Heysham Obs
Happy new year everyone. Quite an array of birds in this area = LDBWS recording area at the moment and a day of January 10km square surveying was tweaked with a bit of dirty twitching with the hordes at Leighton Moss in late afternoon. This enabled the magic 100 (102) species to be reached without having to resort to the dodgy Mandarin on the pond at home - a stress-free unplanned scenario!
Havn't got much of a clue exactly what was seen today as I did the requisite time in the bits of land in SD35Z (wooden jetty & area) and 36V (north harbour wall area) early morning before moving to do four hours in SD66. Thanks to Tom and John for info, also Pete on the LDBWS site
Glaucous Gull - juv flew over two birders by Stage 2 outfall about 0915hrs, then found sitting on the rocks below the outer section of the wooden jetty just prior to the midday IOM ferry, then disappeared with no further known reports. It has changed its habits to a more unreliable pattern.
Little Gull - two 1CY Heysham 2 outfall
Med Gull - at least two adults plus possibly a third following the ferry
Shag - definitely SIX 1CY in harbour at one time
Guillemot - 5 in harbour first thing
Rock Pipit - one inner end of wooden jetty first thing
Meadow Pipit - one back of sandworks
Goldfinch - 3 on twite food
Song Thrush - wintering bird still in gorse bush on mound
Twite - 6-7 on food
Linnet - 6 OE saltmarsh
Kittiwake - 17 in harbour, c10 behing IOM ferry
Feral Pigeon - one gathering nest material on the west quay and flying into Stage one power station grounds
Middleton NR
Goldeneye - female model boat pond
Mute Swan - pair no swimming pond
Reeve's Pheasant
The male was on the grassy verge along the power station access road just below the obs tower late morning
no sign of any Purple sandpiper today
no moths
