Northwesterly and that means more pinks but few warblers

Vis mig 06:45 - 11:00
Pink-footed Goose - 1208
Grey Wagtail - 5
Chaffinch - 39
Alba Wagtail - 4
Goldfinch - 13
Bullfinch - 2
Meadow Pipit - 7
Swallow - 10
Cormorant - 5
Buzzard - 1
Song Thrush - 1
Linnet - 1
Siskin - 1

Grounded
White Wagtail - 1 at Ocean Edge

Harbour - see photo
Shag
Guillemot

Rock pipit - singles by 1/2 m b cafe and below Heysham Head
Wheatear 1 - Heysham Head

Sat and sun

22 September 2018

Heysham NR
Vis 08:50-12:00
Pink-footed Goose - 428 south
Meadow Pipit - 2
Swallow - 4
Grounded
Goldcrest - 1

Red Nab
Sandwich Tern - 2 (adult and juv)
Mediterranean Gull - 15 at least

Harbour
Guillemot - 2

Ocean Edge
Ringed Plover - 32
Grey Plover - 420

Middleton NR
Gadwall - 27
Mallard - 2
Teal - 1
Coot - 2
Water Rail - 3
Stock Dove - 2

Heysham Moss
Woodpigeon - flock of 70

*******************************************

23 September 2018

Heysham NR

Vis 06:45 - 12:00
Meadow Pipit - 35
Pink-footed Goose - 1736
Chaffinch - 25
alba wagtail - 3
Jackdaw - 1
Grey Wagtail - 3
House Martin - 1
Swallow - 1
Mistle Thrush - 1
Song Thrush - 1

Wooden Jetty
Shag

Harbour
Guillemot

Wind okayish in the bay but not in the bigger picture Irish Sea

Nothing to push birds in overnight and a marginal wind on the tide produced very little with just one Leach’s after a cumulative 100 square miles of scanning from various VPs over four hours.  Didn’t realise IOM ferry was in business until it reached the harbour and some followers undoubtedly missed

Leach’s Petrel - one cut across from north side then headed out beyond the yellow buoys
Great Skua - one flew north west through the scope as it was trained towards Knott end from ocean edge
Sandwich tern - loose gang of 13 out, three red nab and two later on outfalls in squall
Common Tern - ad behind ferry
Arctic Tern - 1cy behind ferry
Pintail - flock of three out
Kittiwake - two 1cy early on then at least seven behind IOM ferry
Little gull - usual ad red nab over tide
Med gull - min of 19 including 5 Juv red nab then 25-30 by wooden jetty including the above Belgian or French Juv and German ANLT
Guillemot - one harbour area, one dead on water
Shag - flew towards heyshsm head close inshore

Rock pipit 1-2 Heysham head shore
Low double figures of swallow and meadow pipit struggling south

Small shearwater

One of the vagrant small shearwater species off Heysham this am then Rossall an hour later.   Not necessarily Barolo but unlikely to be fully documented and specified unless we get some point blank views and pics further down the coast.   What an amazing sighting though, initially at only c350m range.  More later.

Shag - usual bird
Leachs petrel - one out distantly 0810
Sandwich Tern - two north wall, 7 red nab

Long gaps between highlights!

One of these days lists with decent variety but quite hard work.   The morning tide was predictably useless in the southerly but the cold front saw a change to SW.  A few bits as the tide came in

Seawatching stuff
Leach’s petrel - one out 1635 at medium range, another out and across about 1710. A further 8 seen past SJ, all but one distant bird after 1730
Black Tern - Juv out past north wall mid afternoon
Sandwich Tern - at least 5 out
Gannet - two out early am
Common Scoter - Drake offshore
Guillemot or Razorbill - four out together
Guillemot - two singletons close inshore
Shelduck - 5 plus 11 out
Kittiwake - three out together (one ad), ad and Juv blogging by harbour

Other
Med gull - 23 ad/2cy red nab plus Juv outfalls
Little gull - usual ad red nab
Wheatear - 2

Terns

Unfortunately a rapidly inbound probably black tern in particularly foul weather this am couldn’t be clinched but single juvenile Arctic and Common and a flock of four Sandwich tern were seen rather better although also in transit

Guillemot - two together out and one in harbour mouth later

17 Med Gulls on the mud near the wooden jetty

A house Martin decided to fly through the wake of the IOM ferry as it was turning to enter port!

Two swallows similarly struggling over the rough sea

Five Pinkfeet out

Eider - at least 196 on sea off Heysham Head - 70 per cent ad m

All about flightlines and virtually nothing grounded

Today's south-easterly would in normal circumstances have seen reasonable numbers of vis mig species at both Heysham and Middleton NRs but it didn't really happen that way with, for example, the Meadow Pipit tape on Middleton catching and attracting down zero.  As is often the case at Heysham NR, the south-easterly sent a significant number of birds crossing the Bay round the north side of the Power Station and there was a reasonable trickle of stuff heading down the coast from Heysham Head over the reserve

Vis mig
alba Wagtail - just 14 SE
Meadow Pipit - 142 SE
Chaffinch - first big movement of the autumn - 84 S/SW
Grey Wagtail - 21 SE
Linnet - 8 SE
Dunnock - one S - very high!
Pink-footed Goose - 26 N, 10 S
Great White Egret - 1 S at 0848
Swallow - 80
House Martin - 1
Coal Tit - flock of 4
Magpie - one in-off amd a flock of 3 high to south
Common Buzzard - one low to E

Grounded HNR
Goldcrest - 2
Chiffchaff - 2
Blackcap - 2

Grounded Middleton
Willow Warbler - 1
Garden Warbler - 1
Blackcap - 2 

Ringing combined:  Grey Wagtail (11), Chaffinch (12), Goldcrest, Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff, Blackcap (3), Garden Warbler, Greenfinch (2), Goldfinch (6), Blue Tit (6|), Great Tit (2)

Moths
Small Dusty Wave new for year