Heysham Obs
The minuses were the lack of any sign of the Cetti's Warbler at Middleton IE and that there just appears to be one Purple Sandpiper around. The pluses were some Twite ringing conditions at last & lingering Little Gulls & Guillemot. Thanks to Malcolm, Jean, John, Mike & Alan for all records as moorland survey work in the first calm weather for ages beckoned
The other main point of interest today was, to quote Mike Watson on his excellent site (see Links): "I had a chat with the guys fishing at the outfalls and one of them said he had seen a white heron, the size of a Grey Heron and much bigger than the Little Egrets he sees 'regularly', at Ocean Edge on a week day sometime between 16-20 November - Great White Egret surely?"
Coastal areas
Red-throated Diver - one out
Little Gull - maximum of 4 1CY on the outfalls
Med Gull - adult around
Purple Sandpiper - one on the edge of Heysham One outfall on the dropping tide
Guillemot - one in harbour (the other in the underground reservoir?) - two in the afternoon
Twite - 37 caught, 20 were unringed and one was ringed at Askam-in-Furness in late October 2008 and previously caught at Heysham in early November 2008. The rest were ringed at Heysham in either 2008 or 2009. 7 were also on Ocean Edge saltmarsh but no lingering Linnet reported anywhere today for the first time this autumn. This is the usual pattern at this time of year.
Rock Pipit - 2
Skylark - one over Ocean Edge
Middleton
No Cetti's but the single Pink-footed Goose still there
Elsewhere
Quick visit to Pine Lake returning from work saw the Slavonian Grebe still present plus a 1CY Little Gull feeding on 'groundbait' next to some anglers! Location of the Slav assisted by corralling of the wildfowl by a speedboat into the NE corner (its been conspicuously AWOL during the rough weather, despite several careful searches)
