Freezing fog omen for the New Year's Day list

Heysham Obs
A week ago I would have said 100 species in the LDBWS area was relatively straightforward with the problem being low sun!! Not now, and the main problem has been the disappearance of or prospective unavailability due to poor offshore visibility of 5 "Heysham species". Potential lack of raptor flying weather also comes to mind.


Available & seen today
Med Gull - 2 adults on the railings at high tide
Twite - 38 on the NHW seed this morning at least
Linnet - 1 with the above & 4 on the mound pm.


Gone
Shag
Guillemot?


Unavailable if visibility poor
Red-throated Diver
Guillemot?


'Disappeared somewhere'
Purple Sandpipers - but has anyone checked at LOW tide?

The star of the show today, but completely "irrelevant" as regards a NYD list [e.g. part of Pine Lake 'package'], was the appearance of a pair of Gadwall with the Wigeon at Red Nab. This species makes the BTO challenge list by the skin of its teeth.

Elsewhere
See LDBWS site for some notebook fodder useful for tomorrow. NO reports of the European White-fronted Geese in poor visibility (or the Greylag flock). Two Spotted Redshank and Greenshank Conder area. 6 Scaup still off north Morecambe. 85 Whooper Swan Fluke Hall Lane. Lune valley Whooper not visible in fog i.e. probably at yesterdays distant location.

Nothing as yet

Heysham Obs
Looks like the first blank for quite some time - anyone out checking for year list, please?

Twite: A flock of 6 seen today on the shore by Cockerham Sands Caravan Park consisted of 5 with autumn 2008 Heysham rings and one unringed bird

One slightly unusual ringing recovery just received. August is not usually a month associated with cross bay or indeed any distant movement of adult Greenfinch (e.g. moult). One ringed on 23/8/08 was recaptured on Walney on 29/8/08 (19km in a straight line over the Bay). A Magpie ringed here on 13/8/97 was found in a Larsen trap at "Heysham" on 6/8/08. Wonder where this is?

Heysham Head
1 siskin (f) (MD)

Elsewhere
Nothing not on LDBWS site (see links)

Twite desert the north wall

Unfortunately a combination of at least one photographer lacking field craft, anglers, general walkers & nice-ish weather has led to the Twite deserting the north wall feeding station. Hopefully they will be back in the new year (no ringing has taken place recently).

Heysham Obs
North harbour wall, pre-tide & early dropping tide
Linnet - one
Red-throated Diver - 7 offshore in a quick sweep - all very distant
Shag - absolutely no sign of any - yesterdays report looks like it was not the regular remaining bird from the autumn influx, but a 'one-off'
Guillemot - no sign
Med Gull - 2 adults on the railings
Purple Sandpiper - no sign of any roosting on the wooden jetty

Ocean Edge area
Twite - 32 on the saltmarsh but elusive and wide-ranging (this is the usual number on here - the flock of 40-60 on the north wall, sometimes supplementing the OE birds has gone AWOL)
Wigeon - 131 again

Elsewhere
The Egyptian Goose has been seen regularly at Leighton Moss this last few days - mainly Lilian's, Jacksons or in the field by the level crossing. Tundra Bean and 2 Barnacle Geese off Pilling Lane Ends. 4 European White-fronted Geese still off Aldcliffe in the afternoon but very mobile in the morning (possibly just due to 3 roaming dogs?). Now SIX Scaup off north Morecambe.

Blinding low sun favours the morning observer

Heysham Obs
The mid-stages of the incoming tide were a whole lot more productive than the afternoon visit but a common denominator was the absence of any small finches.

North harbour wall mid-morning and mid-afternoon
Med Gull - 2 adults on the railings on both visits (one Czech-ringed)
Shag - one on the wooden jetty in the morning (& 16 Cormorant) but no sign around the waterfall area on the dropping tide (as was also the case yesterday)
Guillemot - a float-in singleton at 1040hrs
Red-throated Diver - at least 4 offshore in the morning
Song Thrush - unusually, 2 in the sandworks mid-morning [**need to add to atlas roving records]

Observers: Jeff Butcher, Pete Marsh

Elsewhere
At last, a quality new arrival in the form of 4 European White-fronted Geese joining the Greylags at the north end of Aldcliffe Marsh (visible from the Golden Ball side as well as the Aldcliffe side). Med Gull off Glasson, 8 Whooper Swans just south of Melling, 1st W female Scaup Freeman's Pool

Midwinter ticking over in undramatic weather

Heysham Obs
Med Gull - 2 adults, including Czech-ringed bird
Guillemot - one in harbour
Red-throated Diver - one fairly close inshore
Linnet - 6
Twite - one

Thanks to John Mason for providing coverage

Red Nab
79 shelduck
89 wigeon
13 common snipe
(MD)

Elsewhere
8 Whooper Swan Lune valley between Gressingham Bridge and Melling. Absolute minimum of 7 Common Buzzard from Lilian's Hide Leighton Moss mid-afternoon, but forgot to check the sightings book on departure (often contains sightings which are not put on websites/pager). 5 Gadwall Pine Lake. No sign of any Waxwings Cove Road, Silverdale but a bit late in the day to check. Spotted Redshank & 2 Greenshank Conder area

There is only one Twite (at the time of the original posting)

Heysham Obs
North harbour wall lunchtime
Twite - one on the seed!! - 14 later
Med Gull - 2 adults on railings
Red-throated Diver - 2 in a single sweep offshore
Shag - no sign

Observers: Alan Richards & Pete Marsh

Heysham Head
1 treecreeper with/following small flock of Long tailed Tits (MD)

Elsewhere
4 Scaup Scalestones Point area, singleton Freeman's Pool. 8 Whooper Swan Lune valley between Gressingham and Melling. Belated report of Rough-legged Buzzard (& 5 Buzzard) at Leighton Moss [morning sighting from Lilian's Hide] (per pager)

No red noses but plenty of Red-throats.

Heysham Obs
North harbour wall 0920-1200 ish
Red-throated Diver 16 minimum
Shag 1 juv harbour entrance
Twite 52
Eider 1 'in' + adult male close in
Shelduck 6 'out' - 1+1+3 'in'
Med Gull 2 adult
Great Crested Grebe 2
1005 Grey Plover 16 'out'
1015 Pink-footed Goose c160 North
1028 Guillemot 2 end of wooden jetty
Defeated by Ducks - 13 'out' may have been Mallard? + 2 'in' which could have been anything! Always find seawatching a challenging experience (John Wood)
Meadow Pipit 1 over

Heysham Head
c250 dunlin (south 10:30 - looks like they didn't get as far as John on NHW) MD

Elsewhere
Scaup - 2+ whilst driving along Morecambe prom, 8 Whooper Swan between Gressingham Bridge and Melling including one with darvic ring on right leg. No apparent sign of any Waxwings arouind Lancaster tax office and surrounding likely habitat (but Peregrine perched on cathedral)

Brief not a lot of encounter

Heysham Obs
A quick 40 minute trawl round the north harbour area/Ocean Edge foreshore, incorporating the lunchtime incoming IOM ferry, was not very good

Shag - no sign (single Cormorant at the waterfall)
Twite - c40 north wall feeder, but disturbed & not seen well
Red-throated Diver - after an age, one located far offshore
Guillemot - no sign
Med Gull - still just the one adult in the inner harbour
Purple Sandpiper - one seen after about 20 minutes searching below the wooden jetty
Kittiwake - none today behind the ferry
Wigeon - 131 off Stage 2 outfall

Middleton Industrial Est
2 mute
5 coot
4 moorhen
1 little grebe
8 tufted
1 pochard (f)
22 teal
8 mallard
16 snipe
3 bullfinch
140 Gloden plover (south 1:15)
Pinkfooted geese
160 (south 12:30)
91 & 49 (North east 2:00)

Elsewhere
Waxwing - 9 behind the tax office , Lancaster. No sign of any Whooper Swans in the usual Lune valley site (4 Mute). 4 Tree Sparrow at Heaton village feeders.

High numbers of Twite maintained

Heysham Obs
North harbour wall 0925-1230hrs
Twite - 85 (21 unringed)
Red-throated Diver - 4 on sea including 1st W in harbour entrance then just below NHW + 1 'in' & 1 'out'
Shelduck - 1 + 1 'in'
Greylag Goose - 1 'out' then same one 'in'
Guillemot - 1 1015 hrs 'in' same 'out' 1034 hrs.
Pink-footed Goose - under wooden jetty then alongside NHW - injured bird & another injured bird on sea off wooden jetty (seen at same time)
Red-breasted Merganser - pair
Med Gull - adult (& still just one when IOM ferry arrived)
Purple Sandpiper - 2 on rocks under wooden jetty (right at seaward end)
Kittiwake - 1st W behind IOM ferry
Shag - at least one and possibly 2 juvs

Elsewhere
12 Little Egret in the Leighton roost

Bits and bobs

Heysham Obs
North Harbour Wall
28 Twite, adult Mediterranean Gull, juvenile Shag

Stage 2 outfall
Ad Little Gull was a loom through the gloom late afternoon

Elsewhere
Waxwing at north end of Leonard's Gate, Lancaster. Possible Red-necked Grebe Lune Estuary lunchtime (seen off Glasson floating out). Scaup Freeman's Pool.

Reasonable inshore coverage of dropping tide

Heysham Obs
Around/off harbour walls
Twite - 17 (all Heysham 2008-ringed) north harbour wall
Red-throated Diver - one (flew) out distantly and one closer inshore on water
Pink-footed Goose - injured bird under wooden jetty (qualifies for BTO challenge!)
Shag - juv harbour mouth, later waterfall area (with 2 Cormorant)
Guillemot - one close inshore
Purple Sandpiper - one at least under the wooden jetty on rocks
Shelduck - 3+1+1 out

Stage 2 outfall
Little Gull - adult mid-afternoon [none yesterday in calm weather]

Red Nab
1 Kingfisher

Ocean Edge salt marsh
268 lapwing(nicely spaced for easy counting)
30 mixed twite & linnet flock

Moths
Mottled Umber and Winter Moth in the trap

Elsewhere
Waxwing - three "behind tax office" (cobbled street to east of Dalton Square) at at least 1030hrs

Lapwing invasion

Heysham Obs
Red Nab
Little Egret

Ocean Edge
Lapwing 265 - record count, I think.

Nature Park/Moneyclose Lane
Collared Dove 2

North harbour wall
Twite 46, then over to South HW
Shag juv harbour entrance
Great Crested Grebe 2

North harbour wall afternoon incoming tide 1315-1335hrs
Med Gull - 2 ads to stale bread - one Czech-ringed
Goldeneye - 1 out
Guillemot - one close inshore
Red-throated Diver - 2 distant on the sea (& c6 Great-crested Grebe)

Middleton Industrial est
2 mute
6 coot
2 moorhen
1 pochard (f)
7 tufted
18 mallard
6 teal
2 golden eye (m + f)
4 snipe
1 bullfinch

Moths
Two Winter Moth in the trap

Elsewhere
2, later 3 Waxwings Willow Lane/Milking stile lane junction (Lancaster Marsh estate) 1140 at least with 3+ still at Greaves (Lancaster) as per location a few days ago, 2 Storeys area, 2 Town hall/tax office area (possibly the same). None Clarendon Rd/Parliament St area of Morecambe west end (c/f belated report from last week). 10 Whooper Swan (& 2-3 Mute) between Gressingham Bridge and Melling on east side of Lune floodplain (as usual)

Twite surge followed by Little Gull weather

Heysham Obs
South-westerly gales and driving warm-sector rain have limited appeal - the 0.1% of nearctic passerines who make landfall this side, as opposed to drowning, in late September/October (see Punkbirder site for a met. analysis of this last autumn's fare), mega-close large shearwaters and scopes steamed up for the next month off Cape Clear in August (fond memories of the great 10, 939 (or possibly going round in circles) Cory's day) and bringing Little Gulls on to Heysham outfalls during the winter months.

Stage 2 outfall
Little Gull - the first for a bit - 2 x ad-type and one 1st W during brief check at 1400hrs

North harbour wall
Twite 60 - all but c5 ringed, mainly blue above + 2 yellow above black /blue split. One had just a metal ring.
Linnet 1 with Twite
Med Gull adult
Red-breasted Merganser M & F
Eider M
Shag juv harbour waterfall
Wigeon 52 off S2O

Elsewhere
Absolutely nothing registered by 1745hrs

Ten minutes

Heysham Obs
North harbour wall
Twite - 15
Linnet - 2
Med Gull - distant adult
Shag - one by waterfall (with single Cormorant)
Purple sandpiper - one on rocks at the end with Turnstone

Elsewhere
Purple sandpiper - single Morecambe Stone Jetty this morning. 4 Waxwing reportedly somewhere at Leighton Moss but no other details

Snippet of coverage

Heysham Obs
Mammals
Not a lot to offer today and the Trumacar stores billboard sometimes comes to the rescue on these occasions. Today saw a Freddie Starresque "Heysham Man Denies Hanging Dog" - good 'Have I Got Noose For You' material (the blanked-out words bit)? This sort of thing really does bring out the worst in some people - mention of this to others today prompted all sorts of black humour, when Daily Mail/Telegraph/Express upper lip horror was surely appropriate. Incidentally, what is the origin of a "hang-dog expression"?

North harbour wall
Twite - 29 on the north harbour wall feeding station
Med Gull - one adult north wall

Elsewhere
A rare trip south of the Lune saw zero of note other than a female Merlin on Jeremy Lane

Purple patch

South harbour wall - incoming tide 1000 - 1115 hrs.
Purple sandpiper 3 and quite possibly 4 on rocks below wooden jetty.
Knot colour ringed on rocks below wooden jetty - details to R de Feu et al
Shag 1 moved slowly out of harbour + 1 'out' past end of wooden jetty
Guillemot 1 'out'
Red-throated Diver 2 together 'out'
Grey Plover 2 H1O
Twite c35 SHW then over to sand plant.

North harbour wall very brief early afternoon visit
Shag - presumably one of the above on the wooden jetty
Med Gull - Czech-ringed adult on the railings
"Twinnet" - no reason why not all Twite - 41 in flight over the mound. Yes there is - there were two Linnet still on 18th (see above)

Elsewhere
18 Waxwing at Cove Road, Silverdale at 1345hrs; 2 Spotted Redshank, Leighton Moss.

Heysham Obs.

NHW
Pink-footed Goose : 3 flocks 08.20 - 08.30 NW over Lake District. Total c1150 plus further c 150 at 09.55.
Twite: groups of 9 (all ringed) & 15 (majority ringed) around sand plant. Not settled - fishing disturbance yesterday plus work in sand plant? 9 caught including 1 further Duddon bird and 1 new bird.

Elsewhere
Waxwings: 8 at Bridge Road, Lancaster (am) & 14 at Cove Road Silverdale (time?)

Heysham Obs.

Office
House Sparrow male & female at feeder.

North habour wall 1030-1140 hrs
Med Gull adult
Guillemot 'in' 1100 hrs on tide - flew out 1115 hrs
Common Scoter 7 'in/across'
Great Crested Grebe 1 'in'

Midd IE
Mute Swan 2
Coot 8
Moorhen 7
Mallard 11
Teal 14
Tufted Duck 9
Pochard 2 (1m)
Goldeneye 2 (f)
Snipe 8
Redwing 10
Fieldfare 2
Pink-footed Goose 160 North 1230 hrs

A gloomy day

Nothing from me on Sunday or Monday - could someone else please update. Will forward your texted stuff tomorrow, Malcolm - sorry dont have phone with me!

North Harbour Wall
Twite c35 at Sand Plant gate.

Elsewhere
Wet and bedraggled Short-eared Owl in hawthorn next to the Allen Pool car park. 4+ Waxwings just to the south of Hornby school but really difficult from P.R.O.W.

Early WeBS

Heysham Obs
North harbour wall
Med Gull - one adult
Twite - 34 on seed with 11 unringed; rest all Heysham-ringed birds
Red-throated Diver - 2+ offshore

Harbour
Shag - 2: 1 in harbour with the other alongside the wooden jetty

Wooden jetty
Purple Sandpiper - 1

Red Nab
Wigeon - 128 - highest count of this winter period
Med Gull - one adult on sea

Cannon netting
460 Oystercatchers were caught this morning including one which had been ringed in Iceland & about 9 British-ringed birds from other than Heysham

by office
No proper birding but 3 Redwing casually noted in the tank farm and a further two along Moneyclose Lane. No report of Waxwings.

Observers today: Alan Williams, Pete Marsh & largish cannon net team - the latter didnt see anything (per Mark Breaks)!

Elsewhere
Rough-legged Buzzard seen well from Lower Hide flying towards Public Hide this morning at 1100hrs. Purple Sandpiper on seaward side of Bubbles groyne, visible from Lifeboat station area only. Med Gull Ad Broadway and male & 2 female Scaup by Scalestones Point. Red-throated Diver close inshore by the Stone Jetty at 1115hrs. Waxwings: 17 at 1600hrs Hornby main street by Alpaca shop & one at Scotforth

Waxwings at last!

Heysham Obs
To miss out on both Yellow-browed Warbler and Waxwing this back end would have left this site with a serious lack of migratory cred, as the White-throated Sparrow and other 'megas' recede into history.

By the NR office
Waxwing - 5 flew from the direction of Heysham Head and appeared to land in the tankfarm at 1010hrs. At 1150, they were at the top of the tall willows bordering the car park before flying back to the tankfarm, where they could be heard calling. No further searches made by known observers
Fieldfare - 2 seen
Redwing - 2 in tank farm

Offshore
Red-throated Diver - 5 - a good winter count for here

Inshore
Med Gull - 2 ads north harbour wall (one with Czech ring)
Shag - at least one actively feeding in the SW corner of the harbour
Twite - 35 on the seed - 22 ringed. Flock flying in from the harbour direction at Ocean Edge at c1100hrs almost certainly same birds
Goldfinch - one on seed

Observers: John Wood & Pete Marsh

Elsewhere
55 Twite Bank End. Two Little Egrets reported well up the Lune valley at Greta Foot - no detail on how well they were seen - they flew off towards Leighton late afternoon

Cold weather thrush displacement

Heysham Obs
To repeat....Fieldfare are very rare here outside the autumn passage period - i.e. even absent on spring passage in many years. Therefore whilst todays numbers might not seem a big deal, they are most unusual.

1000-1045 hrs - Office
Fieldfare - 35 over
Redwing - 34 over
Kingfisher - 1 flew towards tank farm
Snipe - 5 flushed from marsh
Great Spotted woodpecker - 1
Bullfinch - male
Sparrowhawk - female

North wall and Ocean Edge very briefly
Red-throated Diver - one out
Shag - there ARE two juvs still around
No finches... high level of verbal and mechanical racket in the sand works as the infrastructure is being demolished. It would be good if they could leave the remaining sand to acquire sand dune vegetation.......... [no immediate plans to use this area]
Med Gull - adult off the seaward end of the outfalls

Observers: John Wood, Reuben Neville, John Clarke, Pete Marsh

Elsewhere
Waxwing sitting in a tree in the centre of Glasson (0925hrs). 17 Waxwings near the White Lund Honda garage at northern end of A683 "Heysham" bypass 1300-1345hrs, but not there later. Plenty of suitable habitat, including in nearby housing estates. No sign Quernmore Hooded Crow during midday search

Earlyish and late north harbour wall coverage

Heysham Obs
Possibly due to an aggressive spam filter/deleter, I have definitely not received 7 e-mails sent this week. There may be others. Please could you re-send [or text 07989866487]. Apologies, therefore, for lack of responses. Thanks. Pete (see contact details in RH column)

North harbour wall
0940-1040 hrs
Red-throated Diver 2 'out'
Eider 2 'in'
Med Gull adult
Twite 13 very flighty near Sand Plant Gate as JCB removed wooden sleeper fence.
No Shag on wooden jetty

1450-1515hrs
Blinding sunlight!
Med Gull - two ads to bread, including Czech-ringed bird
Shag - none at all in the harbour or on the wooden jetty - is this it until next autumn? (one Cormorant at the waterfall)

Observers: John Wood & Pete Marsh

Elsewhere
Mostly a numbers game from Pine Lake (32 Shoveler, 227 Pochard) & Glasson area (125+ Tufted on marina) & small areas of open water left at Leighton Moss (120+ Gadwall), with additional interest being a female Scaup on Glasson marina (displaced from Freemans pool??). NNEW on Hooded Crow, any interesting raptors at Leighton Moss or any non-Little Egret in the roost there. No obvious sign of 2nd W Med at Claughton.

The weather front stops and takes a seat

.........which leads to a dreary, grossly underrecorded day all over north Lancs.

Heysham Obs
Harbour area
Med Gull - one adult
Shag - 2 juvs

Elsewhere
The distinctive 2nd W Med Gull photographed a Pine Lake a few days ago was on the roof of the farm at Claughton (by A683) with hundreds of other gulls this morning

Sunday drivers!!

Heysham Obs
.....left me little time to cover the incoming tide as the efficient midweek Crook-of-Lune-Slyne rat-run was transformed into a second-gear Sunday brake-light fest, along with a predictable shambles at Halton mini-roundabout. This latter location needs its own highway code (or ten commandments, as a lot of the miscreants seem to be churchgoers)

North harbour wall
Med gull - ad
Twite - 24
Red-throated Diver - 1
Shag - 1

Half moon bay/nature reserve
Redwing - flock of 85 south at 1030hrs
Redwing - 13 on the tank farm late afternoon

Observers: Malcolm Downham, Alan Draper, Pete Marsh, Mark Prestwood

Elsewhere
6 Hawfinch Woodwell. 3+ Waxwing NE Warton with 9 two hours later near Cotestones.....which flew back towards Warton. Displaced wildfowl included 60 Shoveler on Holmere & a further 30 on Pine Lake. Rough-legged Buzzard reportedly seen from the Lower Hide early afternoon, before flying 'into the wood'. Hooded Crow Stock-a-bank mid-afternoon but very mobile, solitary and wary. 8 (+?) Whooper Swans in the usual location between Melling and Gressingham bridge. 4 Bittern seen from Lower Hide at the same time this early afternoon, but no sign of the supposedly proximate RLB by this observer.

Record count of Ravens

Sorry Malcolm, the wrong part of the vari-focals was looking at your text & mistook 7 for 2!

Looks like we're heading for our 50,000th hit today (since December 2006) - not bad for a recording area which couldn't even muster a YBW this autumn and now competing for attention with hundreds of other birding blogs, albeit mainly personal rather than aimed specifically at a recording area.

Heysham Obs
North harbour wall
A careful search at low tide in clear calm conditions produced:
Red-throated Diver - 3 in Cumbria i.e. miles away!
Eider - 7+5+1
Mute Swan - 6 imms 'in'
Meadow Pipit - 2 'in-off' (unexpected)
Med Gull - ad offshore
Finches - food all frozen - no birds

Harbour/wooden jetty
Purple Sandpiper - one under the wooden jetty on rocks
Shag - one on the stanchion next to the waterfall (SW corner harbour) & anothe by the end of the wooden jetty
Guillemot - one close inshore as the tide started rising

Middleton IE
SEVEN Raven flew over
Fieldfare - 18 (rare outside the autumn passage period here)
Redwing - 25
plus: Water Rail (1), Snipe (2), Moorhen (9), Coot (8), Mute Swan (2) in mainly frozen wetland area

Observers: Malcolm Downham, John Wood and Pete Marsh

Elsewhere
Hooded Crow 0940 hrs in field above conifers west of Quernmore Church cSD516604. Rough-legged Buzzard photographed early afternoon at Leighton Moss but only available briefly. No Waxwing reported locally for today, but c5 Carnforth Booths yesterday and c13 at Hornby/Butt Yeats on Thursday

A bit of coastal coverage

South Harbour Wall seawatch 0935-1030 hrs
Red-throated Diver 2 'in'
Guillemot 2 'in' one landing on sea.
Med Gull - adult off outfalls
Shag - 2 juv harbour intake

Sea 1205-1235 north harbour wall
Purple Sandpiper - on lower tier of wooden jetty
Med Gull - two adults (including Czech bird) to bread
Red-throated Diver - one out - the only non-gull in 30 minutes!
Linnet - one at seed
Goldfinch - one at seed

Ocean Edge foreshore
Dunlin - 520 off south end
Twite - 67, but could not check for rings
Wigeon - 67

Office
Cormorant - 1 South
40 Plover sp, presumed Golden, high to the south first seen towards Heysham Head (1107hrs).

Observers: John Wood & Pete Marsh

Elsewhere
Hooded Crow by Stock-a-bank again at least 0845-1100hrs, but not later in the morning. Osprey reportedly over M6 by Carnforth junction (Birdguides)!

Minimalism

Heysham Obs
A very brief visit to the North harbour wall saw:

Twite - c22
Linnet - c2
Med Gull - ad

Elsewhere
Hooded Crow still by Stock-a-bank - all sightings have been in field at the SE quadrant of the cross-roads but has been absent for up to 1.5hrs. Waxwing along the cycle track just norht of Barge's depot at c1015hrs. Chiffchaff, possibly a N/E bird, Freeman's wood. Purple Sandpiper Morecambe Stone Jetty. Small CWM at High Tatham with 420 Fieldfare west & two flocks of c100 Starling.

Nuthatch over

Heysham Obs
A major Heysham rarity in the form of a Nuthatch over the car park at 1000hrs (Emma Garston)

North harbour wall
Med Gull adult
Twite - c15
Mute Swan - 1+2 'out'
Great Crested Grebe - 2
Red Breasted Merganser - 4
Wigeon - 83 off S2O

Wooden jetty
Purple Sandpiper on the rocks

Office
Coal Tit 2
Bullfinch M
Crow 4

Observers: John Wood, Emma Garston & a.n.o.

Elsewhere
Hooded Crow, probably the one seen at Birkbank a few weeks ago, in a field with other corvids at Quernmore today. It may have been displaced by snow cover from a more obscure area, hence no interim reports. A singleton at 1310 and then 6 at c1500 Waxwing at Carnforth Booths today. Purple Sandpiper Stone Jetty area. 3 Scaup off north Morecambe/Bare seafront at high tide.

A broken ankle day

Heysham Obs
Jean out of action (slipped on ice and broke ankle) so is anyone able to help with WeBS gaps - one Fylde coastal stretch and one Lune stretch?

Thursday morning looks interesting. It looks like Pete will be snowed in at High Tatham, but more coastal observers may be able to go on the prowl with the name of the game being any cold-weather movement.


North harbour wall
One Ad Med but no Knot on heliport

Elsewhere
One Waxwing at Carnforth Booths at 1400hrs.

No Waxwings in the recording area suburbia

Heysham Obs
North Harbour Wall
Whooper Swan - 0915 hrs 12 North - 8 ad + 4 juv
Shag - Juv stanchion in harbour
Great crested Grebe - 2 offshore
Med Gull - at least one adult around
Pink-footed Goose - 1000 hrs 117 South picked up a long way out towards Flookburgh + c60 South way out of Bay towards Walney.
Purple Sandpiper - 1020 hrs 1 on rocks below wooden jetty as tide was rising.
Common Scoter - male 'in' 1024 hrs
Linnet - 5 on mound which has a lingering smell of diesel
Twite - 6+ in flight

Office
Starling - 8 South
Bullfinch - male over into Tank Farm area.

Timed tetrad visit in SD46A=top section of the recording area
Subtitled: Waxwing search of Heysham suburbia. In this respect it failed, but lots of nooks and crannies were located, including quite a lot of Yellow-browed Warbler habitat. The tetrad includes the coast from about half way down the north harbour wall to the start of Sunny slopes - the count was done at high tide. The following were seen/heard in the two hour slot: Great-crested Grebe (1), Sparrowhawk (1), Kestrel (1), Peregrine (1), Water Rail (1), Moorhen (3), Oystercatcher (5,100), Ringed Plover (4), Lapwing (2), Knot (6,000), Curlew (1), Redshank (44), Turnstone (13), Med Gull (1), Common Gull (17), Black-headed Gull (82), Lesser Black-backed Gull (5), Herring Gull (12), Great Black-backed Gull (1), Feral Pigeon (10), Woodpigeon (3), Collared Dove (22), Great-spotted Woodpecker (2), Meadow Pipit (1), Pied Wagtail (3), Wren (13), Dunnock (22), Robin (42), Blackbird (89), Song Thrush (4), Redwing (9), Mistle Thrush (4), Goldcrest (3), Long-tailed Tit (51), Coal Tit (4), Blue Tit (29), Great Tit (11), Treecreeper (1), Magpie (39), Carrion Crow (7), Starling (111), House Sparrow (161), Chaffinch (25), Greenfinch (8), Goldfinch (3), Bullfinch (2), Reed Bunting (1).

A promising Waxwing area, berry-wise, is the southern end of the new Mossgate estate near the NHS building on Plover Road. The Reed Bunting was odd - calling from some waste ground on its own - similarly, another small area of 'rataside' held the Meadow Pipit. The House Sparrow were in 7 largish concentrations around the older (a relative term) properties with many areas devoid of them. The drive on to Heysham 'Headland' suggested the private notices applied to all bird species. Not one of the Dunnocks was seen, indicating the importance of calling birds.

Observers: Pete Marsh & John Wood

Elsewhere
Just some late news so far on 10 Waxwing in Hyde Road, Torrisholme at midday yesterday - none during brief visit today, but a few berried trees around. 7+ Waxwing Black Dyke Road, Arnside today (report of up to 40 yesterday). 2 Waxwing at Carnforth Booths at 1430hrs but not at 1515hrs. [Two Cattle Egrets at Preesall, Fylde, outside the area, on Sunday - see photos on LDBWS site] and one Cattle Egret reported via Birdguides as being in the Leighton Moss roost at 1620hrs this evening (& 18 Little Egret)