Another winter mega for SD36V

Heysham Obs
After discovering that yesterdays male Stonechat was on the north harbour wall mound (there are some gorse bushes!), today saw the turn of a Skylark. This is unheard of in winter, other than during snow & CWMs - maybe its a couple of days early. Just missed the incoming IOM ferry c/f Kittiwake. We have no idea where yesterdays Black Redstart might be as the sighting was bang in the middle of a well-watched area, not a minor displacement from unwatched strictly private land as previously assumed (the main lorry park). 5 Linnet by the sandworks

North harbour wall
Med Gull: 2nd winter seen in the morning but none seen at lunchtime
Purple Sandpiper: Two feeding together below the north harbour wall at lunchtime - right at the harbour mouth end
Skylark: One on the mound at lunchtime!
Twite - Four on the mound in the morning, two (one ringed - Heysham site ring light blue over ??) lunchtime which flew towards the south harbour wall

South harbour wall/gate "38"
Two Twite and the Dunnock still in rather adventurous residence, receiving a SD35Z stamp!

Elsewhere
Light-bellied Brent Goose off the Sunny Slopes the only report received of any interest from year listers. Purple Sandpiper off the end of the Stone Jetty during the low tide period but elusive amongst large rocks (much easier to see at Heysham, providing not under the wooden jetty!)

Under our noses for a month?!

Heysham Obs
Happy New Year

The excuse is that large chunks of the harbour are not accessible. An experienced observer with a different routine - walking down the footpath next to the lorry park - allied to inactivity therein - dug out a male Black Redstart. It was sat on the perimeter fence (no further details). Logic suggests that this was the bird seen in November nearer the harbour mouth which was never properly searched for away from the Centrica Storage Yard/Mound area.

IOM ferry
Two Ad Kittiwake and the 2nd W Med Gull followed it into port at lunchtime

North harbour wall
Male Eider new in. Stonechat in the area (detail later) & at least 1 Twite.

More detail possible later

Elsewhere
Disappointing with nothing startling. Water Pipit seen from at least one hide at Leighton and 3 Common Crossbill at Thrushgill. plantation

As you were

Heysham Obs
North harbour wall
Ad & 2nd W Med Gull but no sign of any Purple Sandpiper

Ocean Edge
1+ Twite heard on the saltmarsh

Passage
180 Pink-footed Geese south c1130hrs

Reserve
Kingfisher flew from Obs T. pond towards NR marsh late afternoon

Middleton IE
Waterbirds included: 34 Snipe. 19 Teal, 5 Tufted Duck, female Pochard, 3 Goldeneye

Elsewhere
Purple Sandpiper Morecambe Stone jetty early morning
No sign Ruddy Duck Pine Lake
Greenshank and Spotted Redshank Conder Pool/estuary
Scaup - at least 2 on Glasson basin
Water Pipit elusively on Jackson
Chiffchaff by Jackson hide
Hawfinches Woodwell and Sizergh castle grounds
Bewick's Swan - two on the Lune near Glasson

Best of luck to everyone trying for a New Year's Day list. Giving it a miss for the first time for 15 or so years & concentrating on the 8 hr 10km square survey for SD66 before the weather/roads get tricky. Presumably Heysham records will feature tomorrow on people's day lists, please text them to me if you are not putting them on this or the LDBWS site. Some Twite food has been put out by the sandworks entrance

usual fare

Heysham Obs
North wall/harbour
Ad & 2nd W Med Gull
Dunnock by Gate "38" (35Z)

Passage
c50 Pink-footed Goose S early morning
c65 PFG S later in morning

Red Nab
Twite - 6 & presumably same flock along south harbour wall
Kingfisher
Wigeon - 75

Elsewhere
Light-bellied Brent Goose still by Regent Road groyne
Purple Sandpiper Stone jetty
Ad Med Gull Broadway area
See Fylde site for quite a few birds in/next to the overlap area with LDBWS

Short-lived seabird weather

Heysham Obs
Two lots of 30 mins seawatching; lunchtime and mid-afternoon. The latter half-hour, despite more promising conditions, produced zilch. No ferry at lunchtime to spice things up

Heysham North harbour wall/offshore
Kittiwake: 24 - 16 floating in on the water and 6+1+1 'in'
Little Gull: Ad gradually being blown into the bay
Red-throated Diver - one 'out'

No Meds or Purp Sands seen

Middleton IE
Teal 60, Goldeneye 5, Tufted Duck 4, Pochard 1, Mute Swan 2 but only 4 Coot have returned post-freeze & no Little Grebe

Elsewhere

Pale-bellied Brent Goose still at the Sunny Slopes groyne with 16 Reed Bunting nearby on the Regent Road groyne. Nothing of interest on Pine Lake. Two Greenshank and Spotted Redshank in the Conder area. Lots of wildfowl again on the Warton floods - surely a case here for a HLS scheme to retain these as wet meadows?

Wet Wet Wet

Heysham Obs
South harbour/outfalls area
Purple Sandpiper x2 inner end of Heysham One outfall, below sea wall, 1145 hrs (incoming tide).
Pink-footed Goose 54 SW 1015 hrs.
Twite 4, Goldfinch 5 and 1 Meadow Pipit SHW above harbour.
Great-crested Grebe 1 in harbour.
Cormorant 1 at intake (no Shag for several days).

North harbour wall
Same Pinkfeet - different observer!
2nd W Med Gull
Single Meadow Pipit on mound
Definitely no Purp S in careful check

Ocean Edge saltmarsh
Snipe - 6 flushed by tide
Jack Snipe - 2 on tide edge
Kingfisher

IOM ferry c1200hrs
2 x adult and one x 1st W Kittiwake but no Little Gull seen within viewing range of the north harbour wall. The Kitts made their way out of the Bay

Moth trap
One Chestnut - a very common 'hibernating' (unless its mild) species in well wooded areas but rare at Heysham

Elsewhere

Pale-bellied brent Goose still by Regent Road groyne on incoming tide. Drake Ruddy Duck (& several Goosander) feeding next to the watersport centre in NW corner Pine Lake but again no sign of hybrid Ferruginous x Pochard which disappeared this time last winter. Ad Med Gull on field next to Lancaster football ground (pres P96?).

Dull and dreary

Heysham Obs
IOM ferry
2 adult and 2 1st W Kittiwake and ad Little Gull in the wake but all but 1 1st W Kittiwake peeled off quickly & headed out of the Bay

North harbour wall at HT
2nd W Med Gull

Elsewhere
Canadian-ringed juv Pale-bellied Brent Goose still Regent Road groyne-Sunny Slopes but mobile - last seen Sunny Slopes end. 7+ Reed Bunting around Battery and Regent Road groynes
Purple Sand. at the Stone Jetty - only one seen today?
Med Gull 36W Broadway and P96 back on Lancaster City Football ground!
Water Pipit Jacksons hide, Leighton Moss
Nothing at all of interest on Pine Lake but Coot with whitish undertail AND whitish ends to the flight feathers - obviously a bit of leucism - beware!

The importance of ferries

........especially when there is one ferry entering port and not others leaving Fleetwood or even Heysham turning the trail of gulls around before they are within visual range. This was the case with the IOM passenger ferry today and will also be the same at c1200hrs for any NYD listers targeting at least Kittiwake

Heysham Obs
IOM passenger ferry
Good numbers of gulls trailing this ferry included:
Kittiwake - 7 adult
Little Gull - adult and 2nd W
These all motored out of the Bay as soon as the ferry reached the harbour, therefore timing very important

North wall/harbour/wooden jetty
Purple Sandpiper - Three - One in the Heysham One/wooden jetty area on the incoming tide and two on the Near Naze (rocks by the heliport) from at least 1115hrs which flew towards the harbour at
1220hrs
Twite - mixed flock with Goldfinch - at least 11 Twite including black over white colour-ringed bird = ringed here three winters ago.
Further confirmation that there are no Shag left in the area and no reappearance of the Black Guillemot
Med Gull - Ad & 2nd W and quite probably a different 2nd W (with less black) briefly behind the IOM ferry
Red-throated Diver - one out about 1205hrs

Red Nab/Ocean Edge
Kingfisher - perhaps two again in this area
Just Common Snipe seen during the coverage of Ocean Edge saltmarsh by the tide (30ish?) plus a single Reed Bunting

Elsewhere
Pine Lake
Male Ruddy Duck new in - hope it stays for the New Year as this species is really tricky these days with the decline of the small breeding population at Leighton Moss
Female Ferruginous Duck x Pochard hybrid in exactly the same place as yesterday along the eastern side, just north of the big car parking area
Morecambe seafront
Couldnt find the Pale-bellied Brent as I also couldn't yesterday - the posting was from information earlier in the morning, but the mobile Polish-ringed Med. Gull (P96) was on the Regent Road groyne
Lune valley
Similar number of swans to yesterday but could not see any detail because of trees

A mobile Christmas!

Able to do a day's birding interrupted by work (Morecambe Groyne counts) and lots of two-way texts and calls. Pre-mobiles this would have been labelled as extreme, indeed selfish, anti-social Christmas behaviour.

Heysham Obs
North harbour wall & area
Mediterranean Gull - Ad & 2nd W on the railings
Twite - 27 around
Bar-tailed Godwit - 11 Half-Moon Bay was unusual
Kingfisher - probably 2

Red Nab/outfalls/Ocean Edge
Med Gull - one ad sat on the sea

Moth trap
One Winter Moth

Elsewhere
Pine Lake: Female Ferruginous x Pochard hybrid along the E. shore. Another odd Aythya (Tufted-type) female which may have some Ring-necked in ancestry (greyish suffused wingbar & head shape etc) but views distant & hampered by active feeding
Morecambe seafront: The new Sunny Slopes groyne is becoming a significant wader roost c/f 363 Redshank, 17 Ringed Plover, 11 Dunlin, 1670 Oystercatcher, 15 Knot, 1 Curlew (and a Kingfisher). The other major feature, other than the continued presence of the Pale-bellied Brent Goose, was 12 Reed Bunting (this is the coastal section in the middle of urban Morecambe!) by the Regent Road groyne on the rocks by the spartina. I seem to remember Jon Stagg having a similar figure a year or two ago but this is my first above the 'one-two' level. One Rock Pipit by the Battery groyne. Belgian-ringed Med Gull by the Strathmore
SD66: Quite a lot of good atlas records but nothing worthy of mention until a male Hen Harrier over Starkers Moor to the accompaniment of Bach's harpsichord Concerto in D minor (pseuds corner material?). Thrushgill was disappointing with the only finch being a single Bullfinch. No sign of the Snow Bunting yet again & presumed gone (or just displaced by a few hundred metres!)
Lune valley: At least 16 Whooper Swan still in the fields (with Mute Swan) between Melling and Hornby, viewable from the high point fo the A683

What a negative cold spell!

General
Reviewing the period of cold weather, now it has finally been broken, leads to a conclusion that there were no 'pluses' but a considerable number of 'minuses', leading to a pretty birdless North Lancs at the moment as regards the 'usual' scarcer odds and ends.

The cold spell apparently "got rid of " Great White Egret, all the Shag, Ringstones Snow Bunting and has been responsible for the lack of Kittiwake, Little Gull, Common Guillemot and other odds and ends associated with 'normal' winter weather. No additional species have materialised during this weather, with Pine Lake hosting the largest collection of wildfowl I have ever seen without any interesting feature (couldn't even find the Ferruginous x Pochard hybrid this afternoon), no extra Waxwings nationwide or movement by the ones in Scotland/NE England and nothing, other than a few extralimital records of species which are resident in the area, materialising from 'perfect' atlassing weather.

It can only get better - Cattle Egret would be a good start! Currently there is no chance of making 100 species on New Year's Day in the LDBWS recording area - we are missing far too many of the 10 or so species needed to reach the 100 mark. As a result, but also for a change, two of us who usually do dawn to dusk on 1/1 are going to do the fourth year of the eight hour 10km survey instead which will, of course, produce quite a few good Atlas records.

Heysham Obs
The only sighting of interest today was the usual Ad Med. Gull by the heliport just after HT.

Insects
See yesterdays late posting

Elsewhere
Pale-bellied Brent Goose on the northern side of the Morecambe Battery groyne at HT. Med Gull P96 back on Lancaster City Football Pitch after its cold weather sojourn on Morecambe seafront (surely Morecambe FC would be better quality, especially after yesterdays bull-bashing?). One Water Pipit seen at Leighton Moss. Thorough check of Pine Lake comprised 1000+ common wildfowl!