A couple of pics from yesterday at high tide (thanks Janet). The photo ops were flagged up on the LDBWS site and apparently there was quite a turn-out of long lenses, but havn't seen any pics from anyone else. Any photo blogs with any on, please?
Heysham Obs
Donald Sutherland's 'negative waves' utterances came to mind as Plan 'B' was set in motion on the north harbour wall in the (unforecasted??) rain. No chance of any ringing and nothing on/passing over the 'offshore' sea. To pass the time, I wondered how the RSPB would brand this morning and during the struggle with my limited vocabulary, it all started to 'go positive' closer inshore. Must try this strategy again!
North harbour wall & area 0555-0655 & 0900-0930
Swallow - 27 north in first hour, 241 0900-0930, mainly 'in-off(ish)' over the red buoy, then along the harbour
Sand Martin - 6 north in second period (5 together)
House Martin - 3 north plus 3 north in second period
Sedge Warbler - on 'in-off', landed on the railings, then on to the mound
Whinchat - male by the twite feeding station - excellent bird to brighten up the morning!
Wheatear - 2 heliport area
Blackbird - male with food alongside the mound - the ONLY confirmed breeding species in SD36!!! (its somewhere in the gorse clump)
Black Tern - 5 on the seaward end of Heysham one outfall, 4 (of these) on Heysham 2 outfall early afternoon
Common Tern - 3 as above, at least one Heysham 2 early afternoon
Arctic Tern - c65 on Heysham one & two outfalls, assuming none are out of sight on the beach
Ocean Edge foreshore (low tide)
23 Dunlin and 6 Ringed Plover. Memo: check the high tide for displaced Kentish - think positive!
Whimbrel - minimum of 7
Below the Obs Tower
Reeve's Pheasant - one roadside along with ordinary Pheasant for comparison. Apparently a "pheasant release" on the nearby golfcourse recently
Non-operational land
Nesting Ringed Plover plus 2+ eggs
General
This seemed to be the first 'big' day' for gull nest-building with material being gathered over a wide area by the whole roof-nesting population!
