More seabirds

North Harbour Wall 0600-0830  Weather: NW F1 8C 5/8 cloud.  High Tide 10:36 8.91m

Steady trickle of seabirds early morning with very few after 07:30. Gannets were hard to count as they were milling about, going in then out then having a sit down. More or less the same number went out as in so the total below is probably about right. Most birds, apart from Sandwich Terns were distant and a telescope was essential.

Common Scoter - on arrival, a huge flock of about 600 were seen way out on the horizon heading out of the Bay with 6 other relatively closer ones also going out later on.
Gannet - 49
Arctic Skua - a dark morph flew out along one of the channels at 06:01
Manx Shearwater - 14 (i.e. 14 came in and 14 went out)
Sandwich Tern - 18 (18 came in, 14 went out)
Arctic Tern - 68 (5 flocks max 31)
Kittiwake - 3 in (with the Arctic Terns)
Great-crested Grebe - 2 in
Auk sp - 1 out
Red-throated Diver - 2 (i.e. 2 in , 1 out)
Whimbrel - 1 heard, not seen.
Swan sp - 3 north
Swallow - 4 in

Dragonfly
The first 4-spotted chaser of the year on Middleton - perhaps surprising before Broad-bodied?

JR, PC, AC, MD

Cumbrian seabird mirage and Little Tern for the year list

Low single figure temperatures and bright sunny weather often leads to a heat haze on the sea and that was the case this morning.  Loads of birds remained unidentified including an identikit of the 'Five Fastnet Flappers' of historical Cape Clear fame.  They could have been anything from swans to geese to Egyptian vultures etc etc..  Most of the unidentified birds were probably Common Scoter, although judging by Rossall reports from Ian, others could have been Manx Shearwater.

Sea 0600-0830
Manx Shearwater - 3
Common Scoter - 362 identified but at least double that as 'probables'
Sandwich Tern - 151 out leaving three still on buoy
Little Tern - two together out with a bit of fishing en route 0615
Common Tern - 1 in close inshore
Arctic Tern - 38+15 in
Goosander - two males in
Kittiwake - flock of 7 in
Gannet - two singleton ads out
Guillemot - one on sea floating in
Arctic Skua - light morph at 0620 and dark morph at 0645 both floating in then rising up off sea to chase sandwich terns
Whimbrel - 1+8 in
Red-throated Diver - 1 out
Mute Swan - 2CY out at long range then landed on sea
Raz/Guille - one out
Swallow - just 14 in
Common Sandpiper on the Near Naze

Grey Seal - 2
Harbour Porpoise - 1

Two decent sightings

Early morning sea-watching was left to Nick at the Stone Jetty and, not for the first time, the single skua record in a south-easterly was a couple of Poms.  Then Jean had a very close encounter with an in-off adult Hobby which whizzed past very close at 'eye level' on Heysham Head - a really decent bird here which is barely annual

Remember the continental-looking Robin already bearing a British ring?  Not far wrong with the Fair Isle guess!  Note what is presumably a very held-up migration (from southern Europe?) this year in the poor weather

Robin
S808539        Ad          11/03/17          Kildary, Cromarty Firth (Highland)
Recaptured                   01/05/18          Heysham  420km  S  416 days

Sea stone jetty/north wall/knowlys on and off to 1020
Pomarine Skua - two light morph in 0635
Common Scoter - c60 early on then one out
Arctic Tern - 3
Sandwich Tern - c10
Gannet - two adults u-turning
Manx Shearwater - 1+6 as above

Misc
Hobby - Ad in-off 1015
Swallow - 22 N
Whimbrel - two OE saltmarsh
Wheatear - 4
Greylag - pair Middleton

Interesting seawatch

It is not often you can roll up on a morning sea-watch ten minutes or so before high tide and see 99% of the birds of interest, especially on a slow-moving neap tide.  The first 55 minutes 0650-0745 were very slow.  Most of the action was after the second Arctic Skua at 0748hrs and the most numerous species were strangely compartmented with almost all the incoming Gannets between 0745 and 0842 and all the incoming Manx Shearwaters in a relatively concentrated fashion between 0840 and 0915, including a flock of 42.  The sea-watch was not without its problems as a lone observer with running eyes for the first hour or so, leading me to leave the 'scope-only' Knowlys site to mix and match with binoculars at the suboptimal location of the 'new' north wall barrier. 

Sea 0650-0930
Arctic Skua - 7 - DM unless stated - singles in at 0711, 0748, 0802, 0815 (LM), 0831 (Darkish M), 0842, 0918 (LM)
Light morph Arctic or Pomarine Skua - probably the latter in very distantly and rapidly at 0846 looking 'heavy and long-tailed' but not seen clearly enough in the slight heat-haze
Manx Shearwater - 119 in and then many coming out which were treated as already counted
Gannet - 83 in, all but one full adult, with several coming out later in the watch treated as already counted
Arctic Tern - flock of 3 in
Kittiwake - flock of 3 in (1 x 2CY)
Sandwich Tern - mostly flying purpose fully in = 32 with some out/blogging later in the seawatch with one being briefly chased by the last Arctic Skua  
Common Scoter - 3 in (one male)
Fulmar - one in
Guillemot - 2+ 2 in on incoming tide therefore not duplicates

Seemingly useless southerly

Assuming there was not a 'one off' around like Ian's singing Firecrest at Fleetwood, today was quickly dispensed with in favour of a day behind a computer

Tomorrow am should produce a few seabirds and hopefully Friday's forecasted south-easterly will be a proper one and produce a few terns and maybe a spot fly, not a localised thing

Whimbrel - 3 Ocean Edge
Common Scoter - 9 out
Swallow - 2 in
Sandwich tern - about 6 blogging

Pomarine Skua puzzle

A light morph adult pomarine Skua flew distantly out of the bay heading across towards piel island at 0907hrs.  Why did it not go overland in what were very clear conditions looking out of the bay?  Then realised the lune  valley and wray area was inundated with a band of slow moving low cloud on the outbound journey and a look inland revealed quite murky conditions and cloud-topped hills - not great for overland migration.  Nb bird wholly in Cumbria during observation
Common scoter - 5 out
Sandwich tern - c10 back and forth
Red throated diver - 2cy on
Shag - 2cy inshore having flown from wooden jetty direction

Not a lot else happened today but probably missed some Arctic Skuas earlier in am

A few more terns

North Harbour Wall 0615-0915 with additional sightings from Heysham Head in the same time frame
Arctic Tern 37 (2/7/8/4/14/2) - before 0800hrs
Sandwich Tern 57
Common Scoter 50+ (largest group 20)
Red-throated Diver 4 (2 in, 2 winter plumaged on)
Mute Swan 4 across Bay
Guillemot 1 - the winter plumaged bird at the harbour mouth
Shag - the 2CY summering on the wooden jetty
Gannet - 1
Turnstone - 20 on rocks below harbour wall
Wheatear - 1
Swallow  - 14
Redpoll - 1
Pink-footed Goose - 15+ distantly on sea

Ocean edge
Two sanderling, 74 Dunlin, 26 ringed plover

Two grey seal close to each other offshore near the sewage pipe plus some of the same presumably as regards Sandwich and Arctic terns

Mainly seabirds

Clear as a bell this am and landbirds were at a premium but the sea was covered pretty well (Pete Crooks, Jean Roberts and Nick Godden at SJ).  The saga of the ancient A ring on a Sedge Warbler is being resolved.  The string was donated to the group recently by an ex-ringer and used on a Sedge Warbler at Leighton Moss on 18/4/18 (hence bright new ring when we caught it) and it has now been caught three times at Middleton central marsh so presumably on territory there (male wing length) and a case of a minor overshoot to Leighton Moss on migration!

Pomarine Skua - lm ad flew low into the Bay about 0648 (Rossall at 0619, Stone Jetty at 0653)
Arctic Skua - lm ad in distantly at 0600
Arctic Tern - 45 in (7+14+15+2+7)
Common Scoter - 22 in and a few blogging at long range
Gannet - 1 distant
Guillemot - one off harbour mouth
Shag - 2CY roosting on wooden jetty
Pink-footed Goose - 24 NW
Red-throated Diver - 1 in
Sandwich Tern - 51 in, then later birds blogging (c70 in total)

Grey Seal and Harbour Porpoise

Lesser Redpoll - 2+ north
Pair of Little Grebe settling Middleton:

So and so with three species of goose the 'highlight'

A bit of unbalanced coverage this morning with no coastal coverage and everyone ringing site-based at Middleton and Heysham.  There was certainly an element of wondering what I was doing there at 0530 watching three Greylag fly around in circles, but in the end about 20 migrants were ringed at the two sites.  Todays efforts took Lesser Whitethroat total to the heady heights of 14 new plus a returning adult - well above average for this time of the year and five new Common Whitethroat were welcome for what, in contrast, has been a slow spring!   Fortunately Nick was able to cover the nearby Stone Jetty and confirm that there has (still) not been a major Arctic Tern movement past here this spring

Notables
Grasshopper Warbler - only appears to be one on territory at Middleton and, as such, its a pretty quiet one.  One new in on the tank farm next to Heysham NR office (perhaps yesterday as this area was not covered)
Greylag - 3+1 over Middleton
Canada Goose - 2 over Middleton
Swallow - c30 (101 over the sea off the SJ)
Sand Martin - 2
Redpoll - 9+ over Heysham, none further inland over Middleton
Sandwich Tern - 33 off SJ
Pink-footed Goose - 1890 N (550, 62, 940, 340, 1) as seen from SJ but also past here.  Check these late flocks for the Snow Goose still on the Ribble
Great-crested Grebe - an incredible 22 on the dropping tide off the SJ.  These have been a feature for some time now but not this number.  Where are they heading as all the local ones are prancing about with weed if not sitting?

South shore late pm (Malcolm)
Whimbrel - 3

Sandwich tern - 1+ inshore
Starling and Pied Wagtail - small roosts

Heaps of bird racing through in the murk

Anyone puzzled by the earlier request for information on "brand new" British "A" ring A304xxx on a Sedge Warbler this am?  An ancient ringing stock was donated to the group and this ring was seemingly used at Leighton Moss last year.  It was bright and shiny like a ring put on yesterday, not one that had been to Africa and back!

Wood Warbler - singing male at the south end of Heysham Head early on
Redstart - female Middleton NR mid-am
Whinchat - 2 Red Nab
Wheatear - not as many as expected - min of 19
Garden Warbler - 5 singing males and one ringed at Middleton - a very good count for spring and many areas were not covered - this species rarely breeds here
Willow Warbler - 'many' slipping through
Swallow - c475 north, unusually in chunks - notably a gang of c200 over the sea - suggesting gangs taking off together having been grounded by the murk?  None after the sky cleared
House Martin - min 5
Sand Martin - 1
Swift - 1
Whitethroat - at least 7 new singing males
Arctic Tern - flock of 5 in
Whimbrel - 77 in (42+7+21+7)
Sandwich Tern - 2
Tree Pipit - 2 north
Cetti's Warbler - the original resident male was retrapped (first ringed 2015)

CES ringing Middleton
This was impressive with Sedge Warblers ringed elsewhere comprising 2 French, one Belgian and an ancient ring put on at Leighton Moss after a donation of a ring stock.  Other un-ringed arrivals included about 10 Sedge Warbler, 3 Lesser Whitethroat, half a dozen Willow Warbler, Whitethroat, Reed Warbler and Blackcap.  This was in four nets in Middleton central marsh