Another Pochard

Heavy showers, particularly in the afternoon. A freshening west wind.

A quick check of three locations between morning showers (Malcolm)

South shore 10:00 - 10:45

A check from Red Nab to the saltmarsh 

Pink-Footed goose 190 SE in one skein

Wigeon 100 (just an estimate today)

Little Egret 4

Kingfisher 1 on Red Nab

Rock Pipit 2 (one each saltmarsh and foreshore)

Linnet just 2 seen

Common Snipe 11

Lapwing 32

I had planned to watch the tide cover the saltmarsh, but the weather was closing in......

Wigeon and a black cloud arriving at the saltmarsh. It was chucking 
it down just after this shot. Time to leave!

Imperial Rd 11:00 - 11:15

The rain was just easing off, I was hoping that it had grounded something, but for the first time in four visits I couldn't find a Stonechat.

Grey Wagtail 1 flew west

Little Egret 1 also flew west

Buzzard 1 was calling from the copse. They have been conspicuous by their absence this year.

Buzzard

Buzzard bottom right here, the Wood Pigeons were keeping a close eye on it!

Middleton Nature Reserve (main pond only) 11:30

The cygnets were practicing taking off. They flew diagonally across the pond from SE to NW, then swam back and did it again.

This clip shows them landing, then pans across to a Roe Deer on the peninsula 

Male Roe Deer (Roebuck)

You might have noticed a female Pochard in the above clip. It is definitely a different one to last week's bird. Pete confirmed that today's bird is in more immature plumage.

This is the female Pochard last seen on 17th October 

This is today's bird

Gadwall and Pochard females

Female Pochard 

In this short clip, all four of the duck species on the pond make an appearance 

Tufted, Pochard and Gadwall.
The Tufted on the left has some sort of bivalve 

Tufted Duck 6

Gadwall 12

Mallard not counted 

Little Grebe 1 trilling

Another YBW

A dry day till mid afternoon showers began. A light breeze SE to begin with ending NE.

Heysham Nature Reserve 

Report by Pete:

Doodling around yesterday evening checking XC, Metcheck, Ventursky etc seemed to show the approaching depression grinding to a halt and contorting itself amoeba-like producing (for Heysham) a slack, hopefully dry-ish east-south-easterly at least seeming to reach the east coast.  This was supposed to be day two of the great wet and windy lie-in but Jean and I decided to go for the pre-dawn ringing start. Probably a mixture of odds and ends dropped by yesterday’s wet southeasterly and this mornings arrivals saw Yellow-browed Warbler in the first net of the first mist net round!  The decent little session also produced a late Garden Warbler.  Really grateful for detailed weather forecasts suggesting this successful option - ok sometimes they are wrong like yesterdays eight hour rain delay but sometimes the jackpot like this morning

New birds ringed this am:

Yellow-browed Warbler -1

Chiffchaff - 10

Goldcrest - 8

Blackcap - 6

Garden Warbler - 1

Chaffinch - 1

Goldfinch - 1

Greenfinch - 5

Coal Tit - 2

Great Tit - 1

Blackbird - 1

Yellow-browed warbler 

Only notable vis was a flock of 47 Woodpigeon south and 11 Jackdaw ‘purposefully’ south.  Just low single figures of common finch species and thrushes with perhaps a spike of c20 Blackbird grounded.  Incidentally the absence of Wrens in the nets has been puzzling although we are not complaining. Only 8 ringed all year at Heysham NR and the forecast suggests that might be it for migrant ringing this autumn

Middleton Nature Reserve

Shaun Coyle had a good look around 0815-1015:

Teal 9 on No Swimming Pond.

Tufted Duck 4 and Gadwall 6 on the main pond.

Goosander 3 female types over heading west quite high.

Woodpigeon 24 heading south.

Great Spotted Woodpecker pair 

Cetti's Warbler 3 singing.

Blackcap 6

Chiffchaff 5

Goldcrest just 1

Three tit flocks with 22 Long-tailed Tits and 3 Coal Tits.

Blackbird 40

Song Thrush 6

Redwing 35

Chaffinch 12 SW

Reed Bunting 2 dropped down then headed off SW high.

Had a scout around Moneyclose car park and nature park area but nothing calling/found, except a Chiffchaff and a Blackcap.

Imperial Rd (Malcolm) 10:30 - 11:00

Woodpigeon 35, feeding not moving through

Pheasant 1 male

Kestrel 1

Stonechat 1 female type

Stonechat

Long-tailed Tits 8

Roebuck 3 - 1 mature plus 2 youngsters together 

Mature Roebuck, his antlers are quite large

This is one of this year's males, he is not sat down but beyond the crest
of a slope. He only has tiny antler buds

Heysham skear (Malcolm) 14:30 - 15:30

Eider 104 probably more

They were on the sea in all directions some close in others distant.
There were always some on the move too. Making accurate counts difficult 

Red-breasted Merganser 6

Red-breasted Mergansers

Great Crested Grebe 6

Shag at least one juvenile fishing

Little Egret 8

Oystercatcher 500

Curlew 20

Black-Tailed Godwit 5 north

Black-Tailed Godwits flying towards the inner bay

Redshank 250

Knot 100

Turnstone 45

A morning sunshine bonus!

After a week of being overcast and rain forecast today, it was nice to see a bit of morning sunshine. The rain didn't start till late morning. A SE light wind

I checked several locations quickly this morning, in anticipation of rain at any moment (Malcolm)

Imperial rd

Woodpigeon 35 

Common Snipe 1

Chiffchaff 1 calling

Stonechat 3 - 1 male and two female types. All these shots from the west side of the road at the roundabout end.

Stonechats catching the low morning sunshine 

This one has a hairy caterpillar. It is holding it gingerly and it will
have to be "processed" before eating

Dunnock

Kestrel 

Young Roebuck left with a slightly larger female.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Just the two main ponds checked. By this time the sun was gone and the skies threatening.

Main pond:

Mute Swan female with 6 cygnets 

All the Mutes and less ducks than of late

Tufted Duck 20

Gadwall 8

Shoveler 3 were new. 2 males moulting to breeding plumage and a female

Shoveler and a Gadwall

Female and male Shoveler 

Mallard 36 but all clustered around the feeding area

Little Grebe 1 trilling

Coot and Moorhen as recent

Chiffchaff 1 calling

"no swimming" pond 

Several Teal along the margins

Teal, once again showing how the angle of light can alter the colour of the speculum

Coot 1

South shore - saltmarsh to Red Nab

Shelduck 9 south

Wigeon 100 (exactly, it is always frustrating when you do an accurate tally and it ends up like an estimate) flew from Red Nab to the saltmarsh 

Linnet 80

Little Egret 2

In the Nature Park 

Redwing 80 south

Chiffchaff 2 - one calling and one singing

Great-Spotted Woodpecker 1 female

Great-Spotted Woodpecker 

Heliport - by this time it was high water

The Icelandic ringed Oystercatcher was in its favourite spot at the 
bottom of the southern edge of the roosting birds

You can just make it out, bottom left

One of two Rock Pipits

Then home before the rain started!

The end.......of the calm dry spell........is nigh!

Another dry overcast day, probably the last for a while. The early SE breeze was light, but still fresher than of late and it continued to increase slightly throughout the day.

Heysham Nature Reserve 

Report by Pete:

Much calmer then forecast for a short ringing session with Nick.  

The cloud level was higher than previous mornings this week so we were not expecting a huge number of night migrants. In the end better than expected with the following new birds:

Chiffchaff 6

Goldcrest 9

Blackcap 2

Cetti’s warbler 1

Blue tit 3

Singles of Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Coal Tit, song thrush, blackbird 

Vis mig included a southbound flock of 52 pinkfeet and at least 87 woodpigeon.  Only a handful of thrushes with no overhead passage and at least five lesser redpoll, four chaffinch and a grey wagtail over

South shore (Malcolm) 09:00 - 11:00

I started at the same time in the tide as yesterday, but already the waterline was as high as it reached yesterday. Today's tide was 8.5m just 0.5m higher than yesterday, but it ended up 200m higher up the shore. It just shows what a gradual gradient the shore has here.

Shelduck 170 most were already moving off further south

Some of the Shelduck moving on

Oystercatcher 100

Curlew 30

Redshank 120 (near the saltmarsh)

Most of the other waders were further south to begin with, but eventually the following rested/fed close to the foreshore.

Bar-Tailed Godwit 35

Grey Plover 75

Knot 300

Dunlin 550

Ringed Plover 13

Once again most of the birds remained in the water so little chance of checking for rings.

Ringed Plover and Dunlin

Grey Wagtail 3 in off the sea (obviously a bit of late movement today)

Siskin 1 south closer to shore

Linnet 78 on the saltmarsh 

Wigeon 75 on Red Nab

A small group of Knot resting on Red Nab

Rock Pipit on Red Nab

Middleton Nature Reserve 

No sign of the Pochard today and there are now six cygnets back on the main pond - Kevin Eaves

I had a quick look at the two main ponds (Malcolm)

Main pond:

Tufted Duck 31

Gadwall 9

Mallard 25

Coot 13

Moorhen 4

Little grebe 1

"no swimming" pond

Teal 8

Goldeneye 1 female

Female Goldeneye 

Unfortunately she wasn't there long. A group of horse riders along the track between the ponds spooked the Teal, which in turn lifted the Goldeneye 

Teal - the different angle of light on their speculum changes the 
colour from blue to, well......teal 

Imperial Road (Malcolm)

I call in regularly when passing, but there has been little to report since the early summer male and juvenile Stonechats seemed to have moved on. But today there was a male and female type Stonechat on the bush favoured by the breeding bird earlier this year.

Stonechats

Woodpigeon 25 milling around 

The large warbler movement continues apace

Another dry overcast day, almost calm till late morning then a light NE breeze

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Report by Alan:

It has been an amazing week for ringing at both Heysham and Middleton sites.  This morning alone 72 birds were caught at Heysham and 70 at Middleton.

Middleton catch included:
Lesser Redpoll  6
Siskin  3
Chiffchaff  5
Goldcrest  6
Coal Tit  3
Redwing 3
Song Thrush  2
Blackcap  10 
Reed Bunting 2
Cetti's Warbler  1
Wrens (2), Robin, Chaffinch, Great Tit
A flock of 30 birds in one net completed a busy morning, comprising mainly Blue Tits (8)  and Long tailed Tits  (16) plus some of the species above.

The female Pochard was back on the main pond - Kevin Eaves

Heysham Nature Reserve 

Report by Pete:

Really good warbler and Goldcrest passage at Heysham NR today contrasting with the virtual complete absence of any new finches.  

Ringing totals: New birds:

Chiffchaff 25

Goldcrest 20

Blackcap 6

Robin 3

Goldfinch 2

Greenfinch 2

Singles of Coal Tit, Dunnock, blue Tit, long tailed tit 

…….plus about 10 retraps of birds already ringed, mostly in recent days

Male Pheasant, also seen yesterday 

Eared Owl sp flushed before dawn as Jean set the nets

South shore (Malcolm) 08:30 - 10:45

Shelduck 150

I went to check the waterline at high water, even at 8m high water was still 300m from the eastern shore.

Oystercatcher 120

Curlew 40

There were a lot of waders milling around. These are the maximum numbers along the waterline at any one time:

Bar-Tailed Godwit 260

Grey Plover 45

Knot 1,600

Dunlin 100

Sanderling 1 (single bird seen on two occasions, possibly different birds)

Unfortunately, the flat sea meant that even the small waders stood in the water. This clip shows some of the waders and Shelduck upending to feed on the small snails. You wouldn't think it would be worth the effort.

These ripples were enough to provide tantalising glimpses of a coded yellow flag on a
Bar-Tailed Godwit. Good enough to identify it as belonging to a Norwegian scheme,
but probably not enough to identify the individual bird - Thanks to Richard for his help

Even the Sanderling was up to its tummy in water

The only group actually on the mud were these Grey Plover and Dunlin keeping ahead of the rising tide.

Even when the tide began ebbing the Knot and Godwits waded out with it. So I left them in peace.

Carrion Crow 74 on the mud!

Mute Swan 1 juvenile, likely one of the outcasts from Middleton Nature Reserve, was flying around.

Juvenile Mute Swan

Around the saltmarsh 

Linnet c100

Greenfinch 4

Reed Bunting 3

Stonechat 2 female type

This one only has one leg. Same bird in the shot below

The balancing act providing a nice shot showing wing and rump detail

Starling and a Stonechat, this one definitely has two legs