch 1

Pied Wagtail 1

Meadow Pipit 1

Long-tIled Tit1.

Power Station non operational land

Black Redstart 1 female/ juvenile located by Reuben 

Unlikely to be seen from public access but possibly visible from the perimeter fence along the dog walk track running from Heysham NR to near Ocean Edge

No reports received so far for the Yellow- Browed Warbler

North shore - mid morning (MD)

Rock Pipits only two were located (there were 6 on Sunday)

Meadow Pipit 4 grounded

Great Crested Grebe 2 ( still partial summer plumage)

Grey Plover - just 1 juvenile, they are not as common  on the north shore.

South shore - early afternoon (KE. MD)

Wheatear 1

Rock Pipit none seen or heard

Ringed Plover 24

Dunlin 10

The Dunlin were again feeding on tiny molluscs 

Shelduck flying into the sun.
The upper bird didn't have time to finish lunch!

YBW - day 4

Moderate west winds, mainly dry after a wet start

Heysham Nature Reserve 

Yellow-Browed Warbler calling from the dipping pond area - thanks to Pete Last

Red Nab area

Mediterranean gull 3 (1 adult, 1 x 1cy, 1 x 2cy)

Heysham skeer - low water 09:30

Knot c 2000

Pink-Footed Goose 73 south 09:45

Great Crested Grebe 1

Eider 4

Red-Breasted Merganser 7 (one group)

Oystercatchers watching the Merganser passing

Middleton Nature Reserve - mid afternoon 

Mute 3 adult 4 cygnet 

Coot 5

Moorhen 8

Little Grebe - none seen on the main ponds, but 1 partial summer plumage on Tim Butler pond.

Mallard 2

Gadwall 9

Teal 5

Teal in front of a Gadwall

The only warblers heard were the "no swimming" and fence ponds Cetti's warblers singing.

Insects:

The only butterflies seen were Speckled Wood.

Dragonflies - Common Darter c15. Migrant Hawker 5

YBW requires patience!

The rain eased by mid morning with just isolated showers after that. Strengthening WNW winds throughout the day.

Heysham Nature Reserve

Pete and Jean relocated the Yellow-Browed Warbler. Loosely centred near the dipping pond (the small pond with terraced banks just to the right as you enter the reserve). At one point it followed a mixed tit feeding flock across the road. Just to return to the pond area shortly later.

It's been present for three days now, hopefully still there tomorrow.

Also:

Goldcrest at least 2 with tit flock

Chiffchaff at least 4

Water Rail 1

Pink-Footed goose 38 and c120 south

As promised, this is Dan's picture of yesterday's YBW, with the bird circled.

You will still need to "open" the picture to make out the bird detail. 

The resolution of pictures on the post is not adequate.