Dribs and drabs day

Heysham Obs
Nothing like yesterdays number of birds today at sea, on land or indeed overhead until late morning when there was a landfall of Wheatear.

North harbour wall 0700-0800 and 1230-1330
Sandwich Tern - 16 out early on after which just 3 seen!
Arctic Skua - 2 dark morph in together at 1300hrs, flying quite high when passing Heysham NHW.
Gannet - 5 distantly out and across 1310-1315
Whimbrel - 4 in 1250
Common Scoter - 10 out 1325

Grounded
Pied Flycatcher 1st S male trapped and ringed.
Wheatear - nothing first thing but 30 had arrived at Ocean Edge by lunchtime.
Otherwise no evidence of any significant arrivals

Middleton IE
Sightings included at least 4 Grasshopper Warbler (2 singing males & 2 silent birds)

Elsewhere
Spoonbill still at Leighton Moss, also Green-winged Teal. Osprey flew south east there late afternoon

Plenty of migrants, lncluding ducks!

Heysham Obs
This was an excellent morning if a somewhat wet and frustrating one for the person looking after two intermittently opened mist nets. It was very difficult to estimate the numbers of landbird migrants except to say there were 'a lot' and using Wheatear as an indicator, birds were arriving all morning. Scarce (for here) ducks were the other main feature (see below). Weather: Cloudy with intermittent drizzle & heavy rain as a slow-moving front moved south and then back north. Wind negligible SW.

Sea/vis mig from the north harbour wall intermittent 0615-1300 & 1615-1730
Arctic Skua - light morph chasing Sandwich Terns, then flew out close inshore 1134-1140
Arctic Tern - 173 in, mostly after the rain cleared at 1100hrs
Sandwich Tern - absolute minimum of 55 based on unduplicated count at 1130hrs - assuming the continuous presence involved these birds
Common Scoter - absolute minimum of 110 = a raft of 85 plus 25 out at the same time. This assumes regular sightings of up to 100 during poor visibility during the previous 5 hours involved the same birds. This is doubtful and the true figure is probably in excess of 200.
Tufted Duck - 2 in - very rare on seawatches
Shoveler - one landed on the sea by the harbour entrance, then probably the same later on the 'no swimming' pond
Whimbrel - c20 north
Razorbill - one floated in at 1100-1115
Guillemot - two 1st S inshore throughout
Red-throated Diver - 10 in (including 5 together)
Gannet - unusually the only one was late afternoon
Black-tailed Godwit - 46+37 in - more than the grand total 1980-2007!!!
Black-headed Gull - 19 purposefully north
Tree Pipit - 2NE
Swallow - 37NE
Goldfinch - 7 NE
Linnet 3NE
Meadow Pipit - 1NE
Swift 1NE (first of year here)

Black Guillemot present around the wooden jetty. No time to check for Purple Sandpiper!

Grounded migrants
Pretty impossible to accurately estimate, although Willow Warbler & Wheatear well in excess of 100 in the recording area.

Wheatear - a continuous through-put of individuals all morning (at least) with, for example, 30 on the NHW mound at 1230 & still 20+ late afternoon! The maximum counts from individual coastal sites added up to 134 and that is as good a figure as any to indicate 'a lot'!
Willow Warbler - even more difficult to estimate. Impressions put the total in the "100+" bracket with, for example, 16 in one willow bush on Middleton IE early morning and still 20-25 migrants on a circuit of HNR as late as 1500hrs. Unfortunately mist nets could only operate for a very short period and this indicated that Chiffchaff, Blackcap, Sedge Warbler and Willow Warbler were the main species passing through non-open sites
Grasshopper Warbler - 4, almost certainly 5 singing males on Middleton IE and another singing male at the SW corner of the 'Tank Farm', the raised area south of the observation tower. One of the males on Middleton was displaying to a female. At least three of these males were new arrivals
Sedge Warbler - mass arrival of singing males with at least 16 on Middleton IE and 4+ around the HN reserve
Whinchat - male nature park fence by anemometer
Common Sandpiper - 3 on the rocks by the NHW most of the day

Miscellany
Gadwall - pair on Middleton 'no swimming' pond - very rare here
Little Egret - one distantly on Middleton tideline

Elsewhere
Green-winged Teal, Spoonbill & Med Gull on Allen/EM Pools. Pair Garganey new in on Grisedale. Reported Great-white Egret on two occasions in the area. Summer Curlew Sandpiper Cockersands (new in) off Lighthouse Cottage. At least three 'spot' counts of Wheatear in excess of 50 in open fields/saltmarsh & several 20+ aggregations. Reliable Black Tern very briefly at Leighton Moss for 5 mins just prior to 2000hrs. A few decent moths today: very early or locally-reared Dark Sword Grass at Millhouses this morning and a short and very sweet sheet and light session at Silverdale Moss Wood produced Scarce Prominent (the first moth to the sheet! - only half a dozen records from north Lancs in last 10 years), Barred tooth-striped at a known site, Pale Pinion, Water Carpet, Early Tooth-striped, a late Mottled Grey, Lunar Marbled Brown, Oak Tree Pug & the usual orthosia rubbish

Avocet, Chough & reasonable early morning seabirds

Heysham Obs
Late morning update. A new species for Heysham in the form of Avocet and another excellent record in the form of a Chough which was first heard from the inner harbour direction by seawatchers (Mark Prestwood and John Girdley) before flying along the south wall, through the inner wooden jetty gap, then 'u' turning (wind?) then back over their heads, heading ESE towards the inner harbour. Wind S backing SSW 2-3 - veil of high cloud.

North harbour wall 0615-1100
Chough - see above - at about 0950hrs - gap in the right wing flight feathers
Little Gull - 4 adult and 6 1st winter out
Arctic Skua - 1+2+1 dark morph in
Razorbill - 6
Guillemot - 2
Gannet - 5
Sandwich Tern - 11
Arctic Tern - 3
Red-throated Diver - 1
Black Guillemot - early morning at least
Swallow - 8 (the only obvious small bird vis)

Ocean Edge/Red Nab
Avocet - one presumably on Red Nab then flew south past OE foreshore 1040hrs
Little Gull - adult end of Stage 2 outfall
Common Gull - 178
Black-headed Gull - 44

Elsewhere
Spoonbill Allen/EM Pools. Green-winged Teal EM Pool. Ad Long-eared Owl showing well at Leck at dusk.

A quiet day

Heysham Obs
An early morning trawl north and south of the harbour checking the sea for 30 mins & OE foreshore & stage 2 outfall. A lunchtime seawatch/paper read/Purp Sand check between 1130 and 1215. A brief attempt to intercept a Common Scoter flock mid afternoon produced a few more terns. Weather SSE 1 high cloud to c0830, veering SW 2-3 and clearing, then clouding over 1115 onwards with intermittent rain and wind dropping to SW1-2.

Sea/vis from the north harbour wall 0745-0815/1130-1215
Sandwich Tern - 11 out am/9 out lunchtime/4 out mid afternoon
Swallow - 3 in/1 in
Meadow Pipit - one in
Linnet - 6 in & 2 on the nyger seed
Black Guillemot - sat offshore between wooden jetty & sandplant entrance at least 0745-0815/on the sea next to the inner wooden jetty
Common Scoter - 3 out 1135
Skua spp. - nothing to suggest it was not Arctic, probably pale morph - one very distantly in flight heading 'in', then landed on sea & lost c1150hrs
Purple Sandpiper - at least one on the wooden jetty
Guillemot - 1 out 1200
Arctic Tern - 2 out mid-afternoon

Stage 2 Outfall 0820-0825/1220-1225
Ad summer Little Gull on the seaward end, not there later
Arctic Tern - Just ONE on the outfalls, not there later
Common Gull - min 188
Black-headed Gull - min 26

Intermittent Vis mig whilst on the move 0930-1100, some of this along Morecambe Promenade
Goldfinch - c40 NE
Siskin - 5 (flock) NE
Swallow 16 NE
Meadow Pipit - 1 NE
alba Wagtail 2 NE
Linnet - 7 NE

All these were during the clear spell of weather with F2-3 breeze and a lot was probably missed

No sign of any Wheatear but the ball-slinging dog walkers were there first

Moths
First Powdered Quaker of the year

Elsewhere
Pale-bellied Brent Goose offshore from Morecambe Stone Jetty early morning. Legs not seen c/f Sunny Slopes bird last seen about a week ago & again no sign at the usual haunts at high tide. Chough seen Warton Crag quarry this morning (roosted last night).

Velvet Scoter and backtracking Pinkfeet

Heysham Obs
A new dawn, a different type of front to yesterday (cold as opposed to warm occlusion) and a different birding scenario. Today was about attritional seawatching with occasional highlights keeping people going. The best period was the first post- frontal 'window' at 0810-0815 just prior to the only post-frontal heavy shower. Therefore, the heavy showers given on some forecasts for the high tide period did not materialise and the quality and quantity of seabirds, as a result, did not match the observer effort. Evidence from nearby suggests that both vis and grounded migrants were missed during the 1.5 hours of dry daylight prior to the sudden arrival of the morning weather front!

North harbour wall 0750-1600, excluding 1000-1045
Velvet Scoter - Male flew out at 0814hrs
Arctic Skua - Dark morphs in at 0811hrs and 1205hrs
Pink-footed Goose - 161 in the short weather window at 0815 could be excused heading SE but why did four other flocks of 6+7+109+38 also head SE during clear sunny weather later on?
Arctic Tern - 17+2+1+1 in, all before 1000hrs, then 112 in, then back out again from 1400hrs
Sandwich Tern - 16 out, 3 in, up to 5 'blogging', all after 1045hrs
Common Scoter - 8+1 out
Guillemot - 11+ seen, mainly over the tide, surprisingly no Razorbill
Red-throated Diver - 2 in
Gannet - 1 distantly in
Cormorant - high-flying flocks of 4+3 in
Kittiwake - Ad & 1st S blogging during the HT period
Whimbrel - 1

Meadow Pipit - 7 NE
Tree Pipit - 1 NE
Swallow - 8 NE
alba Wagtail - 1 NE
White Wagtail - 2NE
Linnet - 15 NE & 4 grounded by the nyger seed feeder

Wooden jetty area
Black Guillemot - including entering its favoured hole just to the right of where number 9 is painted
Purple Sandpiper - 2 on the wooden jetty

No Wheatear seen during a trawl of the usual areas

Mammals
One Grey Seal & one Harbour Porpoise

Moths
Shoulder Stripe & Double-striped Pug

Elsewhere
Nothing at all of any interest up to 1840hrs - JBP seawatching very poor with just three RT Diver of note - again suffered because of the lack of any squalls or even rain showers c/f further north e.g 9 Poms at Bowness on Solway

Migrants fall off the back of the front

Heysham Obs
A rather 'casual' report of a (presumed) Common Buzzard soaring over Middleton in the afternoon was by far the most unexpected sighting today - they are much scarcer than passage Marsh Harrier and Osprey, despite fairly regular sightings just a few km. to the east

"Night" migrants
Wheatear are the most obvious indicator of arrival and, following just TWO birds in the early morning murk, 16 arrived on Ocean Edge foreshore just as the last remnants of cloud were heading NE. These were an instructive mixture of large Iceland/Greenland-bound males (8) and smaller 'British' females and 1st summer males.

This period also saw an arrival of four additional Lesser Whitethroat and two Common Whitethroat to join the wide-ranging LW present earlier on.
Other night migrants appeared during (or before) the front and included a male Redstart by the office, one Lesser Whitethroat and several Willow Warbler, including two on the north harbour wall

Vis mig
Visible migration was very intermittent during the frontal period with a 'gap' 0910-0915 producing a fair proportion of the following, including the Tree Pipit: Tree Pipit, 7 Siskin, 33 Meadow Pipit, 25 Swallow, 1 White Wagtail

Seawatch observations - mostly after the front from 1100hrs
Flock 19 Teal 'in'
4 Arctic Tern blogging around the outfalls
c6 Sandwich Tern

Inshore
Black Guillemot in residence.
TWO Purple Sandpiper on the wooden jetty with 285 Turnstone
Whimbrel Red Nab

Middleton IE
Singing male Grasshopper Warbler this evening
3 Common Sandpiper in the morning
Swallow and Sand Martin reported both morning and afternoon, but not known whether vis or off-passage
Presumably Common Buzzard soaring over the site this afternoon - rare here
Two Sedge Warbler this evening

Mammals
Stoat ran into Heysham NR office porch, then out again fairly quickly!

Elsewhere
There has been some pretty unfavourable weather i.e. no clear conditions at dusk with a westerly airflow for departing easterly-bound birds this last few weeks and this presumably accounts for a gull-calling Bittern at Leighton Moss climbing to 1000+ feet before heading east this evening. 2 pairs of Shoveler off Stone Jetty this morning (c/f yesterdays Heysham observation). Grasshopper Warbler & female Redstart Aldcliffe area. 30 Avocet at the EM complex, 28 of these on the 'flood'

Shag, Shoveler & Arctic tern passage

Heysham Obs
Not without interest this morning but generally fewer birds than yesterday

North harbour wall sea/vis 0645-0930
Arctic Tern - 230 in, highest flock = 47
Sandwich Tern - c16 in or blogging
Shag - adult in the channel by the sandworks until about 0700hrs, then could not be found
Black Guillemot - appeared about 0715hrs then remained throughout but very mobile with many circling flights
Guillemot - 1st S on water
Shoveler - a pair in the harbour mouth c0800 - a completely unprecedented record. Disappeared whilst the camera was being sorted out.
Shelduck - flock of 5 high to the north
Whimbrel - just one flock of 3 north
Razorbill - flock of 5 floating in about 1030hrs
Purple Sandpiper - one beneath the wooden jetty with 191+ Turnstone = highest numbers of the year at present on spring passage
Kittiwake - 4+3+1 - a little unexpected in the conditions
Black-headed Gull - 75 in in three main groups

Swallow - 185NE
Meadow Pipit - 44NE
Linnet - 37NE
Sand Martin - 18NE
White Wagtail - 7NE
Goldfinch - 11NE

Grounded/ringing
Wheatear - not many with only 8 recorded along the coast
Willow Warbler - 17 ringed
Blackcap - 4 ringed
Lesser Whitethroat - one ringed
Goldcrest - one male ringed - late
Tree Pipit - one on non-op land

Elsewhere
Red Kite flew north over Nether Kellet at 0735hrs

The floodgates open

Heysham Obs
This has been one of the better mornings I can remember at Heysham. First of all there was murky offshore weather until about 0830 and this produced a good sprinkling of grounded 'night' migrants. Then, as it cleared, the vis mig really kicked in with the main theme being 'catch-up' by Meadow Pipit & Linnet, almost three weeks after the usual peak passage, but also quite a few Swallow.

Vis Mig from NHW & Ocean Edge foreshore 0700-1130 (excluding 0815-0900)
OSPREY - one circled high then headed ENE over Red Nab/Power stations at 1040
YELLOW WAGTAIL - male NE at 1035
ARCTIC SKUA - first of the year was a dark morph in at 0925, presumably the same later blogging off JBP
Meadow Pipit - 557 NE
Linnet - 502 NE
Swallow - 217 NE
Sand Martin - 32 NE
Goldfinch - 29 NE
House Martin - 8 NE
Arctic Tern - 32 north up the bay
Sandwich Tern - 12 north up the bay
Gannet - one distantly
White Wagtail - one north - the only 'alba' seen!
Whimbrel - 8+4+3+7 north
Red-throated Diver - sp bird in

Grounded
Wheatear - minimum of 43
BLACK REDSTART - female on the bollards next to Red Nab, then on the PS perimeter fence before disappearing into the storage area c0820hrs
REDSTART - male by the pond in the nature park at c1130 (thanks Jeff) Whitethroat - one singing briefly at Red Nab
Sedge Warbler - one singing briefly at Red Nab
Willow Warbler - definite influx but very difficult to be sure of numbers (no ringing today)- maybe 30+

Other morning observations
BLACK GUILLEMOT - this reappeared at about 1030hrs and remained close inshore between the wooden jetty and Heysham 2 outfall
Med Gull - 1st summer with Common Gulls
Common Gull - numbers increased to c252 outfalls/Red Nab but evidence of coming and going throughout the morning
Black-headed Gull - influx with up to 56 around outfalls
PURPLE SANDPIPER - summer plumaged bird still on the wooden jetty with Turnstone
Knot - 450 flying very high to the NW

Vis mig from north harbour wall 1300-1400 & 1530-1630
Black Guillemot & Purple Sandpiper around/on wooden jetty throughout
78+60 Swallow NE
2+24 Sand Martin NE
2 Meadow Pipit NE
This period also saw a tern approaching the outfalls and when it was checked out it from the OE side turned out to be the first Common Tern of the year

Half-moon Bay area late afternoon
3000-4000 Knot seeming to depart very high to the NW
10 Swallow NE

Mammals
Harbour Porpoise off the NHW for c5 minutes 0915hrs

Insects
Bombus terrestris queen in-off with Meadow Pipit

Elsewhere
Probably the most interesting posting was a flock of mid-afternoon Jackdaw (65) heading high and purposefully to the NE over Freehold. Presumably the DM Arctic Skua (see above) was off JBP over the midday period plus about 8 Arctic Tern & 2 Red-throated Diver. Pied Flycatcher and Redstart Hindburndale (PF since yesterday) but no Cuckoo yet.

First Arctic Terns (but skuas missed?)

Heysham Obs
The problems with seawatching in spring are that birds can be moving at all stages of the tide in relation to observer availability and secondly the tide takes an 'age' to reach JBP, where the observers understandably do not bother staring at the empty mudflats at the equivalent of the 'early incoming tide time' for more outer Bay sites such as Walney, Rossall & Heysham. Hence an important part of the local seawatching jigsaw is to watch the early stages of the incoming tide from Heysham, before perhaps moving round to JBP for the high tide period. Observation of this time slot was not possible today. Here is the entry from Walney, observing birds entering Morecambe Bay during this critical time-period (not the open sea shoreline): "Despite the persistent easterly winds of the last few days, morning observations on the rising tide (0830-1030) conspired to provide variety if not quantity. Highlights were 4 dark phase Arctic Skua heading into Morecambe Bay along with 2 Little Tern, 2 Arctic Tern and a Black Guillemot resplendent in its summer plumage". More details on the excellent Walney site can be accessed via the links.

North Harbour Wall
0700-0830 (low tide) E3/4 cloudy
Arctic Tern 5
Sandwich Tern 22
Red-breasted Merganser 6
Gannet 1
Meadow Pipit 18

Elsewhere
Skerton Weir - 7 House Martin, 2 Swallows
Halton Mills - 2 Common Sandpiper
JBP - Whimbrel, RT Diver, Sandwich Terns [late morning onwards]
Teal Bay - 2 Spotted Redshank
Pilling Marsh - Ross's, Bean and Barnacle (that well known firm of goose solicitors)
Sunderland Point - 3 Whimbrel
Aldcliffe - Green Sandpiper
Dallam Park - 50 Swallow, 36 Sand Martin, 2 Blackcap, 2 Willow Warbler

Auk fest (by our standards!)

Heysham Obs

North harbour wall
0700-1000
3 Red-throated Diver
3 Gannet
1 Fulmar
10 Razorbill floating in on tide
2 Guillemot
sev auk sp
10 Sandwich Tern 'out' distant
Meadow Pipit 10 NE
Linnet 10
Goldfinch 5
Turnstone 120 min. Wooden Jetty plus Purple Sandpiper.

Outfalls
116 Common Gulls
15 Black-headed Gulls

Middleton IE
Lesser Whitethroat in song - first of the year.
4 Mute Swan (one nesting on Fence Pond), 7 Coot, 2 Morrhen, 3 Little Grebe, 4 Tufted Duck, 6 Mallard

Nature Park
Chiffchaff in song
1 Stoat

Elsewhere
Leighton Moss, EM Pools - 30 Avocet, 1 Spotted Redshank, up to 1500 Black-tailed Godwit.
Aldcliffe - 2 White Wagtail, pr Little Ringed Plover, Common Sandpiper, Willow Warblers
Jenny Brown's Point - Whimbrel, 2 Red-throated Diver, 14 Sandwich Tern, 1 Swallow (so not yet summer).