A useless 'nice sunny day'

Heysham Obs
Vis mig
Just about the only sign of any migratory life was a small Swallow and Meadow Pipit passage of about 11 per hour for the first two hours (0800-1000) and, in the case of Swallow, impressions of a similar rate for the next two hours. Two Goldfinch flew north

Grounded
The ringers had a sensible day off and the only definite grounded migrant was a Wheatear on the mound.

Sea passage
Zero unless you count two northbound Shelduck -this was at the optimum start of the incoming tide 0800-1000. I cannot recall the sea being so dead in mid-April on the incoming tide

Inshore
Better: 1st S Med Gull, ad Little Gull (probably the long-stayer) in with c60 Common and c20 Black-headed Gull. Unfortunately Stage 2 Power Station is on a 58 day 'outage' and it may be some time before nice warm dilute 'soup' starts flowing along the outfalls. The juvenile Shag total definitely reached 4 and could have been 5 - commuting to and from the wooden jetty and feeding sites

Middleton IE
Singing Grasshopper Warbler. Water Rail reported by visiting birders. 5 Tufted Duck.