Razorbill influx and concentrated Meadow Pipit movement

Wheatear - 3
Meadow Pipit - 820 NE/grounding on Knowlys fields, many flushed from Heysham head grassland, others heading past out to sea. All just after heavy rain ceased and most passing in a continuous stream over 30 minutes.   Not replicated on the south side of the harbour with just 37 in same time period
alba Wagtail - just 4
Greylag - one north along coast
Shag - 2CY on rocks at base of wooden jetty at seaward end
Sandwich Tern - three fishing at yellow buoy range
Razorbill - 12 in (3, 2 or singletons) on sea
Guillemot - one in on sea
Great-crested Grebe - 6
Red-throated Diver - three together in on sea but distant
Goldcrest - 3 below obs tower
Green Woodpecker - one in non-op land
Chiffchaff - singing along dog track and at Middleton
Eider - 202
Red-breasted Merganser - 5
Little Gull - ad type outfalls

Pale-bellied Brent Goose - 7 at Red Nab (but only a gang of four seen off Knowlys earlier)
Siskin - one heard Heysham head

Tuesday 3rd April

Sorry someone else was supposed to be posting for Tuesday!

Little Gull - adult briefly stage two outfall
Brent Goose - 7 pale and one dark on the usual routine, initially feeding on the skeer off the horse paddocks
Eider - 194
Shoveler - pair on the sea off Heysham Head - what a good year so far for here!
Razorbill - 2+1+1+2 floating in on the sea
Guillemot - 1 floating in on the sea
Raz/Guilli - distant one floating in
Meadow Pipit - c60 grounded or north
Pied Wagtail - 6 grounded or north
Goldcrest - one Heysham head
Chiffchaff - two singing EDF land
Wheatear - 3

Two Sandwich Terns

Malcolm braved the elements to do the whole south shore area today with the reward of just one Wheatear.  Its really hard work at the moment but it all looks to change tomorrow onwards with a corridor of sorts for stuff trying to reach us from the south.  Again its going to be wet and hard work but hopefully eg the first B Redstart for a couple of years will materialise

Two Sandwich terns materialised out of the gloom and landed on Red Nab where they were joined by a small number of Brent Geese from about 1135hrs
Brent Goose - 6 pale and one dark-bellied arrived at Red Nab about 1135
Wheatear - one

 It was wet and horrible and this was taken through gallons sorry litres of rain

A new combination "photo" for here!!

Very little small bird migration for the time of year

Coastal
Shag - Presumably the regular 2CY reappeared in the usual routine on rocks below the jetty
Kittiwake - 11 + c100 + 38+ 29 in, the last spiralling up and inland
Black-headed Gull - about 100 in in dribs and drabs plus c70 outfalls at low tide
Common Gull - 270 on outfalls at low tide, mostly 2CY as usual
Large Gulls - 180 on outfalls and area at low tide but no sign of yesterdays bird of interest
Brent Goose - 12 Pale-bellied off sunny slopes pre-tide along with three dark-bellied, just 8 of the PBB made the usual late stages of the incoming tide journey to Red Nab along with all three DBB, then the subsequent high tide move to Middleton saltmarsh "left behind" one of the dbb presumably remaining around Red Nab/OE saltmarsh!  Per LDBWS site
Eider - c280
Red-breasted Merganser - three flying quite high into the bay

Elsewhere
Robin - three unringed birds caught at HNR, the only semblance of night migration
Meadow Pipit - c70 north, including loose flock of 18
Siskin - 2 north
Sparrowhawk - one north-east
Cetti's Warbler - one singing central marsh Middleton

Three little gull

A flock of three little gull flew out rather distantly mid am

Eight pale and two dark bellied Brent Geese on the usual routine

2Cy Gull photographed which looked interesting but couldn’t get close enough before it was displaced by the tide.  It was definitely a 2CY and the (escape) flight view suggested Caspian or hybrid but by the time I had driven to the closest point to Red Nab it had already taken off as I was driving and I couldn't swing the car round fast enough to get a phonescope of escape flight.  I'll have a look for it tomorrow

 

Bits

Whooper - flock 17 North
Red throated diver - 4 North
Pale bellied Brent - flock of 10
Dark bellied Brent - 2
Meadow pipit - c10
Med gull - 2cy near red nab by pipeline
Snipe - 8 on heliport seawall ht
Robin - two lightweight birds ringed
Cetti’s warbler - one southern end central marsh
Buzzard - two over middleton prob local

Little Gull

A few bits and bobs from a fairly early start this am, most of them in these better pics - original deleted!

 

 

 

Thanks Janet - Red Nab; some of the pale-bellied Brent plus the Little Gull

 

Brent Goose - Two dark-bellied and eight pale-bellied Red Nab on the incoming tide (with 6 (of these??) off the children's play area as seen from Knowlys road earlier)

Little Gull - adult winter on outfalls then on Red Nab then around rest of day
Blackcap - male Red Nab bushes - first of year

Red-throated Diver - 3 sp birds in
Rock Pipit - 1

Meadow Pipit - no more than 26 overhead

Siskin - 2 north

Goldcrest - 2 ringed

No sign Iceland Gull first thing despite loads of gulls on waterfall and area

 

Grey Seal - one offshore

Nags are back in the paddocks off Knowlys road  

Negative news negligence

Told off twice today for not saying on here that birds were not seen as opposed to not mentioning them!   Need to show more awareness of our responsibilities to target birders

Chough - a big NO during normal working hours but it may still be roosting on the Head, leaving early and returning late
Velvet Scoter - a slightly smaller NO as there is a big vast expanse of sea out there but the "guiding" large Eider flock has broken up
Iceland Gull - the 3rd S was sitting on a lamp stand on building just south of waterfall at high tide 0900ish
Common Scoter - pair out
Meadow Pipit - single figures north
Goldcrest - at least one!

Scandinavian Rock Pipit - one in summer plumage briefly on Half Moon Bay shore in am
Brent Goose - 15-17 on Red Nab at high tide (3 dark bellied), 17 definitely flew to the north side of the headland as the tide dropped and distant binocular views suggested at least 15 pale-bellied.  So in theory one dark-bellied left on its own on Red Nab and this has happened before!  Goodness knows how we are going to write these up accurately starting with are they the same birds as prior to the few days without any sightings or are they commuting regularly across the Bay!   We should really be studying and photographing each individual to compare plumage minutae but is it really worth it?

Little Grebe - one on fence pond

Small Tortoiseshell - one Heysham old village
Much reduced numbers of Oystercatcher today on the heliport roost

Minimal coverage

Iceland Gull - 3rd S on rocks by wooden jetty am
Kitiwake - ad on Heysham two outfall same time

Meadow Pipits push north

Fog was a problem until 10:35 but once it lifted grounded Meadow Pipits headed north or east in numbers.

Iceland Gull - 3S in harbour all day by waterfall - the only scarcity seen today
Velvet Scoter - negative on low tide scan but just 168 Eider present
Green Woodpecker - noisy individual around Heysham NR most of am

Meadow Pipits - 975 mainly NE over three different flightlines in the morning
 

Heysham Nature Reserve

Visible migration 07:30 - 12:30

Meadow Pipit 444

Alba Wagtail 4

Grey Wagtail 1

Sparrowhawk 3 high NE together whilst regulars displaying

Buzzard 1 NE

Reed Bunting 1

Skylark 1

Pink-footed Goose 1flock heard plus a single bird lost in the fog.

Ocean Edge foreshore/Middleton west
Meadow Pipit - 331
Wheatear - male
Skylark - 1
Merlin - male

Middleton
Not sure what was seen other than 200 Meadow Pipit and a Cetti's Warbler was caught which was ringed last autumn - not the one we were expecting if indeed it was the singing male!
 

Two Buzzards were displaying over to the east.

A fox made an appearance near the office.

More pics from Janet to follow but having problems downloading