Heysham Obs
This weather is great - just missing a scarce or two. This morning saw another still slightly hazy session with the sun covered up the majority of the time by low cloud to the east. A much better cross-bay corridor today with Grey Wagtail and Meadow Pipit soon on the move, but the big difference vis-wise this morning was the number of Swallows. Had to cut the session short today and missed some Grey Wagtail!
Middleton dawn to 1000hrs
Grey Wagtail - 20 SE (7 ringed - the last four birds flew over after the net taken down and three missed due to extracting retrap Blue Tits!)
Meadow Pipit - at least 268 SE - some missed whilst at on mist net rounds
Swallow - 180 SE (as above)
House Martin - 6 SE
Jay - one high and purposefully SE
Reed Bunting - 3 unringed birds caught perhaps the sum total this morning
Tree Pipit - just one SE
alba Wagtail - just 11 SE - not got going here yet
Dunnock - see below - appeared from NW with heavy Meadow Pipit passage - not the first time this has been recorded here
Grounded
Willow Warbler - surprising and a sign of north European origin? - 5 ringed and at least another three seen/heard. Only seen odd ones/day recently
Chiffchaff - 4 ringed
Robin - a lot of ticking early on and 4 ringed
Reed Warbler - single juv ringed
Blackcap - 4 ringed
Dunnock - its that time of year - three presumed migrants landed and were caught and ringed
Lesser Whitethroat - one ringed at nearby Heysham NR on 2/9 was caught and showed a weight loss (10.3g as opposed to 11.3g). Seemed healthy enough
Heysham NR
Whitethroat - one retrap - first caught as moulting adult on 7/8. Odd it is still hanging about.
Grey Wagtail - 2 out of just three recorded ringed
Two each of unringed Dunnock and Robin plus single unringed Chiffchaff
Ocean Edge foreshore area
Whinchat - 1
Stonechat - one male
Red Nab
Rock Pipit - 1 (IOA)
