Heysham Obs
Not cold enough or cold long enough for here as north winds are pretty hopeless unless they encourage use of a migratory corridor (e.g. Whoopers) which has been closed for a bit or old weather movements. Shame for the visiting birding group which seemed to disappear elsewhere in record time! Locked gates for security and safety reasons, however, stay that way for visiting birding groups unless some form of advance notice and a bit of negotiation is possible. Therefore the only available bird of remote interest was an hour away rather than one minute. Just to remind people that whilst birders are very welcome here, one of the duties of the harbour and power station police is to take details of any visitors they do not recognise, especially perhaps those with cameras. This especially applies to unsettled winter weather when the odd seabird might be tucked into a corner of the harbour or a gull of interest on Fisher's roof, 'necessitating' scopes being directed towards more sensitive areas than out to sea. If you don't like this, simply please stay away (see sidebar). Thanks to Malcolm for Middleton stuff
Publishable stuff of interest today
Guillemot - one in harbour by waterfall
Goldeneye - male far offshore off Heysham skeers
Woodcock - one Middleton NR
[Two 'dark geese' at extreme range in flight "along" the Barrow coast road!]
Also ran
Goldcrest - one by office
Meadow Pipit - one flew over office
Goldfinch - 20 ish north wall
Linnet - 5 ish north wall
Teal - 5 Middleton
Eider - only 8 could be found offshore around the skeers
