Strictly routine

Heysham Obs
Nothing really to beat the snippet of international news: "Taxi driver deflates police tyres" on the Trumacar Stores billboard

Various offshore & inshore observations
Purple Sandpiper wooden jetty at roost
Kittiwake adult near intake in harbour
Red-throated Diver 6+ out
Med Gull - single adult
Twite - flock of 19 at 1200hrs but not 30 minutes later

Middleton Industrial Est
All open water frozen, apart from two small patches kept open by two pairs of mute swan. Accompanied by:
6 coot
4 moorhen
2 mallard
2 snipe
3 Roe deer Male & female plus one smaller female type (presumed last year’s young)

Ocean Edge 1hr after high tide
c650 dunlin
2 snipe

Observers: John Wood, John Girdley, Malcolm Downham & Pete Marsh

Elsewhere
Waxwing Leighton Drive, Lancaster mid-afternoon - driven off by Mistle Thrush but 'plenty of berries in area'

Highest winter Red-throated Diver count for several years

Heysham Obs
South harbour wall area 1200-1230ish
Red-throated Diver - 17 definitely different birds floating out on the tide but all a long way out
Kittiwake - ad in harbour
Med Gull - one ad following IOM ferry
No obvious sign of Purple Sandpiper

North harbour wall
Twite - just two at the feeder in the morning

Observers: Dan Haywood & Alan Draper

Elsewhere
4 European White-fronted Geese still at Bull Beck with Greylags

Inshore shopping list

Heysham Obs
Ocean Edge
540 Dunlin
Two Mistle Thrushes amongst the caravans

North harbour wall 1600-1620ish
Very rapid acquisition of the usual inshore targets but a vast area of empty sea further out i.e. no RTDs.
Med Gull - the Czech adult homed in on the car - no bread with me!
Twite - 16 but no chance to peruse rings - late in the afternoon for connecting with this species
Purple Sandpiper - 2 below the inner end of the outer section of the wooden jetty - as usual at this stage of the incoming tide - cannot get to grips with these occasional extra birds
Kittiwake - ad (3CY?) by the harbour waterfall

Observer: Pete Marsh

Elsewhere
No obvious sign of any Greylag by Bull Beck. Pine Lake "dead" other than a few Goosander & 140 Pochard

Twite metapopulation

Heysham Obs
A small catch of 15 Twite this morning provided further evidence of midwinter mixing and matching between the various flocks scattered down the coast between here and at least the Wyre. There were 6 unringed birds and only 2 out of 8 retraps had been previously retrapped.

Also most interestingly, the Walberswick (Suffolk)-ringed individual, trapped here on 5/11/08, was retrapped this morning. Does this start to firm-up the origin as a west Scottish bird which moved to Suffolk in its first ('waif and stray'?) winter (ringed 23/12/2006) or could it still be a (south) Pennine bird which unexpectedly followed the 'usual pattern' in its first winter, but not in this winter as an adult? Or could it be from somewhere else, such as the north Pennines? Where was it in winter 2007/8?

No other birds of interest seen!

Observer/ringer: Alan Draper

Elsewhere
2 (presumably just the adults recorded) European White-fronted Geese just north of Bull Beck on the Lune floodplain. Short-eared Owl just inland of Cockerham Sands caravan park, Common Sandpiper Conder area.

Low tide struggle

Heysham Obs
North harbour wall low tide
Med Gull - adult on the beach
Eider - drake offshore

Ocean edge foreshore and Red Nab
Nothing of note at low tide

Observer: Pete Marsh

Elsewhere
4 European White-fronted Geese showing very well from A683 just north of Bull Beck car park with Greylags

Flying belated visit

Heysham Obs
A fascinating but late night listening to a very informed discussion in the Bridge Inn between Jim Bowen & half a dozen locals on music and old shows led to a bleary mid-morning emergence [I do work w/es so take the odd weekday 'off'!].

North harbour wall
Med Gull - just one adult seen
Twite - 19 on seed, others heard
Purple Sandpiper - one visible in short scan
Quick scan offshore revealed zero

Observer: Pete Marsh

Elsewhere
4 European White-fronted Geese showing well on the Lune floodplain with Greylags just north of Bull Beck car park (& 1+ Pink-footed Goose). No obvious sign of the Black Redstart at Glasson.

Teal top the bill!

Heysham Obs
North harbour wall area
Purple Sandpiper - 4 below wooden jetty
Red-throated Diver - 1 out & 1 in, poor given the visibility & length of watch
Kittiwake - adult in harbour
Med Gull - THREE adults to bread NHW
Teal - 3 out
Wigeon - 8 on sea of Half-Moon Bay
Grey Plover - 6 stage 1 outfall
Great Crested Grebe - 2 (1 in summer plumage)
Eider - male
Red-breasted Merganser - 3 pair
Twite - 36 on seed, including 5+ unringed and one ringed at Askam in Furness end of October 2008.

Observers: Macclesfield RSPB group. John Wood, Pete Marsh

Elsewhere
Female-type Black Redstart Fishnet Point, Glasson, also 5 Bewick's Swan

The windchill sets in

Some interesting weather coming up with the cold weather coming from a much better bird-wise easterly source than the previous spells this winter (apart from Arctic Gulls - but this isnt much use when you have lost your rubbish tip). It could include some cold-weather movement following extensive snow to the immediate east (including being snow-bound at Ashley's?) on Sunday night. It would be nice to document some of this without getting hypothermia. This is also Smew weather and Pine Lake has a good history........

Coastal sightings
Purple Sandpiper - 2 wooden jetty
Med Gull - 2 adults on railings along NHW from c1330hrs but not before then
Pink-footed Goose - 88 + 2 South; 31 North
Shelduck - 1 + 1 out
Red-throated Diver - 2-3 offshore
Golden Plover - c45 + 7 in-off towards Red Nab (most unusual here; I (Pete) have never knowingly seen Golden Plover from the North Harbour Wall in nearly 30 years of regular observation (c/f a parallel with the other days Lapwing?))
Grey Plover - 7 out
Wigeon - 96 off Red Nab
Twite - none seen, but more food put out

Middleton IE model boat pond
Male Pochard & 3 Goldeneye
Rest of site
2 mute
10 coot
3 moorhen
1 female pochard 21 mallard
19 tufted
42 teal
35 & 42 pinkfoot north

Ocean edge
171 lapwing
c35 Golden plover flew across form Red Nab direction then SE overland towards Overton/Sunderland. 9:45

Observers: John Wood & Malcolm Downham

Elsewhere
4 European White-fronted Goose visible from Bull Beck car park with Greylags & one Pinkfoot. 6 Scaup north Morecambe.

North harbour wall visit

Heysham Obs
North harbour wall
Not for long - nearly axphixiated by the fumes from an incoming rust bucket called West Express.

Purple Sandpiper - 2 together on the outer section of the wooden jetty
Med Gull - one in harbour
Red-throated Diver - 2 offshore
Nothing behind the two ferries of any interest

Red Nab/outfalls
Wigeon - only 35 seen
No Little Gull

Observer: Pete Marsh

Elsewhere
6 Scaup off north Morecambe and Ad Med Gull in region of Strathmore Hotel.

Lapwing sensation

Heysham Obs
Local patch coverage over many years occasionally throws up the most amazing sighting which thoroughly unimpresses the rest of the world. Its usually to do with absences and the most regular example at Heysham is to get really excited about Jackdaws - definitely migrants; they dont like Heysham chimneys! Today's mega sighting was a long straggling gang of Lapwing flying low over the sea on a north to south heading, as observed from the north harbour wall. Unprecedented, even as a cold-weather movement!

North harbour wall 1145-1210
A pretty good 15 minutes watching the sea and a few extra minutes watching the back of the IOM ferry and checking the wooden jetty
Lapwing - 136 as above at 1205hrs
Pink-footed Goose - 31+29 SW (yes SW)
Red-throated Diver - 9 out, including gang of 4, in just 15 minutes of actual seawatching
Wigeon - flock of 42 out (unusual)
Purple Sandpiper one on the outer section of the wooden jetty
Med Gull - 2 ad following IOM ferry into port
Twite - very brief view of 25 ish in flight
Kittiwake - the adult still around the waterfall in the SW corner of the harbour but none behind the IOM ferry.

No coverage of the Ocean Edge/outfalls area & no sign of any Shag on the wooden jetty/in harbour

Observers: Lou Cross, Pete Marsh

Elsewhere
No sign of any Greylags by Bull Beck but 1,850 Pink-footed Geese alongside the Heysham bypass. 6 Scaup north Morecambe