Heysham Obs
The nets next to the office were set today to monitor any movement during a vaguely promising cloudy morning with a north-east wind and a slight shower/fret soon after dawn........and also get on with some work. The net rounds were predicted to consist of a trickle of migrants and perhaps a few Greenfinches on the sunflower hearts, ideal for multitasking with work
Office area 0630-mid-afternoon
The first round of the mist nets produced 42 birds, a mixture of migrants and finches attending the feeder - a quiet 'trickle' indeed! The ringing continued to be productive with two pulses of migrants - early on and around lunchtime - the latter is supposed to be the classic west coast rarity time-slot, but it is a bit early in the autumn and we had to make do with two 'out of habitat' Reed Warbler
Ringing by the Heysham Nature Reserve office: Greenfinch (57), Goldfinch (3), Chaffinch (8), Linnet (3), Blue Tit (4), Great Tit (1), Long-tailed Tit (2), Chiffchaff (2), Willow Warbler (4), Common Whitethroat (5), Reed Warbler (2), Sedge Warbler (1), Blackcap (2), Dunnock (1), Robin (1), Swallow (1), Wren (1), plus just FOUR retraps. All but two of the Greenfinches were this year's young, indicating excellent local productivity. It was also quite windy for the first two hours and many birds were missed due to the higher shelves being a bit obvious
Coal Tit - dispersing juvenile flew through (do not breed in immediate vicinity)
Absolutely no chance of checking the morning tide!
Moths
Highlighted by Bordered Beauty and Dingy Footman with a Bedstraw Hawk-Moth just up the road at Betty and John Holding's trap on Heysham road about 50 metres outside the recording area in SD46B! (didnt have time to see that either!)
