Purple Sandpiper surprise

Heysham Obs
North harbour wall
Purple Sandpiper - one with a flock of 11 Turnstone below the north wall was a surprise - perhaps the latest spring record for here
Black Guillemot inshore

Lunchtime seawatching Ocean Edge foreshore
This was pretty hopeless with the wind dropping and the low cloud not really clearing
Manx Shearwater - 2 together across the mouth
Arctic Tern - one outfalls
Common Gull - 37 outfalls
Black-headed Gull - 39 outfalls
Whimbrel - 2

Mid-morning routines

Heysham Obs
North harbour wall 0845-1045
Fulmar - 7 in
Gannet - 8 in (5 of these out), 6 across the mouth
Sandwich Tern - 2-3
Black Guillemot - on wooden jetty

Outfalls/Red Nab - low tide 1000-1025
Arctic Tern - 3 Heysham 2 outfall
Common Tern - 1 Heysham 2 outfall
Common Gull - c35
Med Gull - the usual 1st summer (forgot to post it!)

Moths
A Mother Shipton was found in the recently created heath area below the observation tower. No vast number of Painted Lady in the cool breezy conditions (c5)

Elsewhere
Ad male Honey Buzzard giving great views as it flew low to the SW over High Tatham 0750-0755ish mobbed by 2 Ravens. Up to four 1st summer Little Gulls have been around Leighton with a further bird at Aldcliffe. At least one of these will probably end up moulting at Heysham outfalls from the late summer

Pale bellied Brent heads north

Heysham Obs
Lengthy seawatching by Mark produced a small reward but no proper seabird movement in the early stages of the incoming tide

North harbour wall 0600 to 0915 (ongoing)
Pale-bellied Brent Goose - one headed north accompanied by 6 Shelduck at 0645hrs. Worth checking Shelduck concentrations north of the Stone Jetty?
Common Scoter - 14 blogging, then out
Sandwich Tern - 14ish
Black Guillemot

Half Moon Bay
1 wheatear - unusually perched on top of lamppost next to car park

Moths
Quite a nice selection including Peppered, May Highflyer, Herald, Poplar Hawk-moth

Elsewhere
Nothing yet

Summer mode after a trickle of seabirds

Heysham Obs
Looking at the weather forecast, I think today is probably 'it' for attempting to connect with skuas etc. this spring. This last fortnight has been the most frustrating period of spring seabird coverage since we started proper monitoring in the late 1990s. We have never been fans of other than morning coverage, not the least because of the light conditions, and I suspect that we have missed quite a few skuas in what have been rather good conditions in the last week or so as many of the birds have been passing through the Irish Sea in the afternoon/evening...............apart from yesterday when there was no-one here! Thank goodness for a car-less John Wood who rescued one afternoon's worth by 'bussing' to the Stone Jetty. More work committments than usual have also taken their toll amongst the regular observers. However, I dont think we missed the early May Arctic Tern passage. It did not appear to exist through this area in any numbers other than during late April. Thanks to Tony who valiantly covered JBP and confirmed that this site is (usually) too far into the bay unless the skuas are "kept down" (from circling up and heading overland e.g. via the Keer) by fresh south-westerlies and poorish visibility.

You post the above rubbish and then Ian has a flock of 95 Arctic Tern going into the bay, then out again off Cockersands at 1140hrs. This most be the latest large passage flock seen in this area and fits in with a strange disruptive spring as regards migrant arrival/passage

North harbour wall 0600-1015hrs
Arctic Skua - lm in at 0650, dm in at 0850
Sandwich tern - 15 in
Arctic Tern - 6 in (but see above)
Common Tern - 2
Wheatear - 1
Black Guillemot
Ringed Plover - pair with 2 mobile chicks at the heliport end (SD46A)

Middleton IE
Four-spotted Chaser - at least 23
Large Red Damselfly - 49
Common Blue Damselfly - 13+
Painted Lady - 2 (see Portland site for last few days) & one north harbour wall
Wall - one - recently scarce in this area
Mute Swan - at least one small cygnet 'under' the mother

Mammals
Harbour Porpoise of NHW

Elsewhere
10 Sanderling and 95 Arctic Terns on/off Cockersands

Bank holiday fare

Heysham Obs
Two jetskis cleared the area to the south of the outfalls quite effectively

North wall
Black Guillemot - 1
Sandwich Tern - 1

Red Nab
Whimbrel - single flushed
Med Gull - 1st summer, then flew towards Middleton Sands

Wheatears
1 Ocean Edge
2 North Wall Round Head

Jonathan Livingstone birding

Heysham Obs
A heaving great feeding flock of smallish/medium sized white things on the Cumbrian side of the Bay in early afternoon seemed to indicate some sort of fish spawn-fest. In the most coordinated seawatching effort ever in this area, simultaneous watches from Jenny Brown's Point, the Stone Jetty and Heysham heliport came to the very distant heat-hazy conclusion that they were.....seagulls

North harbour wall 0930-1045
Kittiwake - 2CY harbour area
Gannet - 6 in, 2 across bay, 2 out
Grey Plover - 2 out
Sandwich Tern - 3 in
Common Scoter - 25 in then landed on sea
Black Guillemot - on the wooden jetty

Ocean Edge/Red Nab
Whimbrel - 5

Elsewhere
Nothing yet but a few Quail in Northern England on the pager

G-horizon

Heysham Obs
** Mega news. Definitely TWO Black Guillemot by/on the wooden jetty on 9th May. Please check the nest site carefully if visiting & one bird is on the water (= 3 sections to the right=seaward side of number '9' as viewed from the NHW) . Thanks Derek. See http://bamberbridgebirder.blogspot.com

I thought I'd heard of the above title, so googled it. It transpires to be Acrylic Album Cardstock Patterned Paper with the slogan 'every moment matters'. The latter is relevant as this mornings 45 minute seawatch was unbelievably inattentive due to four work-related phone calls and being shown the contents of a moth trap! What was missed? The G-horizon referred to the Gannets. Can you successfully google any combination of words/letters these days?

North wall 0810-0850
Gannet - 5 along the horizon, only visible during the upper part of the 'wheeling'
Arctic Skua - LM in very distantly at 0820hrs
Sandwich tern - 1+3 out
Whimbrel - 2 in
Black Guillemot - spent all the time in or next to its hole on the wooden jetty

Elsewhere
No Ortolan as yet at Bradshaw Lane (North Fylde c/f yesterdays good performance). Spoonbill on the 'flood' at the eastern end of the Eric Morecambe Pool

Heysham Obs

North harbour wall 0930-middayish

Arctic Skua dark morph 'in' 1015 hrs

Kittiwake 12 'in'

Gannet 4 blogging, 10 across the mouth of the bay

Sandwich Tern 1 'out' & 10 around later

Common Tern - 1

Arctic Tern - 1

Auk sp 'out'

Swallow 3 in-off

Med Gull - the 'usual' black-headed 1st summer

Half Moon Bay 7:15pm

5 “comic” tern blogging in distance for about 10 minutes before 4 flew out and 1 in

Elsewhere

Spoonbill Leighton Moss

The bird of the year slips through the fingers?

Heysham Obs

Morning seawatch
Red-throated Diver - 1
Gannet - 1




North wall 1430-1645
This was a cock-up and a good example of why you should follow up everything, just in case.



Pomarine Skua
Four (all light morph, two with full tails, the other two were the same size but "tailless") were picked up distantly in the mouth of the bay, sitting on the sea, at c1500hrs and dismissed as "gulls"!!! They took flight about 5 minutes later and the initial niggle of "why are they sat so close together on the sea for gulls?" was answered. These circled round and drifted/gained height towards Black Combe as soon as what transpired to be the last of the squalls had passed.


dark-rumped Whimbrel
After an hour of increasingly flat sea and dropping wind, chilled out on a seat by the seawall using binoculars, trying to get rid of the oilseed rape pollen clogging my system after a morning working on the Nottinghamshire/Lincolnshire border and a round the houses via Harrogate return, courtesy of an overturned lorry on the M62. Therefore a Whimbrel calling to my right near the sandplant entrance was presumed to be in transit and ignored. About 15 minutes later a Whimbrel call was heard and a bird seen in flight, having been displaced from the inshore skeer by the incoming tide. It headed south along the seawall and I casually glanced at it with the naked eye as it was level with me at about 60 or so metres range. NO white on the rump which was concolourous brown (to the naked eye) with the mantle and tail!!!! A quick check of this feature with binoculars saw me then erroneously attempt to scope the bird, therefore a valuable second or so whilst there were possibilities of at least binocular views of the head pattern were missed. On reaching the harbour entrance, the bird swung "right" and began a shallow gradual climb as it headed north-west towards the south Furness coast. It was calling all the time IF I had had the scope set up and IF I had bothered to check the bird out on the skeer, I might have clinched the head pattern and other subtleties allowing confident identification as Hudsonian Whimbrel. The only hope of anything definite coming out of this is if it is quickly relocated on the Cumbrian side. Fingers crossed
Arctic Tern - 1 out




Elsewhere
2cY Rose-coloured Starling seen at Arnside in the promenade bushes at 1245hrs by at least four obsevers

Not a lot

Heysham Obs

North Harbour Wall 0630-0830
Grey Heron 1 high NE
Swallow 1 NE
Pied Wagtail 1 in-off and landed on jetty during a heavy shower
Sandwich Tern 2 out
Black Guillemot - usual area

Elsewhere
Little Gull still in Aldcliffe area