A very low key morning

.............especially for night migrants as there were no sharp showers and it was otherwise far too clear. Help needed with early morning NHW sea/vis mig coverage on the weekdays next week and especially Monday 12th May when there is no way any of 'us' can cover. Anyone able to commit to any of next Monday to Friday? Please contact Pete or Jean - best to be on site minimum of 0700-0800 or 0730-0830 if a bit slow, or as much as possible 0700-1000 if fairly productive. Thanks - surely there is someone out there in the 80+ who access this site daily!

North harbour wall 0650-0805
Med Gull - noisy 1st summer on sea by gate (heard before seen whilst opening gate!)
Black Guillemot - on and alongside the wooden jetty - ignored the dredger this morning - seen off the end of the jetty early afternoon at least Purple Sandpiper - two under the inner section of the wooden jetty early afternoon at least. One of these & Middleton Grasshopper Warbler provided a South African world lister with two new species this late afternoon
Guillemot - 2 on water
Razorbill - one on water
Arctic Tern - flock of 16 in
Sandwich Tern - only 3 seen
Lesser Redpoll 4NE (together)
Linnet - 21 NE
Swallow - 27 NE + 21NE late afternoon
House Martin - 3 NE+2NE late afternoon

Grounded
Nothing other than 20 Wheatear Ocean Edge/Red Nab. This has been the worst spring on record (so far) for mistnetting migrants; a really unfortunate combination of factors, mainly heavy rain at the wrong times on good migrant days

Middleton IE
Two singing male Grasshopper Warblers this evening. Access at your own risk - stay on concrete roads

Butterflies seen in the recording area today
The first decent numbers and variety this year: 4 Brimstone, 2 Orange Tip, 2 Speckled Wood, 5 Peacock, 1 Small White, 3 Small Tortoiseshell.

Elsewhere
No information yet on local scarcities & uncertainty over whether Spoonbill & Green-winged Teal still at Leighton. Chough overflew Warton Crag but had not returned to roost by 2015hrs. An odd hirundine situation in Hindburndale with 5 pairs of House Martin all in and nestbuilding at Thrushgill but Swallows still by no means 'in'. HM usually later. 2 Scaup Conder Pool.