Heysham Obs.

NHW
Pink-footed Goose : 3 flocks 08.20 - 08.30 NW over Lake District. Total c1150 plus further c 150 at 09.55.
Twite: groups of 9 (all ringed) & 15 (majority ringed) around sand plant. Not settled - fishing disturbance yesterday plus work in sand plant? 9 caught including 1 further Duddon bird and 1 new bird.

Elsewhere
Waxwings: 8 at Bridge Road, Lancaster (am) & 14 at Cove Road Silverdale (time?)

Heysham Obs.

Office
House Sparrow male & female at feeder.

North habour wall 1030-1140 hrs
Med Gull adult
Guillemot 'in' 1100 hrs on tide - flew out 1115 hrs
Common Scoter 7 'in/across'
Great Crested Grebe 1 'in'

Midd IE
Mute Swan 2
Coot 8
Moorhen 7
Mallard 11
Teal 14
Tufted Duck 9
Pochard 2 (1m)
Goldeneye 2 (f)
Snipe 8
Redwing 10
Fieldfare 2
Pink-footed Goose 160 North 1230 hrs

A gloomy day

Nothing from me on Sunday or Monday - could someone else please update. Will forward your texted stuff tomorrow, Malcolm - sorry dont have phone with me!

North Harbour Wall
Twite c35 at Sand Plant gate.

Elsewhere
Wet and bedraggled Short-eared Owl in hawthorn next to the Allen Pool car park. 4+ Waxwings just to the south of Hornby school but really difficult from P.R.O.W.

Early WeBS

Heysham Obs
North harbour wall
Med Gull - one adult
Twite - 34 on seed with 11 unringed; rest all Heysham-ringed birds
Red-throated Diver - 2+ offshore

Harbour
Shag - 2: 1 in harbour with the other alongside the wooden jetty

Wooden jetty
Purple Sandpiper - 1

Red Nab
Wigeon - 128 - highest count of this winter period
Med Gull - one adult on sea

Cannon netting
460 Oystercatchers were caught this morning including one which had been ringed in Iceland & about 9 British-ringed birds from other than Heysham

by office
No proper birding but 3 Redwing casually noted in the tank farm and a further two along Moneyclose Lane. No report of Waxwings.

Observers today: Alan Williams, Pete Marsh & largish cannon net team - the latter didnt see anything (per Mark Breaks)!

Elsewhere
Rough-legged Buzzard seen well from Lower Hide flying towards Public Hide this morning at 1100hrs. Purple Sandpiper on seaward side of Bubbles groyne, visible from Lifeboat station area only. Med Gull Ad Broadway and male & 2 female Scaup by Scalestones Point. Red-throated Diver close inshore by the Stone Jetty at 1115hrs. Waxwings: 17 at 1600hrs Hornby main street by Alpaca shop & one at Scotforth

Waxwings at last!

Heysham Obs
To miss out on both Yellow-browed Warbler and Waxwing this back end would have left this site with a serious lack of migratory cred, as the White-throated Sparrow and other 'megas' recede into history.

By the NR office
Waxwing - 5 flew from the direction of Heysham Head and appeared to land in the tankfarm at 1010hrs. At 1150, they were at the top of the tall willows bordering the car park before flying back to the tankfarm, where they could be heard calling. No further searches made by known observers
Fieldfare - 2 seen
Redwing - 2 in tank farm

Offshore
Red-throated Diver - 5 - a good winter count for here

Inshore
Med Gull - 2 ads north harbour wall (one with Czech ring)
Shag - at least one actively feeding in the SW corner of the harbour
Twite - 35 on the seed - 22 ringed. Flock flying in from the harbour direction at Ocean Edge at c1100hrs almost certainly same birds
Goldfinch - one on seed

Observers: John Wood & Pete Marsh

Elsewhere
55 Twite Bank End. Two Little Egrets reported well up the Lune valley at Greta Foot - no detail on how well they were seen - they flew off towards Leighton late afternoon

Cold weather thrush displacement

Heysham Obs
To repeat....Fieldfare are very rare here outside the autumn passage period - i.e. even absent on spring passage in many years. Therefore whilst todays numbers might not seem a big deal, they are most unusual.

1000-1045 hrs - Office
Fieldfare - 35 over
Redwing - 34 over
Kingfisher - 1 flew towards tank farm
Snipe - 5 flushed from marsh
Great Spotted woodpecker - 1
Bullfinch - male
Sparrowhawk - female

North wall and Ocean Edge very briefly
Red-throated Diver - one out
Shag - there ARE two juvs still around
No finches... high level of verbal and mechanical racket in the sand works as the infrastructure is being demolished. It would be good if they could leave the remaining sand to acquire sand dune vegetation.......... [no immediate plans to use this area]
Med Gull - adult off the seaward end of the outfalls

Observers: John Wood, Reuben Neville, John Clarke, Pete Marsh

Elsewhere
Waxwing sitting in a tree in the centre of Glasson (0925hrs). 17 Waxwings near the White Lund Honda garage at northern end of A683 "Heysham" bypass 1300-1345hrs, but not there later. Plenty of suitable habitat, including in nearby housing estates. No sign Quernmore Hooded Crow during midday search

Earlyish and late north harbour wall coverage

Heysham Obs
Possibly due to an aggressive spam filter/deleter, I have definitely not received 7 e-mails sent this week. There may be others. Please could you re-send [or text 07989866487]. Apologies, therefore, for lack of responses. Thanks. Pete (see contact details in RH column)

North harbour wall
0940-1040 hrs
Red-throated Diver 2 'out'
Eider 2 'in'
Med Gull adult
Twite 13 very flighty near Sand Plant Gate as JCB removed wooden sleeper fence.
No Shag on wooden jetty

1450-1515hrs
Blinding sunlight!
Med Gull - two ads to bread, including Czech-ringed bird
Shag - none at all in the harbour or on the wooden jetty - is this it until next autumn? (one Cormorant at the waterfall)

Observers: John Wood & Pete Marsh

Elsewhere
Mostly a numbers game from Pine Lake (32 Shoveler, 227 Pochard) & Glasson area (125+ Tufted on marina) & small areas of open water left at Leighton Moss (120+ Gadwall), with additional interest being a female Scaup on Glasson marina (displaced from Freemans pool??). NNEW on Hooded Crow, any interesting raptors at Leighton Moss or any non-Little Egret in the roost there. No obvious sign of 2nd W Med at Claughton.

The weather front stops and takes a seat

.........which leads to a dreary, grossly underrecorded day all over north Lancs.

Heysham Obs
Harbour area
Med Gull - one adult
Shag - 2 juvs

Elsewhere
The distinctive 2nd W Med Gull photographed a Pine Lake a few days ago was on the roof of the farm at Claughton (by A683) with hundreds of other gulls this morning

Sunday drivers!!

Heysham Obs
.....left me little time to cover the incoming tide as the efficient midweek Crook-of-Lune-Slyne rat-run was transformed into a second-gear Sunday brake-light fest, along with a predictable shambles at Halton mini-roundabout. This latter location needs its own highway code (or ten commandments, as a lot of the miscreants seem to be churchgoers)

North harbour wall
Med gull - ad
Twite - 24
Red-throated Diver - 1
Shag - 1

Half moon bay/nature reserve
Redwing - flock of 85 south at 1030hrs
Redwing - 13 on the tank farm late afternoon

Observers: Malcolm Downham, Alan Draper, Pete Marsh, Mark Prestwood

Elsewhere
6 Hawfinch Woodwell. 3+ Waxwing NE Warton with 9 two hours later near Cotestones.....which flew back towards Warton. Displaced wildfowl included 60 Shoveler on Holmere & a further 30 on Pine Lake. Rough-legged Buzzard reportedly seen from the Lower Hide early afternoon, before flying 'into the wood'. Hooded Crow Stock-a-bank mid-afternoon but very mobile, solitary and wary. 8 (+?) Whooper Swans in the usual location between Melling and Gressingham bridge. 4 Bittern seen from Lower Hide at the same time this early afternoon, but no sign of the supposedly proximate RLB by this observer.

Record count of Ravens

Sorry Malcolm, the wrong part of the vari-focals was looking at your text & mistook 7 for 2!

Looks like we're heading for our 50,000th hit today (since December 2006) - not bad for a recording area which couldn't even muster a YBW this autumn and now competing for attention with hundreds of other birding blogs, albeit mainly personal rather than aimed specifically at a recording area.

Heysham Obs
North harbour wall
A careful search at low tide in clear calm conditions produced:
Red-throated Diver - 3 in Cumbria i.e. miles away!
Eider - 7+5+1
Mute Swan - 6 imms 'in'
Meadow Pipit - 2 'in-off' (unexpected)
Med Gull - ad offshore
Finches - food all frozen - no birds

Harbour/wooden jetty
Purple Sandpiper - one under the wooden jetty on rocks
Shag - one on the stanchion next to the waterfall (SW corner harbour) & anothe by the end of the wooden jetty
Guillemot - one close inshore as the tide started rising

Middleton IE
SEVEN Raven flew over
Fieldfare - 18 (rare outside the autumn passage period here)
Redwing - 25
plus: Water Rail (1), Snipe (2), Moorhen (9), Coot (8), Mute Swan (2) in mainly frozen wetland area

Observers: Malcolm Downham, John Wood and Pete Marsh

Elsewhere
Hooded Crow 0940 hrs in field above conifers west of Quernmore Church cSD516604. Rough-legged Buzzard photographed early afternoon at Leighton Moss but only available briefly. No Waxwing reported locally for today, but c5 Carnforth Booths yesterday and c13 at Hornby/Butt Yeats on Thursday