Autumnal vis & flighty Vestal

This 1st W Grey Wagtail was photographed by Reuben Neville and shows that the black ring (left leg lower ring) is quite difficult to see. There are quite a few of the sequences which have the black ring as the lower of the two. See column to the right for comment on this.

Heysham Obs
Outfalls/Ocean Edge - quick lunchtime check on dropping tide

Black Tern - juv still on S 2 outfall

Little Gull - ad as above

Wheatear - one

Linnet - 37

Vis mig - not a lot as observed mainly from Middleton

Grey Wagtail - 13 SE (8 of these colour-ringed)

Meadow Pipit - just 25 SE

Swallow - just 5 SE

Siskin - 2 SE

Skylark - 1 SE

Coal Tit - hyperactive bird by the office

Grounded

Garden Warbler - 2 ringed

Chiffchaff - probably about 10 around

Goldcrest - 2

Coal Tit one hyperactive bird by the NR office

Moths
A VESTAL was on the window frame & allowed identification before disappearing out of the window

A milestone reached at last

Heysham Obs
Ocean Edge foreshore/Red Nab/outfalls 0800-0900
Little Egret - TWO in the OE saltmarsh creek - fighting over territory - the first time more than one has been recorded here!!!
Black Tern - juv still outfalls/Red Nab - still there 1820hrs
Little Gull - Ad W - & Ad & 2nd W there 1820hrs
Meadow Pipit - 36 SE
alba Wagtail - 3 SE but only 3 on the grass= Pied - early evening saw c40 pre-roost wagtails which included 2 definite White
Grey Wagtail - 2 SE
Swallow - 5 SE
Shelduck - 135 off OE - a notable increase

No Meds or additional Little Gulls in careful search & 15 minutes scrutinising the horizon did not produce hundreds of Manx Shearwater (see Walney site) but one Lesser Black-backed Gull

Elsewhere
Nothing posted of interest other than 1st W Med Gull at Morecambe Stone Jetty & late Swift at Leighton Moss

Jamming in on passage birds

Heysham Obs
Seawatching in autumn, unless there have been a few days of gale-force SW/W winds producing Leach's Petrels, can be like watching paint dry. For the systematic one hour early morning coverage Walney give the open sea coast, read cursory glances at a time usually stretching the definition of early morning.
For no apparent reason other than a bit of luck, a Great Skua was connected with this morning.

Outfalls/Red Nab/Ocean Edge/checking the sea/listening for vis 0730-0815
Great Skua - one flew out of the Bay at 0755
Common Scoter - flock (3M) out at 0745
Sandwich Tern - one out
Black Tern - juv roosting on Red Nab
Little Gull - Ad & 2nd W roosting on Red Nab
White Wagtail - 5 on Ocean Edge football pitch (& 22 Pied)
Meadow Pipit - 42 SE in the above time period, 37 SE 1145-1215
alba Wagtail - 5 SE
Grey Wagtail - 2 SE
Swallow - 43 SE 1145-1215

North harbour wall/wooden jetty
Shag - one juv but a lot of the Cormorants had already left on the dropping tide
Med Gull - Czech-ringed adult

Elsewhere
Black-necked Grebe Conder Pool and Ad Yellow-legged Gull visible from Sunderland tidal road. Two experienced observers failed to find any Meds watching the Lune from Glasson. Female Marsh Harrier at various sites Cockersands to Fluke Hall.

New Black Tern

Heysham Obs
Rain a little earlier than forecasted yet again!

Outfalls
Black Tern - a new juv; quite 'contrasty' with a pale rump - still there in torrential rain late afternoon
Little Gull - adult & 2nd W

Grounded OE foreshore
White Wagtail - one adult male
Meadow Pipit - 10
Wheatear - 1

Vis before the (first lot of) rain
Singles of Mead0w Pipit, Pied Wagtail and Grey Wagtail.

Elsewhere
Black-necked Grebe still Conder Pool. Juv Marsh Harrier Leighton Moss

Again a little disappointing

Heysham Obs
Considering this is THE decent day of the week for ringing activities and vis mig, following a clearish (perhaps too clear) night, there was relatively little happening, especially first thing. Middleton and Heysham were both mistnetted

Vis mig
Grey Wagtail - at least 18 mainly SE (8 colour-ringed - should have been more)
Meadow Pipit - c10 SE
Tree Pipit - 1 SE
Swallow - 20 SE
House Martin - 2 SE
Jackdaw - one heard (perhaps one of the small Middleton village population)

Grounded
Just single figures of Willow Warbler, Robin, Whitethroat and Chiffchaff. An unringed adult Lesser Whitethroat of unknown status ringed at Middleton. No coastal morning coverage for Wheatear. One Chiffchaff took about an hour to travel from the Heysham mist nets to those at Middleton!

Off-passage
100+ Goldfinch between Heysham NR and Middleton (8 ringed)

Elsewhere
Nothing yet

A bit disappointing

Heysham Obs
Nothing mind-boggling this morning with the weather being very uncooperative as any large-scale ringing was negated by a strong early morning wind which abated rather too late. Given the windy conditions, a 'whoosh' net was used for the Grey Wagtail colour-ringing project and this resulted in one bird too many i.e. it was sat on the metal pole or elastic whilst the other 7 were in perfect position. You cannot fire the net under these circumstances and only two remained when it was safe to do so.

Outfalls
Little Gull - Ad & 2 x 2nd W (one looks like an ad but we know differently from its moult history!)
Med Gull - Czech-ringed adult
Common Tern - juv

General
Spotted Flycatcher - one in the sycamore near Gate 38
Wheatear - 13 along coast/non-op land
Tree Pipit - 1 over Middleton IE & 1 grounded at Heysham Nature reserve
Grey Wagtail - 8 down to tape for a short time (2 ringed) and 5 later SE
Chiffchaff - 11 scattered around (including 5 with Middleton LTT flock, 2 by the Moneyclose Lane traffic lights)
Whitethroat - one by office pm
Lesser Whitethroat - one
Robin - 'lots' - including 6 on the rocks at Red Nab
Goldcrest - just 1!
Meadow Pipit - 17 SE
Swallow - c20 SE
Goldfinch - flock of 83 at Red Nab
Linnet - 8
Eider - 2 off NHW

Elsewhere
Black-necked Grebe Conder Pool. 6 adult & 1 2nd W Med Gulls on nearby Lune Estuary, one Ad on Conder Pool & another by Greyhound Bridge, Lancaster. Ad Yellow-legged Gull & Ruff Lune Estuary. Little Egret over Asda early morning.

North-easterly blast

Thanks for the comments - the site will stay as it is!

A Lapwing ringed as a chick on the Power Station non-operational land in May 2000 was read in the field on the mudflats near Sunderland village in autumn 2006. It was there again today.

Heysham Obs
Grounded = circuit of reserve & OE area & NH wall
Wheatear - 11
Chiffchaff - 6+
Goldcrest - 4
Robin - loads of ticking birds - 30+

Outfalls/OE area
Med Gull - juv->1st W & later on an ad
Little Gull - Ad & 2nd W
alba Wagtail - 41 Ocean Edge (wet) coastal grassy area - 5 definite White, rest appeared to be Pied apart from two difficult birds.
House Martin - c30 feeding in Red Nab area

Inshore north wall/wooden jetty
Eider - 1
Med Gull - Czech-ringed adult
Shag - 2 juvs on wooden jetty as tide was coming in mid-pm - one of these was attacked by an already settled (as opposed to newly arrived & 'muscling into space') Cormorant - not seen this before - & flew into harbour . This bird is ringed on the right leg if anyone gets a chance with it on the stanchions in the waterfall area of the harbour...... The last three numbers should suffice for a juv.

Middleton IE
Willow Warbler
Tufted Duck - 7

Vis
Not a lot
Meadow Pipit - 2 SE
Swallow - 4 SE

Elsewhere
Juv Black-necked Grebe still Conder Pool & 6+ Green Sandpiper still Aldlciffe area. 4-5 adult and one 2nd W Med Gulls in Lune Estuary roost as viewed from Waterloo Cottage area, also 2nd W Stodday area. Ad Yellow-legged Gull still present in neap high tide roost. Up to 100 off-passage Sand Martin at each of: Aldcliffe pools, Dockacres complex/Hare Tarn and Warton floods - late for such numbers - feeding close to water surface at all sites [with other hirundines].

Perhaps not as much as there should have been

Heysham Obs
Half decent conditions for passerines this morning but the rain was perhaps a little too early. No incoming tide watches, therefore no Shag records or completely ruling out Black Tern has moved on

Migrants
Redstart - female type Red Nab
Wheatear - 8 mound/Ocean Edge/non-op land
Tree Pipit - 2 grounded on reserve & another flew E
Meadow Pipit - a small pulse of south-east-bound birds just prior to the main rain totalling 56 in 5 groups (max 27)
White Wagtail - 3 'in-off' & joined the Pieds (26) on Ocean Edge. One alba SE over reserve
Swallow - 4 NE
Robin - influx with many ticking birds scattered around (8+ on reserve circuit)
Willow Warbler - 1 reserve circuit
Chiffchaff - 2 reserve circuit, 3+ dog track
Goldcrest - 2 reserve circuit, 4+ dog track
Sandwich Tern - 2 'in'

Others
Little Gull - Ad & 2nd W on mud by Stage 2 outfall
Med Gull - Czech-ringed adult NH wall & 1st W seaward end of Stage 2 outfall
Eider - female harbour mouth

Elsewhere
SEVEN Green Sandpiper Aldcliffe area. Egyptian Goose Warton floods. Little Tern and double-figures of Sandwich Tern off Stone Jetty. NNEW Black-necked Grebe Conder Pool

wet and wetter morning

Heysham Obs
Never seen the grassy area on Ocean Edge 'seafront' as wet, even in midwinter. Thanks to Bob & Joyce Calder for a fair chunk of these records

Ocean Edge/Red Nab/outfalls
Black Tern - juv present at least lunchtime, then headed south and had not obviously returned by 1600hrs
Little Gull - Ad & 2 x 2nd W
Sandwich Tern - one

Wheatear
At least 12 between Ocean Edge saltmarsh and Half-Moon Bay with another 4 on the PS non-operational land

Wooden jetty/north wall/heliport
Juv Shag with metal ring on right leg flew on to jetty from north about 1200hrs (see elsewhere). Later TWO birds.
Med Gull - Czech-ringed adult and juv->1st W late afternoon (photo on LDBWS site)
Common Sandpiper - 1 - late for here
Sandwich Tern - 1

Middleton IE
Wet! 5 Tufted Duck but no Teal in this season of plenty as regards waterbodies

Elsewhere
TWO juvenile Shag together by Morecambe Stone Jetty c1300hrs, also 9 Sandwich Tern & migrant Reed Warbler in the dome bushes. Wood Sandpiper Cumbrian end of Silverdale Moss and Osprey Leighton Moss

Good inshore selection

Heysham Obs
So far, the wind is too southerly for any sea passage (1415hrs), a bit better late afternoon - but a bit late!

Ocean Edge/Red Nab/outfalls
Black Tern - juv stage 2 outfall
Little Gull - 2 x 2nd W, 1 x ad & also 1 x juv which appeared to follow IOM ferry in
Med Gull - one (small) ad
Wheatear - at least 6
Gannet - one far offshore
Sandwich Tern - one

Heliport
Med Gull - 2 x 2nd W, 1 x Czech-ringed Ad
Ringed Plover - 49 - 2 metal-ringed

IOM ferry
Kittiwake - 6 behind it

North wall/harbour mouth/wooden jetty
Shag - 2 juvs on wooden jetty by the rusty tower
Cormorant - 47 wooden jetty
Med Gull - juv in harbour mouth & area for 5 minutes or so
Wheatear - 1
Kittiwake - loafing 1st S
Gannet - 2 late afternoon
Sandwich Tern - 2 out after spending short time on heliport

Elsewhere
Juv Black-necked Grebe still Conder Pool. Ad Med Stone Jetty