Nothing from today

Heysham Obs
No news from today

One of our Grey Wagtails ringed in autumn 2013 is now a nesting female at Botton Mill, upper Hindburndale - further to the east than we expected migrants ringed on an autumnal NW to SE heading to be ending up

SD36 time

Heysham Obs
A visit to the south harbour wall to see what moths and other beasties were there and also check on the territorial Ringed Plover for work.  A ringing session at Middleton NR was very valuable as it enabled the final summer visitor adults (Reed Warbler) to be caught and the 7 included four from previous years.  One or two baby Robin and Dunnock also materialised and there were a couple of retrap Cetti's Warblers, neither of which was a female with brood patch

South wall/outfalls
Common Gull - 46 2CY
Med Gull - blackish-headed 2CY
Ringed Plover - heard alarm calling from within PS as a group walked along the seawall to the south

SD36 insects
Mother Shipton - this mirrors Lou Cross's record from the north harbour wall last year - unfortunately it seemed to be just passing through and was lost near the seawall to the south.  Its still a dot on the 'white hole'!
Clepsis spectrana - 1
Common Blue - 17ish
Large White - 1
Small White - 1
Lots of solitary bees/wasps - worth a specialist having a look as they are probably all new for 10k square

Office moth trap
Another Eyed Hawk-moth with a late fairly fresh Hebrew Character, a couple of Herald and I think Turnip Moth is new for year

Signal crayfish threat

Heysham Obs
Great - presumably someone using Middleton model boat pond as a "save the tadpoles" dumping ground or a misguided idea of biodiversity has almost certainly introduced signal crayfish.  Bring back the terrapins!  Lots of tiny immatures found today does not augur well for the future of this pond and its dragonfly population for this highly invasive and difficult to control species

Middleton NR
Cetti's Warbler - two singing, other contact calls
Tufted Duck - two males and a female make a (re?)appearance
Mute Swan plus 4 x cygnets
Little Ringed Plover - 1

Insects
Holly Blue Middleton

Friday 27th May

Heysham Obs
Not a lot happened today with no definite migrants caught by the office (2 x Whitethroat, 1 x Sedge Warbler possibly/probably local breeding birds)

Middleton (thanks Malcolm)
The good news is that the male gadwall has returned to the "no swimming" pond as well - hopefully his mate is on nest. Mallard on model boat pond has 6 chicks. Also: 1 little grebe 1 grey heron 1 singing Cetti's - western marsh, 2 grasshopper 4 reed warbler singing + 1 seen only + ww, both whitethroats, blackcap & (only) 1 sedge. 1 little ringed plover. Not really much change.

Eyed Hawk-moth new for the year

Barn Owl continues to quarter the area

Heysham Obs

Middleton Wednesday evening (thanks Jamie)
Grasshopper Warbler - four singing males
Barn Owl - one hunting pre-dusk

Moths Wednesday night
True Lover's Knot a major surprise so early, Shears and Purple Bar notable

Outfalls
Common Gull - 43 2CY
Little Egret - 2

Ringing and photography

Heysham Obs
Some nice sunny day ringing at this time of year did produce a few odds and ends of interest

1) Two presumed migrant male Blackcap caught at first light Hey Nat Res
2) Two recently fledged Grasshopper Warbler caught Middleton
3) Most importantly from a potential breeding bird point of view, two 2CY Lesser Redpoll caught Middleton (together).  One was reported yesterday but this was an obvious red male, yet these two were a presumed 'brown' male (72mm wing) and female.  Not asked the recorder yet whether the male was song flighting.  Very scarce breeding bird in the Heysham area

The ringing activities did not produce any late diurnal passage

Some pics from Janet (thanks):

Insects provide the interest

Heysham obs

Four-spotted chaser at Middleton new for year

Similarly poplar hawk moth in the trap

Three burnet companion near office

Two singing male Cetti's warbler Middleton

Cumbrian Common Scoters

Heysham Obs

Sea 0715-0815ish (thanks Mark)
Common Scoter - two big gangs totalling about 200 individuals at long range

Middleton NR
Cetti's Warbler - unringed bird (age unknown) escaped from one of the CES nets next to the fence pond just before the ringer could get there.  Intriguing.  Singing male nearby
Lesser Whitethroat - in contrast to last year's dearth, a good number this year around the CES area with a further 5 caught, making it 8 different birds from the first two CES visits, the commonest bird!

Moths
A curious catch, none more so than Buff Tip and Hebrew Character sharing the same egg packing

Southerlies

Heysham Obs
.............are not a lot of use here.  A half-hour seawatch saw an adult British Lesser Black-backed Gull south (carefully checked).

Couple of decent things came to light in the afternoon
A belated check of the moth trap saw pale tussock - the second record I think
Also one of our cr grey wagtails is nesting at botton mill in upper hindburndale - a sighting today suggested a 2015- ringed bird

Red Nab/Ocean Edge
Whimbrel - late flock of three

Pics from the last few days (thanks Janet) at Middleton NR

Heysham obs
A good early incoming tide seawatching stint by Jonny produced a few odds and ends but was not really "nasty" enough for a significant skua passage

North wall 0650-0930
Arctic Skua - light morph and intermediate morph in
Common scoter - 4 out, c10 in
Fulmar - prob same bird in then out
Auk spp (prob guillemot) 12 in one out
Gannet - at least 15