Heysham Obs
Yesterday afternoon's vigil was a "necessity" in order to produce the goods and did involve a lengthy period of 'watching paint dry' between the first and second Leach's Petrel. Anyone attempting to seawatch today will totally redefine this phrase. Just dont bother, unless you are checking the sea, wooden jetty or outfalls. It is good to know that the wind is unambiguously useless = too NW - means you can get on with some work!
North wall area - two brief visits
Rock Pipit - first of the autumn grounded briefly on the north wall
Med Gull - two adults harbour mouth
Shag - 11 - 2 on the wooden jetty and 9 flying singly towards this roost from the direction of Heysham head as the tide was coming in - surely feeding in channels around the Grosvenor skeers? All juvs.
Arctic Tern - yesterdays juv still around
Outfalls/Ocean Edge foreshore
Little Gull - Ad & 2nd W H2 outfall
Med Gull - 1st W on H2 outfall
Dunlin - just 23 left (& 26 Ringed Plover) feeding next to Ocean Edge saltmarsh - in retrospect we should have checked this flock of small waders more regularly this autumn. Hopefully this good feeding habitat on the edge of the accreting saltmarsh will remain for a few years.
Vis mig
Meadow Pipit - 18 recorded moving south between showers (286 similarly in 2 hours at Caton Moor).
Elsewhere
Bonxie JB Point but, not surprisingly, nothing else of significance [& 2 Razorbill, 1 Guillemot]. Juv Arctic Tern Pine Lake but 'dragged off' by roost-bound Black-headed Gulls (did this arrive yesterday?)
