Corvid day

Heysham Obs
A slightly different theme every day just recently! This comment is obviously inviting people to come up with exceptions (please e-mail the link to the left) but it does appear at Heysham that the very occasional and by no means annual occurrence of a truly mixed corvid flock with approaching equal numbers of Jackdaw and large birds involves Rook. If the occurrence is a compact flock of Jackdaw trailed by half a dozen or so larger birds, these are almost always Carrion Crow, as are the vast majority of single or small group migrating large corvids. It needs to be added here that Heysham is fortunately Jackdaw-free and therefore migrant flocks are easy to identify

Vis mig from by the office
This was not very conscientious today for several reasons, most notably the birds were frequently very high in what were clear still conditions until late morning

Chaffinch - 128 mainly SW
Brambling - flock of 6 early morning
Siskin - 21 SE
Bullfinch - 2+1 S
Redwing - 67 SW
Greenfinch - 43 SW
Goldfinch - 59 SE in 13 small flocks
Song Thrush - 2 S
Carrion Crow - 14 S
Skylark - minimum of 4 S
Meadow Pipit - 9 SE
Jackdaw - 72+12+5+44+56+2 mainly (eventually) E
Rook - 57 mixed in with the 72 Jackdaw - these arrived from the N then swirled about before heading E. At least 2 adult Rook.
Woodpigeon - 7 SE
Pintail - 3 north - the first record over the site in calm weather - usually a 'highlight' of rubbishy autumnal seawatches in SW winds
Reed Bunting - 1 S
Starling - 13 S
alba Wagtail - 7 SE
Blackbird - 16 flew S past the office
Magpie - two birds flew very high to the NE
Lesser Redpoll - 6 SE
Linnet - 1 SE
Mistle Thrush - 1 S
Long-tailed Tit - flock of 7 without any 'baggage' such as Firecrest were seen to be unringed during their short stay in bushes by the office before heading S

No Fieldfare!

Grounded
Thanks to two visiting birders from Whitworth for checking the grounded bids around the reserve. A total of about 75 Blackbird, including c50 sill on the reserve mid-morning. 45-50 Redwing still remained mid-morning but the number of small night migrants was very poor with just two Goldcrest seen, no warbler species and a single unringed Robin trapped. The first (two) unringed Blue Tit for a bit were trapped.

Middleton IE
Numbers of wildfowl are rather low at present, suggesting disturbance over and above the 'routine'. Highlighted by a Common Buzzard flying west (the first definite record from the Obs recording area this year) and the first Jack Snipe of the autumn. 9 Pink-footed Geese flew NE

North wall/harbour mouth
The Black Guillemot was present at least early morning along with at least one 2nd W Med Gull

Insects
Two Red Admiral and a Comma by the office & Small Tortoiseshell on Middleton IE

Elsewhere
Great White Egret Leighton area. For what it is worth, Eagle Owl, which has already zapped at least one local Tawny, still at Ingleton