No medals for today's sightings

 Visitors reported an adult Mediterranean Gull on Red Nab

A Wheatear was seen.

That's all folks! 

Friday 12th

Heysham Obs
No Red Grouse flying in-off or more likely off-out.  A large gull on Red Nab whilst on a whistle-stop visit was awkward.  Mantle as per Yellow-legged, bill looked adult but either immaturity or staiing on the tertials, rest of it hidden by rocks.  Then it was flushed and it had 'more' old primaries than the bird the other day and no obvious white P10 spot but it was all very brief before it landed in an even worse spot with just the head visible.  It had moved when JR went down but nothing new to add ie no view of leg colour.  Couldn't find it later in sunny heat-haze

Outfalls/Red Nab
Sandwich tern - adult
Large Gull - see above
Med Gull - 1 x ad, 1 x 2CY, 3 x 1CY

Minimal coverage

Heysham Obs
Not a lot to report today other than 4 x 1CY Meds on the seaward end of Heysham one and a 2CY on REd Nab = all well before high tide.  Moths included a Herald and two White-line Dart

Just been going through the historical north Lancs recoveries from the BTO site.  The first and third I didn't know about - the Blue Tit is odd as we were supposed to have caught it - wonder if it was deemed a misread at the time.  The Goldcrest remains the most inexplicable ringing recovery we have had from Heysham - never mind the odd movement, there are not usually any around by early May with the spring passage over by mid-April

Guillemot

T25440	Nestling	28-06-1985	Badbea, Helmsdale: 58°8'N 3°32'W (Highland)
	Dead	22-01-1986	Heysham 460km   S
Goldcrest
DKC	First-year Male	09-04-2001	Blavand Fuglestation, Oksbol: 55°33'N 8°4'E (Ribe) Denmark
A28540	Caught by ringer	02-05-2001	Heysham Obs 725km   WSW
Blue Tit
K274678	Nestling	01-06-1996	near Turnastone: 52°0'N 2°57'W (Herefordshire)
	Caught by ringer	22-09-1997	Heysham 226 KM N

Ridge of plenty

Heysham Obs
A few weird things going on.  A Green Lovebird was near Ocean Edge caravan park/Nature Park associating with Goldfinch on Monday (per Janice Sutton).  Today we found out that the Heysham NR car park noticeboard was a pokespot, or whatever its called, giving some 'reward' to the hordes waving mobile phones around

After looking a heap of rubbish until the later forecasts yesterday, this morning was rather good with a three net session on Middleton west side producing almost 50 new birds.  The moths also produced three surprises in the form of Phoenix, Pale Prominent and, way ahead of its time, a pristine Pink-barred Sallow

Middleton NR
Decent fall of Whitethroat and Willow Warbler with a few other odds and ends.  A Willow Warbler with an interesting retrap history was caught.  Ringed on 7th September 2014 at Heysham, retrapped at Middleton on 8th September 2014, then nothing until today
Tree Pipit - 2 south
Swift - 2 south
Swallow - 20-25 south
Grasshopper Warbler - adult male retrapped (first ringed as 3J in 2014, no sign 2015, bred 2016)
Sedge Warbler - none seen/heard
Reed Warbler - 2 ringed
Lesser Whitethroat - 4 ringed
Whitethroat - 15 ringed
Willow Warbler - 11 ringed
Garden Warbler - 2 ringed
Chiffchaff - 3 ringed

Red Nab/outfalls/wooden jetty area
Wheatear - 2 on gravel by wooden jetty
Med Gull - 6 x 2CY, 2 x unringed juv, 4 x adult
Sandwich Tern - 1

Showery northwesterly brings forth the old lady

Heysham Obs
A line of showers decided the best route was through Heysham so it rained on and off all day but this did keep the heat haze at bay whilst going through the seagulls

Red Nab/outfalls
Tricky conditions but a few odds and ends
Little Gull - moulting ad /second winter or the ad summer after rapid moult - distantly a few times on the outfalls
Med Gull - darvic with either a dark blue or black background with white (four character) letters/numbers on the left leg, metal below knee right leg was...... as far as I got with a new juv Med - be great if anyone with better eyesight than I could 'nail' this one.  In total:  2 x 2CY, 3 x juv, 2 x ad. possibly/probably more
Sandwich Tern - 1 briefly
Good number of large gulls but no sign of Yellow-legged Gull

Moths
Old Lady a welcome addition to the year list along with a more predictable Copper Underwing. 'Escaped during photography' is something these two have in common!

Too sunny too northwesterly

Heysham obs

Red nab area
Just 7 Meds located in tricky condition - 4x 2cy, 1x juv, 2x ad.
No sign yellow-legged gull

Adult Yellow-legged Gull

Heysham Obs
An adult Yellow-legged Gull with 4-5 old primaries and a single small mirror on P10 was a very restless and mobile visitor to Red Nab for about 10 minutes before heading out into the shipping channel. Underwing views not possible as it always faced into the strong wind in flight.  At the large end of the spectrum with the custard yellow legs contrasting with the deeper orange/yellow legs of nearby LBBGs.  Surely this bird is still going to be doing the rounds for a bit in wing moult but it was certainly not settled on Red Nab and obviously hasn't been there during several recent periods of intense scrutiny.  I'll just go and check now as the tide is starting to move and hopefully get a phone-scope shot if its there.  Apologies for making a fuss over this but they are not common up here and perhaps outnumbered by hybrid look-likes

Morning low tide check
Yellow-legged Gull - adult - see above
Med Gull - 2CY and 2 1CY.  4 x 1CY later, but too late for the surging tide which had covered red nab!
Little Gull - adult summer or certainly summerish at long range

Another small fall

Heysham obs
All second hand info today and not complete

A ringing session at Middleton saw double figures of new willow warbler and Whitethroat, low single figures of the other usual warbler species including the first ever moulting adult garden warbler.    The nets also held single tree pipit and an early grey wagtail - unfortunately the colour rings hadn't been sorted out for this autumn!

2CYs coming out of the woodwork

Heysham Obs
Quick scans of gull flocks with birds at all angles but mainly facing away with a slight heat haze are a recipe for missing Meds, especially 2CY.  A pretty careful check of the gang on Red Nab, remaining stuff on the outfalls AND the stuff off Ocean Edge saltmarsh (missed by many visiting birders) produced a fair amount today, including a re-sighting of the Czech Juv.  This was more advanced into 1st winter plumage than any I have seen previously at this stage of the autumn (earlier fledging than usual more northerly sources?)

Red Nab/outfalls/Ocean Edge latter stages of incoming tide
Med Gull - 5 x ad, 5 x 2CY, 4 x juv, including Czech ringed juv
Little Gull - summer adult on mudflats south of Ocean Edge
Whimbrel - at least two

Ringing
The two CES sessions were bedevilled by a stronger NW wind than forecast and, despite a few migrant Willow Warbler around, were highlighted only by a single Garden Warbler and a pair of unringed adult Bullfinch - not the first time this has happened with a species with odd dispersive timing

In an ignominious but inexpensive day for ringing, the Swallow roost did not materialise tonight but we did ring almost half of them..........5.   Time to leave alone and hope it builds up.  No sign of the Long-eared Owl - careful check of nearby willows before dusk 

Moths
Highlighted by Toadflax Pug

Older Meds return

Heysham Obs
An early low tide visit with the longshot of a Stormie feeding on the seaward end of the outfalls and then a short check on the early stages of the incoming tide (nothing new added on this visit)

Outfalls/Red Nab
Little Gull - ad summer seaward end Heysham 2 outfall
Sandwich Tern - presumably the adult on Red Nab
Med Gull - 5 x ad, 4 x 2CY, 3 x 1CY - all but two of the juvs on Red Nab
Curlew - 310

YESTERDAY: 4 x Common Scoter (unusual this time of year) and another Gannet off the north wall lunchtime (thanks Tom)

Moths
Not a lot but did include Barred Rivulet and not a single Large Yellow Underwing!