Heysham Obs
This morning 'evolved' into quite a reasonable one after a poor start where useless uniform cloud cover at 'medium height' knocked any dawn thrush arrival on the head. The rest of the morning saw gradual clearance to 'fine, sunny with light winds' by 1100hrs. Interesting to note the different behaviour by two Coal Tit flocks where the birds were released together (after ringing) to try and retain the 'irruptive flock mode'. The first was caught when the cloud cover was prominent, the second as the sky was virtually cloud-free. The first lot just trundled into the nearest bushes and ambled their way south, the second lot circled up and within 10 seconds of release were at 'top of pylon height' and heading off noisily to the south-east. Justification indeed for a strict protocol re-releasing these birds together instead of in dribs and drabs as they are ringed.
Vis mig dawn to about 1000hrs with a few bits thereafter
Meadow Pipit - 17 SE
Chaffinch - 182 SW
Lesser Redpoll - 4 SW
Brambling - 2 SW
alba Wagtail - 17 SE
Grey Wagtail - possibly the same off-passage bird seen twice
Starling - flock of 10 S
Mistle Thrush - 2 SW
Carrion Crow - 3+2+1 high to south
Goldfinch - 43 S
Redwing - 93 SW in dribs and drabs, no double-figure flocks!
Woodpigeon - 4+2 high to SE
Pink-footed Goose - 12+4 SE
Linnet - 3 SE
Skylark - 10 SE
Song Thrush - 2 SW
Greenfinch - at least 38 SW
Tree Sparrow - 4 together S
Siskin - flock of 25 SE
Jay - 2 S
Coal Tit - at least 16 migrants
Long-tailed Tit - 10 unringed birds were retained and released together along with two 'locals' caught at the same time - headed off to the south
What was probably a Snow Bunting was heard twice high to the west but it obviously isn't being claimed
Grounded
Hardly anything, so two Chiffchaff a little unexpected
Song Thrush - c10
Blackbird - much reduced on yesterday - 10-15
Chiffchaff - two newly arrived birds caught and ringed
Blackcap - one female ringed
Goldcrest - only two seen and both caught and ringed
Ringing
Expensive! New-ringed stuff: Goldfinch (45 plus a control), Long-tailed Tit (10), Coal Tit (16), Chiffchaff (2), Redwing (2), Song Thrush (1), Blackbird (1), Chaffinch (3), Bullfinch (1), Goldcrest (2), Greenfinch (10), Dunnock (1), Blue Tit (7), Blackcap (1), Linnet (2), Twite (5). Goldfinch control was D057 sequence = pretty recent.
