Poor visibility = thrushes

Heysham Obs
This morning saw weak frontal cloud and poor visibility. When this happens in March, it often produces a rather autumnal-style grounding of migrant thrushes (and any mist netting usually reveals this to be accompanied by unringed Robins). Grounded thrushes at Heysham are rare in spring with most of them presumably racing overhead during hours of darkness as can sometimes be ascertained by flight calls. A fairly early morning visit saw 15 Redwing and two Fieldfare in the willows to the north of the car park - these flew high inland. A few minutes later, 2 (continental) Song Thrush lifted out of the tank farm scrub and similarly headed inland. More tricky to evaluate was the 'impression' of migrant Blackbird with three males together along the entrance road.

A short late afternoon visit to the outfalls produced the now 'resident' adult & 2 1stW Little Gull. 500 Knot on the mudflats off Red Nab as the tide was ebbing. 2nd year Med Gull & 3 juv Shag seen. Two Raven hanging around the reserve, landing on pylons during the afternoon

Elsewhere
An increase in islandica Black-tailed Godwit in the Carnforth Marsh area to 720, including three with colour rings.

A low ebb

.....in more ways than one. The lowest low tide I have ever seen at Heysham this late afternoon..........and the only opportunity for birding = the 'guaranteed' Little Gulls on Heysham 2 outfall - just 2 x 1st W - and a bonus in the form of 7 Eiders plonking down off the seaward end.

"500+" Pink-feet were seen from JBP flying over Heysham and towards the Lake District early afternoon

Moths springing back to life with 2 Hebrew Character in the trap

Elsewhere
Highlighted by 3 x Bottle-nosed Dolphin and 2+ Harbour Porpoise seen c2 miles off JBP........and therefore presumably also off Heysham but no time to look today. At least some of these were also seen at JBP yesterday.

Red Nab, Outfalls & Harbour

Shag 5 juv wooden jetty
Kittiwake 2 adult + 1 1st W harbour
Little Gull adult + 2 1st W outfalls
Shelduck 12 off Ocean Edge
Grey Plover off OE
Mistle thrush OE foreshore carrying food
Skua sp 0950 hrs 'in' heat haze hampering visibility

Elsewhere
10 Whooper Swans on Lune floodplain - displaced slightly to the north by a quadbike = opposite Wray road/A683 junction

Red Nab, Outfalls & Harbour

Little Gull TWO adult + 1 1st W outfalls & one of adults in harbour later
Kittiwake 3 ad + 1 1st W in harbour
Red-breasted Merganser 2M + 1F off Red Nab
Shag Two juv wooden jetty
Shelduck 10 off Ocean Edge; poor showing compared with recent counts here.
Raven - two of this scarce but slowly increasing visitor over the reserve
Mistle Thrush with food Ocean Edge foreshore (see John's posting for tomorrow)

Elsewhere
10 Whooper Swans still viewable distantly on the Lune floodplain from the A683 at Farleton. Purple Sandpiper still on the Bubbles Groyne, Stone Jetty mid-morning at high tide

Rougher than yesterdays photo=waves right over the top of the tower!

Heysham Obs
Seawatching
Half an hour of saltspray saw a flock of c200 (or more accurately 'a lot of') Kittiwake lift up from and then land again on the water - all appeared to be adults - and practically nothing else other than 5 singleton Kittiwake heading out close inshore.

Outfalls
Ad & 2 x 1st W Little Gull outfalls on dropping tide along with 6 Kittiwake (one 1st W)

Harbour
2 juv Shag and one 1st W Kittiwake

Wooden jetty
Single juv Shag and 21 Cormorant

Rest of WeBS
Most birds had been displaced leaving the Heliport and the grassland at the southern end of Ocean Edge as the only roosts: Oystercatcher 3,350 + 750, Turnstone 12, Ringed Plover 4

Middleton
Perhaps one of the outfalls Little Gulls at high tide. Wildfowl included: 5 Mute Swan, 4 Little Grebe, 5 Tufted Duck, 4 Goldeneye, 2 Teal........plus 5 Snipe

Insects
Amazingly another Mottled Grey (2nd ever record) plus single Clouded Drab and Hebrew Character in the moth trap which was at least on the leeward side of the building!

Elsewhere
10 Whooper Swan still on the Lune floodplain but recorded on the WeBS, not in the usual place. Scatter of Kittiwakes from coastal locations and single Fulmar past Cockersands.
7 Little Egret together on Colloway Marsh at high tide and a single Barnacle Goose accompanying the Pinkfeet at Aldcliffe. Light-bellied Brent Goose Jenny Brown's Point to mid-morning only

First Gannet of the year

If only conditions had been like this!

Heysham Obs
Seawatching
Early morning visit 'totally unproductive' (one hour). 3 adult Gannet out together c1000hrs (also seen from the Stone Jetty). Later a flock of 10 Kittiwake flew in

Miscellaneous Heysham Obs records
Ad & 2 1st W Little Gull Stage 2 outfalls
Shag: at least 4 juveniles around harbour/jetty/NH wall
Wigeon 1 male Red Nab
Shelduck 118 off Ocean Edge + 14 Red Nab; 2 "out"
Pheasant female Red Nab end of nature park. This is the first record for two years on the main BE properties!
Coal tit with metal ring seen today; probably indicating the continued presence of at least a resident male in the area. For the last two years, one has been singing along Moneyclose Lane near the main conifer area but no obvious sign of breeding success or indeed a suitable nest site.

Insects
Just a handful of Common Quaker, Hebrew Character & Clouded Drab in the trap the last few nights - mind you this could be rather more than in the next few, given the weather forecast. It is easy to forget that in some of the last twenty years, only one or two moths in total have been recorded by mid-March. Bumble Bee spp. reported today - normally this might represent the first record but this year at least two species have been out for nearly three weeks

Elsewhere
Light-bellied Brent Goose on the edge of the saltmarsh at Jenny Brown's Point - reported as looking sickly. Female Common Scoter at the most unusual location of Crook of Lune - sat in middle of river - still there at 1145hrs but not mid-late afternoon. 10 Whooper Swans still visible distantly on the Lune floodplain from the A683 at Farleton and the long-stayer still on Aldcliffe Marsh. Purple Sandpiper showing well at the end of the Stone Jetty. Low 20's of Sand Martin at Pine Lake and Leighton Moss this last three days but no wildfowl of interest on Pine Lake today. Still 2,500 Pink-footed Goose on Colloway Marsh but conditions/range prevented thorough search for other species from the cycle track

Try the sea tomorrow morning on incoming tide?

Heysham Obs
Seawatching
3 observers at various (short) times during the morning saw between them from the north harbour wall:
Kittiwake: Flock of c50 'in'
Skua spp: Dark and bulky individual 'out' at rather long range
Red-throated Diver - 2 'out'
Eider pair 'out'
Merlin - female 'in'

Outfalls/Red Nab
Ad & 2 1st W Little Gull Stage 2 outfall mid afternoon
Shelduck 133 off Ocean Edge + 6 Red Nab
Red-breasted Merganser pair RN
Wigeon 2 males RN

Harbour/wooden jetty
Shag 2 in harbour (& 1 cormorant) + 2 wooden jetty
Cormorant 20 wooden jetty

Ringing
A single 40' net plus Goldcrest tape produced 2 male and one female Goldcrest on the first round before it became too windy. Implicitly a few sneaking through in the windy unsettled conditions

Info: The large gulls seem to be building up a bit around the outfalls/harbour waterfall. Keep checking these - there are so many Icelands around and they should start moving north if they have not done so already

Elsewhere
Spotted Redshank on the bubbles groyne at the Stone jetty. 16 Sand Martin at Pine Lake late afternoon (poor things!) with a 2nd S Med Gull passing through there towards the Keer estuary roost with Common & Black-headed Gulls. I only had the briefest of glimpses of the legs but there appeared to be a white darvic

still mainly winter mode

Heysham Obs

26 Pink-footed Goose and 8 Whooper Swan north this morning, also seen at the Stone Jetty.

No small landbirds recorded on the 'vis'

Ad & 2 x 1st W Little Gull Heysham 2 outfall

3 Shag in the harbour and what looked like an individual of this species flying into the Bay at long range

Female Stonechat Middleton. Female Pochard still there but just 4 Tufted Duck remaining. 4 pairs of Lapwing and a single pair of Oystercatcher on territory - all round the new pond. Will they stay?

Elsewhere

Ad Med Gull in field at northern end of Agnes Ings Lane (Mealbank), Wray this afternoon and 10 Whooper Swan still on the Lune floodplain by Farleton. Nothing new at any other sites.

Pale form of Diurnea fagella, a rather large micro-moth which causes some problems at this time of year as people think it 'should' be in a 'proper' moth book due to its size. Beware! Most specimens are much darker than this but retain the distinctive shape with the long but terminally-rounded forewings. Plus another Small Brindled Beauty at its only Lancashire location (5 close tetrads) to fill the gap! Both taken at Millhouses, near Wray last night.

Two new moth species....and its only mid-March!

Heysham Obs
Red Nab, Outfalls & Harbour
Shelduck 42 south of Ocean Edge + 86 off RN. Also 4 + 2 out NHW
Mute Swan 2 south OE
Peregrine circling off OE
Wigeon 9 off RN
Reed Bunting female in bush near first caravan & RN
Little Gull adult + 2 1st W Heysham 2 outfall
Shag 1 wooden jetty + 1 "in" NHW

Vis
A sample 30 minutes 1000-1030 saw 20 x Meadow Pipit and 2 x alba Wagtail heading north

Moth trap
After checking the relevant annual reports and daily logs (thanks to Steve White for help), there was no evidence that Mottled Grey had occurred at Heysham (see yesterday). Extraordinarily, another new species materialised this morning, a female Oak Beauty:






Elsewhere
Nothing dramatic: similar rate of Meadow Pipit and alba wagtail passage over the Stone Jetty earlier in the morning. The Whooper Swans were back at Farleton at least in part (7+). Two singing Chiffchaff Leighton Moss and blurred shots of a funny looking specimen in Lancaster (see LDBWS photograph page)

A quieter day

Heysham Obs
Red Nab/outfalls/harbour
Shelduck 101 RN
Eider 1 male off RN
Little Gull adult & 2 1st W outfalls
Wigeon 11 far out on ebbing tide
Shag 2 in harbour + 2 wooden jetty, later presumably the same 4 on wooden jetty
Red-breasted merganser male out past wooden jetty


Grounded migrants
3 Stonechat on Middleton IE (2 males) but no evidence of Wheatear or Goldcrest after a very clear night. The most unexpected record was a Greenfinch on the north harbour wall mound - a new 'grounded' species for SD36!

Vis
One or two Meadow Pipit

Moth trap: There are no records on the MapMate database and indeed checks of the daily logs and the annual report revealed no evidence that Mottled Grey had been previously recorded at this site.



Thanks to Reuben Neville for this and the above Oak Beauty

Elsewhere
Very little news today other than the continued presence of the Purple Sandpiper at the Stone Jetty and 512 Eider offshore there mid-afternoon, the only notable records from a low tide count between Heysham Harbour and Teal Bay. Avocet number about 14 on the EM complex and nearby 118 easily-spooked Greylag Geese are probably the wild birds which many of us believe still visit this area, as the most southerly regular flock of Icelandic birds. Seemingly negative news on the Lune valley Whoopers but they have plenty of places to hide! No sign of the Lesser Snow Goose at Pilling.