There is only one Twite (at the time of the original posting)

Heysham Obs
North harbour wall lunchtime
Twite - one on the seed!! - 14 later
Med Gull - 2 adults on railings
Red-throated Diver - 2 in a single sweep offshore
Shag - no sign

Observers: Alan Richards & Pete Marsh

Heysham Head
1 treecreeper with/following small flock of Long tailed Tits (MD)

Elsewhere
4 Scaup Scalestones Point area, singleton Freeman's Pool. 8 Whooper Swan Lune valley between Gressingham and Melling. Belated report of Rough-legged Buzzard (& 5 Buzzard) at Leighton Moss [morning sighting from Lilian's Hide] (per pager)

No red noses but plenty of Red-throats.

Heysham Obs
North harbour wall 0920-1200 ish
Red-throated Diver 16 minimum
Shag 1 juv harbour entrance
Twite 52
Eider 1 'in' + adult male close in
Shelduck 6 'out' - 1+1+3 'in'
Med Gull 2 adult
Great Crested Grebe 2
1005 Grey Plover 16 'out'
1015 Pink-footed Goose c160 North
1028 Guillemot 2 end of wooden jetty
Defeated by Ducks - 13 'out' may have been Mallard? + 2 'in' which could have been anything! Always find seawatching a challenging experience (John Wood)
Meadow Pipit 1 over

Heysham Head
c250 dunlin (south 10:30 - looks like they didn't get as far as John on NHW) MD

Elsewhere
Scaup - 2+ whilst driving along Morecambe prom, 8 Whooper Swan between Gressingham Bridge and Melling including one with darvic ring on right leg. No apparent sign of any Waxwings arouind Lancaster tax office and surrounding likely habitat (but Peregrine perched on cathedral)

Brief not a lot of encounter

Heysham Obs
A quick 40 minute trawl round the north harbour area/Ocean Edge foreshore, incorporating the lunchtime incoming IOM ferry, was not very good

Shag - no sign (single Cormorant at the waterfall)
Twite - c40 north wall feeder, but disturbed & not seen well
Red-throated Diver - after an age, one located far offshore
Guillemot - no sign
Med Gull - still just the one adult in the inner harbour
Purple Sandpiper - one seen after about 20 minutes searching below the wooden jetty
Kittiwake - none today behind the ferry
Wigeon - 131 off Stage 2 outfall

Middleton Industrial Est
2 mute
5 coot
4 moorhen
1 little grebe
8 tufted
1 pochard (f)
22 teal
8 mallard
16 snipe
3 bullfinch
140 Gloden plover (south 1:15)
Pinkfooted geese
160 (south 12:30)
91 & 49 (North east 2:00)

Elsewhere
Waxwing - 9 behind the tax office , Lancaster. No sign of any Whooper Swans in the usual Lune valley site (4 Mute). 4 Tree Sparrow at Heaton village feeders.

High numbers of Twite maintained

Heysham Obs
North harbour wall 0925-1230hrs
Twite - 85 (21 unringed)
Red-throated Diver - 4 on sea including 1st W in harbour entrance then just below NHW + 1 'in' & 1 'out'
Shelduck - 1 + 1 'in'
Greylag Goose - 1 'out' then same one 'in'
Guillemot - 1 1015 hrs 'in' same 'out' 1034 hrs.
Pink-footed Goose - under wooden jetty then alongside NHW - injured bird & another injured bird on sea off wooden jetty (seen at same time)
Red-breasted Merganser - pair
Med Gull - adult (& still just one when IOM ferry arrived)
Purple Sandpiper - 2 on rocks under wooden jetty (right at seaward end)
Kittiwake - 1st W behind IOM ferry
Shag - at least one and possibly 2 juvs

Elsewhere
12 Little Egret in the Leighton roost

Bits and bobs

Heysham Obs
North Harbour Wall
28 Twite, adult Mediterranean Gull, juvenile Shag

Stage 2 outfall
Ad Little Gull was a loom through the gloom late afternoon

Elsewhere
Waxwing at north end of Leonard's Gate, Lancaster. Possible Red-necked Grebe Lune Estuary lunchtime (seen off Glasson floating out). Scaup Freeman's Pool.

Reasonable inshore coverage of dropping tide

Heysham Obs
Around/off harbour walls
Twite - 17 (all Heysham 2008-ringed) north harbour wall
Red-throated Diver - one (flew) out distantly and one closer inshore on water
Pink-footed Goose - injured bird under wooden jetty (qualifies for BTO challenge!)
Shag - juv harbour mouth, later waterfall area (with 2 Cormorant)
Guillemot - one close inshore
Purple Sandpiper - one at least under the wooden jetty on rocks
Shelduck - 3+1+1 out

Stage 2 outfall
Little Gull - adult mid-afternoon [none yesterday in calm weather]

Red Nab
1 Kingfisher

Ocean Edge salt marsh
268 lapwing(nicely spaced for easy counting)
30 mixed twite & linnet flock

Moths
Mottled Umber and Winter Moth in the trap

Elsewhere
Waxwing - three "behind tax office" (cobbled street to east of Dalton Square) at at least 1030hrs

Lapwing invasion

Heysham Obs
Red Nab
Little Egret

Ocean Edge
Lapwing 265 - record count, I think.

Nature Park/Moneyclose Lane
Collared Dove 2

North harbour wall
Twite 46, then over to South HW
Shag juv harbour entrance
Great Crested Grebe 2

North harbour wall afternoon incoming tide 1315-1335hrs
Med Gull - 2 ads to stale bread - one Czech-ringed
Goldeneye - 1 out
Guillemot - one close inshore
Red-throated Diver - 2 distant on the sea (& c6 Great-crested Grebe)

Middleton Industrial est
2 mute
6 coot
2 moorhen
1 pochard (f)
7 tufted
18 mallard
6 teal
2 golden eye (m + f)
4 snipe
1 bullfinch

Moths
Two Winter Moth in the trap

Elsewhere
2, later 3 Waxwings Willow Lane/Milking stile lane junction (Lancaster Marsh estate) 1140 at least with 3+ still at Greaves (Lancaster) as per location a few days ago, 2 Storeys area, 2 Town hall/tax office area (possibly the same). None Clarendon Rd/Parliament St area of Morecambe west end (c/f belated report from last week). 10 Whooper Swan (& 2-3 Mute) between Gressingham Bridge and Melling on east side of Lune floodplain (as usual)

Twite surge followed by Little Gull weather

Heysham Obs
South-westerly gales and driving warm-sector rain have limited appeal - the 0.1% of nearctic passerines who make landfall this side, as opposed to drowning, in late September/October (see Punkbirder site for a met. analysis of this last autumn's fare), mega-close large shearwaters and scopes steamed up for the next month off Cape Clear in August (fond memories of the great 10, 939 (or possibly going round in circles) Cory's day) and bringing Little Gulls on to Heysham outfalls during the winter months.

Stage 2 outfall
Little Gull - the first for a bit - 2 x ad-type and one 1st W during brief check at 1400hrs

North harbour wall
Twite 60 - all but c5 ringed, mainly blue above + 2 yellow above black /blue split. One had just a metal ring.
Linnet 1 with Twite
Med Gull adult
Red-breasted Merganser M & F
Eider M
Shag juv harbour waterfall
Wigeon 52 off S2O

Elsewhere
Absolutely nothing registered by 1745hrs

Ten minutes

Heysham Obs
North harbour wall
Twite - 15
Linnet - 2
Med Gull - distant adult
Shag - one by waterfall (with single Cormorant)
Purple sandpiper - one on rocks at the end with Turnstone

Elsewhere
Purple sandpiper - single Morecambe Stone Jetty this morning. 4 Waxwing reportedly somewhere at Leighton Moss but no other details

Snippet of coverage

Heysham Obs
Mammals
Not a lot to offer today and the Trumacar stores billboard sometimes comes to the rescue on these occasions. Today saw a Freddie Starresque "Heysham Man Denies Hanging Dog" - good 'Have I Got Noose For You' material (the blanked-out words bit)? This sort of thing really does bring out the worst in some people - mention of this to others today prompted all sorts of black humour, when Daily Mail/Telegraph/Express upper lip horror was surely appropriate. Incidentally, what is the origin of a "hang-dog expression"?

North harbour wall
Twite - 29 on the north harbour wall feeding station
Med Gull - one adult north wall

Elsewhere
A rare trip south of the Lune saw zero of note other than a female Merlin on Jeremy Lane