Sunday 16 September 2012

A gap in the rain reveals a leachs

Heysham Obs
A short gap in the rain allowed better visibility from the north harbour wall and a Leach's Petrel was picked up slowly making its way out of the Bay at 1320ish.  Not without precedent, this was the only seabird seen.  Two cars bearing birders appeared, but left after about 5 minutes as the bird had moved on.  Clearly, despite all the efforts in the birding press with respect to seawatching and vis mig, there is still a long way to go on the educational front.........or a significant number of people are just not interested in birding which requires "speculative effort" after the known target has left.  I'll give the north wall another go in about 30 minutes time.

Ocean Edge/Red Nab pre-tide
Med Gull - 2 1CY, 2 2CY, 1 3CY, 2 Ad, plus adult Fisher's roof
Little Gull - ad
Wheatear - 1
Linnet - 46

Webs 'highlights' (most of the stuff displaced by high tide/wave action)
Cormorant - 64 wooden jetty and area
Turnstone - 261 wooden jetty, 31 Ocean Edge beach
Ringed Plover - 22 heliport itself, 15 Ocean Edge beach
Redshank - 260 heliport seawall, 21 Ocean Edge beach
Oystercatcher - 560 heliport seawall, 160 Ocean Edge

Moths
Very little: 10 Treble Bar, Silver Y, 2 Square Spot Rustic, Rhomboid Tortrix, Garden Carpet (= the most 'unusual'!) and Common Marbled Carpet.