Late clock-in for the first Swallows

Heysham Obs
Two Swallow flew over the HNR office late afternoon preceded by a trickle of Meadow Pipit

North harbour wall
Twite - 15 together plus one with 3 Linnet
Eider - 28 offshore
Meadow Pipit - 15 north in 15 minutes 1000-1015hrs

Ocean Edge
Wheatear - 3 males

Moneyclose Lane
3 singing male Chiffchaff
Moorhen - adult roadkill

Heysham Head
2 Wheatear

Moths
Common Quaker (6), Hebrew Character (1), Early Thorn (1), Diurnea fagella (2) - rare here, Agonopterix heracliana (1)

Elsewhere
Chough came out of the Warton Crag quarry roost & flew SW at 0640hrs. Ad & 2nd S Med Gull on Eric Morecambe hide. Ross's Goose & Barnacle Goose Aldcliffe in afternoon at least. Swallow & House Martin Pine Lake

Quiet morning

Heysham Obs
North Harbour Wall
16 Twite still in the vicinity and 1+ Linnet.
Nothing much on the sea apart from 2 Red-breasted Mergansers and male and female Eider.

Elsewhere
Morecambe, Broadway - 2 Spotted Redshank
Aldcliffe Parish - Barnacle Goose, 2 Whooper Swans, Greenshank. 5 Chiffchaffs.
Conder Pool - 4 Scaup (3M, 1F), 1 Little Ringed Plover. University - Swallow over.
Lune (Caton to Halton) - 1 Sand Martin, 20 Chiffchaffs.

Routine fare pre-midday

Heysham Obs
In general, there were lots (100+) of large gulls around today with a high proportion of immatures and if this is sustained, looks good for a passing 'white-wing' in the next few days. Concentrations on Heysham 2 outfall and the harbour intake area. No obvious evidence of passerine movement this morning.

North harbour wall
1.5 hours of mainly useless seawatching in poor visibility - a few bits and bobs in a clear slot around 0930hrs
Red-throated Diver - 1 in s.p. out, 4 in s.p. in
Carrion Crow - 1 battling its way across the bay NNW
Little Gull - ad (see outfalls)
Twite - 14 on the nyger seed, only one of these ringed [Heysham 2008]
Linnet - 4 on nyger seed

Stage 2 outfall
Ad briefly on the outer part & more 'settled' 1st W Little Gull

Firecrest etc

Heysham Obs
Just to reiterate the comment in the info. on the right hand side of this page. We really are short of a ringing assistant prepared to help with net setting or even coming along later to help with logistics such as taking nets down and writing down ringing details. This does not mean you will be forced in any way to become a (time-consuming) ringing trainee, but if that is what you do want, valuable experience can be had here. This is all done outside the office, so can double up as a check for migrants in nearby bushes or listen/look for vis migs. Anyone interested, please contact Alan Draper [see right hand columns]

In many ways a frustrating morning with the available ringer aware of Twite attendance at the feeder and understandably going for a final late winter (unsuccessful) whoosh netting session as the Twite unfortunately took advantage of the weather to depart. Just two seen early on and an unringed flock of 6, presumably migrants, which passed through without 'recognising' the food

Unfortunately, from a ringing decision point of view, there were also quite a few grounded migrants around, based on just one hour to spare this morning. There was no way that anyone setting a whoosh net at dawn could have anticipated this, as it appeared to be too clear for a sizeable drop of night migrants. The arrivals included 10 minutes on & off viewing of a Firecrest, probably but not absolutely certainly a female, in the hedge line by the office, then in the ivy-based willows around the Obs Tower pond, then over the back of the Obs Tower pond, whence lost from view. First picked up on call which is 'obvious' when you hear a genuine one a few times!

As singing Chiffchaff postings on the LDBWS site have indicated, quite an arrival this morning but the main, if not the most obvious, species was Goldcrest e.g. 200+ Calf of Man at the same migratory latitude.

The most unusual feature this morning, however, in a Heysham context was a flock of 27 Jackdaw [and 9 Carrion Crow] heading north - unprecedented in spring and related to the Nordic influx???

Grounded by the office
Firecrest for 10 minutes at least around the office & Obs Tower pond 0815 [& 6+ Goldcrest, 4+ Chiffchaff].

Vis 0800-0850 office all north(ish)
Meadow Pipit - 72
Woodpigeon - 5
alba Wagtail - 2
Mute Swan - 1
Redpoll spp - 1 (IOY)
Goldfinch - 6
Jackdaw 27 & Carrion Crow 9 [together] - unprecedented in spring

North harbour wall
Twite 2+6 passing through
Greylag - 4

Elsewhere
Dominated by common migrants and the desire of anyone with any spare time to get to Marton Mere! Ross's Goose Aldcliffe Marsh, two LRP Freeman's Pool and one LRP Conder Pool. A Red Kite was reported at Littledale.

Comma ventures forth

Heysham Obs
The first 'insect day' for some time produced lots of bumble bee spp and a single Comma in the NE corner of Heysham NR. Some attritional seawatching in the early morning and during the Radio 3 early music hour produced a few Kittiwakes, Red-throats and single Gannet & Sandwich Tern.

North harbour wall 0730-0930 & 1300-1400 BST
Red-throated Diver - one in 0800, 2 in 0900, 1 out 0922, one in 1310
Sandwich tern - one out 1330
Kittiwake - 16+20 in 0845, 30 in 0854, 2 in 0910, 16 out 0917, 16 out (having floated in with tide) 1330. Therefore minimum of 68.
Gannet - adult out 0830

Vis mig
Meadow Pipit 13 N 0730-0930, 2 N 1300-1400

Grounded
Goldcrest - 5 on reserve circuit
Chiffchaff - 3 on reserve circuit, one a singing bird which has been round a few days & 2 definite migrants together
No Wheatear reported today

North harbour wall feeder
Twite - 5 early morning (2 ringed), later 10-11.
Linnet - 7

Elsewhere
Ross's Goose, Barnacle Goose and two Whooper Swan Aldcliffe Marsh

Red-throated Diver visits the harbour

Heysham Obs
A Red-throated Diver toured the harbour before returning to the channel off the north harbour wall. All observations before the rain swept in late morning.

Vis mig mainly from from north harbour wall 0700-1030
alba wagtail - 14 north
Meadow Pipit - c67 north
Goldfinch - 2NE
Jackdaw - 1SW

North harbour wall
Twite - 6 on feeder

Wooden jetty
Purple Sandpiper - 1 on jetty

Offshore
Red-throated Diver - one floated out, 2 inshore (including one earlier in harbour)
Kittiwake - flock of c250 swirling about and then landing on the water in the region of the moored freight ferries 1 mile or so south of the harbour c1000-1030 at least

Grounded migrants
Single figures of Meadow Pipit and Pied Wagtail plus:
Wheatear - 2 OE foreshore
Stonechat - 3 (2 males) Middleton IE - very late passage birds as has been the case elsewhere in this area this month - these same birds may have been around for a week.
Chiffchaff - 1 Middleton IE, 2 reserve

Middleton IE
Goldeneye 1, Tufted Duck 2, Teal 5, Coot 11

Elsewhere
Ross's Goose Aldcliffe Marsh. Pale-bellied Brent Goose Sunny Slopes groyne. Swallow Leighton Moss. NNEW any action at JBP over the tide - wind too southerly at Heysham

Another good Kittiwake passage

Heysham Obs
Most of these were recorded by Jenny Brown's Point observers whilst we were at work, knowing the bay was being 'covered'! 321 off JBP during mid-afternoon - best to include the Heysham birds mentioned below amongst them to be on the safe side. A 15 min seawatch & extensive scan was made as the JBP observers were just about to give up & there appeared to be no more Kittiwake on the move [but a flock of 7 Red-throated Diver]

North harbour wall 1200-1300 (immediately post-rain)
Kittiwake 1+2+14 in
Red-throated Diver 1+1 in 1200-1300 plus s.p. flock of 7 in, then landed at 1530hrs
Meadow Pipit - 4 in & no movement of any significance noted at Heysham today
Twite - 12 at the feeder (4 ringed), increasing to 15 (4 ringed) at 1530hrs

Ocean Edge
Wheatear - one male

Stage 2 outfall
Little Gull - one, later two adults

Moths
2 Hebrew Character & a Brown House Moth

Elsewhere
Ross's Goose, Barnacle Goose and two Whooper Swans Aldcliffe, visible from both sides of the Lune. JBP had c321 Kittiwake during the afternoon tide period when there was no equivalent (i.e. up to 20 mins or so before JBP sighting) coverage at Heysham, plus 4 RTD. 4 Scaup still at Conder. Chough still in Warton Crag quarry at 1715hrs & 873 Common Gull flew through Pine Lake 1730-1800 hours & about 1/3 of that number of BH Gull but no Meds!

Sorry its late 'cos quite a bit of stuff

Heysham Obs
Just checked site at 0130hrs having just been out on the town - misunderstanding, thought someone else was updating today. Apologies!

Vis mig intermittent 0700-1000, then 1045-1115
Meadow Pipit - just 134 recorded during first period, then 69 in 30 minutes passing 'through' a wide-angle 30x scope trained half-horizon at Piel Castle i.e. a seawatch! Casual glances away from this scope saw several birds flying above and, in conjunction with JBP observations, a lot of birds were missed late morning. However, an afternoon visit indicated the movement had finished
Goldfinch - 1 north!
Sand Martin - 1 north
Pied Wagtail - 4 north
Pink-footed Goose 80 north

Seawatching
Kittiwake - 62 were blogging, having arrived in 5 groups during the early low-tide period, before disppearing up the Bay. Two flocks at the same time during the later 30 minutes - about a mile apart (one close inshore, the other in Cumbria!) 32+61, giving a day total of 155. Unlike Meadow Pipit, the movement ceased thereafter with NONE seen off JBP when observation started about midday.
Sandwich Tern - the first of the year making its way slowly and distantly out of the Bay at 0955hrs
Red-throated Diver - 6+1+1 in during 0700-1000, 2 in sp in together at 1100hrs = 10 in total

Sandworks feeder
14 Twite (2 ringed), 2 Linnet and an inquisitve Meadow Pipit

Seaduck
100 Eider, 4 GC Grebe and a flock of 27 RB Merganser off the NHW at low tide.

Elsewhere
Ross's Goose still Aldcliffe. 4 Scaup Conder area.

Chiffchaff at last but otherwise...........

Heysham Obs
Heysham NR
Not a lot, but it did include the first (two) singing male Chiffchaff of the year and a Wheatear on the PS non-op land. A female Blackbird was trapped with a continental wing length, along with two male Goldcrest & unringed Blue and Great Tit. Just 8 Meadow Pipit over!

Middleton IE
Male Teal, 4 Tufted Duck, at least 3 pairs of Little Grebe [two pairs fighting on the new scrape]

Absolutely zilch worth mentioning from the coastal area - a long time since that has happened and it was pretty well covered during the morning.

Moths

Early Thorn (above), Hebrew Character & Common Quaker in the trap

Elsewhere
Ross's Goose, Barnacle Goose and 2 Whooper Swan on Aldcliffe, but first two not visible from west side of river. 32+19 Kittiwake at JBP in poor visibility, the conditions hampering any attempt to seawatch at Heysham

Kittiwakes missed but 'picked up' at JBP!

Heysham Obs
It's the spring seawatching season with a vengeance at the moment and the good thing about this is that if observers at Heysham or the SJ are unavailable, there may be someone at JBP to "rescue" the data (and vice versa). This is what happened today and no doubt a 'healthy' situation of observers at all three sites trying to correlate e.g. skua sightings will again be a feature of the spring.

Vis. (from office and north harbour wall) 0730-1000 hrs
Meadow pipit 9
Pied wagtail 10
Grey Wagtail 1

North Harbour Wall 0730-0830:

10 Twite (3 with pale blue over white rings) and 4 Linnet.
1 Red-throated Diver "in" at 0815.
19 Red-breasted Merganser (one flock of 17) in main channel.
7 Great-crested Grebe.
2 male and 1 female Eider.

NHW 1015-1100hrs
Purple Sandpiper below wooden jetty
Turnstone min. 161
Common Scoter F 'out' 1100 hrs
NOTE: NO Kittiwake seen prior to 1100hrs, thereafter observers had to leave

Heysham Head
Sparrowhawk 4 together diving/chasing 0900 hrs & 1 soaring above Non-Op land 0950 hrs

Moths
3 Hebrew Character, 1 March Moth, 1 Clouded Drab and 1 Common Quaker in the trap this morning

Common Quaker

Elsewhere
Jenny Brown's Point: 2 Red-throated Diver & three divers perceived to be larger circled around for 30 minutes before heading overland. 1025 accurately counted Kittiwakes from 1155-1500hrs plus three other smallish 20-30ish flocks whilst the divers were being watched = c1,100 for the day. 3 Scaup Conder Pool. 8 Whooper Swan still just NE of Gressingham bridge. Ross's Goose, Barnacle Goose and two Whooper Swan Aldcliffe Marsh (& PFG flock)