Little Egret invasion & late afternoon Storm Petrel

Heysham Obs
Ocean Edge/Red Nab/outfalls quick visit 0745-0800, then c1730-1810
Little Egret - 3 in OE saltmarsh channel am
Med Gull - 3 juvs, 2CY & 2 ads Red Nab/OE foreshore/outfalls evening
Whimbrel - 4 am
Black-tailed Godwit - 14 Red Nab am
Storm Petrel - one between the dredger and the red buoy, flying backwards and forwards at about 1750hrs, then a big yellow thing emerged from behind a cloud and it became impossible to view the area.

Moths
A really odd catch - only 10 moths but graced by Dun-bar (first of year & scarce here), Flounced Rustic (first of year & not scarce here!), Southern Wainscot (not common away from the wetlands) & Dark-barred Twin-spot Carpet (not particularly common here)

Elsewhere
Note there were 16 Storm Petrel off Walney yesterday

Excellent early morning variety

POSTED THIS TOO EARLY FOR THE DATE TO CHANGE - THIS SHOULD BE FRIDAY 31ST! Anyone know how to alter dates?

Heysham Obs
Picking up the early morning tide seemed far more sensible than staring into the sun in late afternoon.........and there was a quite unexpected mish-mash of interesting odds and ends. More early morning pre-dog neap high tide watching would seem a good idea.


Red Nab/Ocean Edge/outfalls
Greylag - the most unexpected - 18 sat on the mudflats just off Ocean Edge
Little Egret - first of the autumn in OE saltmarsh creek, TWO mid-pm
Greenshank - adult OE saltmarsh creek
Med Gull - THREE juvs, 2 adults and a 2CY [& many of the BH gulls were out of range along Middleton sands]
Black-tailed Godwit - 51 feeding on the muddy bits between the rocks on Red Nab
Bar-tailed Godwit - adult with above
Knot - adult with above
Dunlin - one metal-ringed adult with above
Turnstone - 14 outer edge of Red Nab
Whimbrel - 4 Red Nab
Common Sandpiper - one Red Nab
Kingfisher - one Red Nab
Sandwich Tern - one feeding offshore

'Tame' juvenile Kestrel along the foreshore

North harbour wall 0840ish
The time period to check for the two Storm Petrel seen off JBP was thwarted by attending to an angler who had run out of fuel & had no mobile
Med Gull - two different adults from Red Nab area - one the Czech-ringed bird = 8 in total for this area today
Sanderling - adult summer flew out
Manx Shearwater - one 'ambling' across and out

Elsewhere
Two Storm Petrel watched for a reasonable period off JBP before making their way out of the Bay 0815ish [feeding on seaward end of Heysham outfalls overnight and flying in with the tide??]

Report-writing & little birding

THURSDAY 30TH JULY
Heysham Obs
North harbour wall early(ish) morning
Med Gull - what appeared to be the Czech-ringed adult flew past once
Turnstone - 53 - good number for late July (c50 last night)

Red Nab/Ocean Edge late afternoon
Bad light, bad angle of birds so some stuff probably missed
Med Gull - juv & 2CY & Ad
Whimbrel - 4
Black-tailed Godwit - none

Moths
A surprisingly good catch - indeed so unexpectedly good, the door was carelessly opened and quite a few went straight out of the window, seemingly mainly the lively and sometimes abundant Shaded Broad Bar. Of note were 6 Silver Y, a Diamond-back Moth, a second brood Cochylis atricapitana, a single Barred Rivulet and 3 Herald. Straw Underwing (17) still outnumbering reduced numbers of the usual plague species

HNR office buddleia
2 x Small Tortoiseshell, 1 x Peacock, 1 x Red Admiral, 3 x Large White (sheltered during westerlies)

Elsewhere
Ruff & juv Med Gull Conder area. Ruddy Shelduck EM Pool

This has been on the cards a long time

Heysham Obs
Ocean Edge/Red Nab incoming tide
Black-tailed Godwit - By far and away the largest ever count for this area....but it has been expected c/f periodic large flocks on Morecambe foreshore and the EM Pool at Leighton is "out of action" by all accounts due to the water level (600+ counts routine there these days). 229, mainly moulting adults & all examined were islandica, were on the shoreline near Red Nab, then flushed & rose really high in the sky over Potts Corner before returning to feed on the shore off Ocean Edge west field
Med. Gull - 2 juveniles together, 2 adults and a 2CY. None ringed.
Whimbrel - 6
Dunlin - one juvenile
Didnt have time to check Ocean Edge shingle etc. with all the excitement (see yesterday)!

North harbour wall high tide
Med Gull - Ad & 2CY & juv - these were all almost certainly different birds to those on Red Nab
Whimbrel - 3

Moth trap
Absolutely dreadful catches at the moment, with Straw Underwing the only species up to scratch & nothing of remote interest the last three nights

Elsewhere
Ruddy Shelduck still EM Pool

Ocean Edge plover fest

Heysham Obs
Ocean Edge saltmarsh and shingle beach
An adult Little Ringed Plover was a complete surprise today as it flew from the inshore shingle at Ocean Edge and inland over the caravans. Also on the shore tideline were 7 Ringed Plover (not including the hoped-for returning colour-ringed bird yet) and an almost fledged chick!

Red Nab & outfalls
Med Gull - TWO juveniles and a 2CY [no adults seen] - some minor disturbance by pedestrians may have shifted some of the gulls towards Sunderland

Elsewhere
Ruddy Shelduck still EM Pool

The drought is ended

Heysham Obs
After a considerable gap, unthinkable as recently as five years ago, the first tern species appeared since 3rd July. The problem is the demise of the Lune colony. Meds seemed down today, given a search at optimum time, but a touch of the Catherine Tate's re-searching shimmering sleeping gulls at the wrong angle for 2CYs etc.. Typical behaviour by the juv Med; 'sleeping' on Red Nab, then returning to feed on Heysham 2 outfall after all the other gulls have gone into total roost mode at high tide. Youthful enthusiasm?

Red Nab/Ocean Edge latter stages of incoming tide
Sandwich tern - adult Red Nab
Med Gull - FOUR: 2 adults, one 2CY & one juvenile
Whimbrel - 5
No obvious sign of any Storm Petrels but a much longer seawatch needed

Insects
First collection on the office buddleia which is sheltered from SW/W winds: two Small Tortoiseshell (the most I've seen together since 2007), Red Admiral and 2 Large White. Grayling car park. First Wall on a census for three years - hopefully more will be seen this autumn

Elsewhere
Ruddy Shelduck still being high-profiled at EM Pools

Wet and dreary southerly

Heysham Obs
Red Nab/Ocean Edge pre-tide (a bit early for gulls)
Med Gull - 2 x ad, 1 x 2CY on Red Nab
Whimbrel - 4

Moth trap
The increasingly scarce Tawny-speckled Pug along with Orange Swift made their first appearances of the year as did the autumnal brood of Small Phoenix. Straw Underwing continues to dominate.

Elsewhere
Four visible and the noise suggested others Crossbill WNW over Millhouses (nr Wray) this am whilst emptying moth trap in rather enclosed space at a pre-rain 0645hrs. Early juv Wood Sandpiper at Aldcliffe flood this evening. Ruddy Shelduck keeping a low profile (literally) & difficult to see on the EM Pool

Few warblers but a decent obscure moth

Heysham Obs
Reasonable conditions for mist-netting at both Middleton and the Heysham CES? Not too bad weather-wise until mid-morning, but the number of warbler sp, especially at Middleton, was almost unbelievably low - more like early-mid August after a starry-night clear-out of any migrants. I suppose it is getting towards August, and the correspondingly early large 'local young bird-fest' in the nets during late June (as opposed to the usual first half of July) suggests that many of these birds have already lifted themselves skywards and headed south after an earlyish and trouble-free breeding season and not a lot since to hang around for. Any comments from other ringers?

Middleton IE 0645-1015 (3.5hrs)
Kingfisher - juvenile ringed (first of autumn)
Swift - 37 S
House Martin - 17 S
Swallow - 34 S
No Grasshopper or Reed Warblers heard/seen/caught!

Ocean Edge/Red Nab
Med Gull - 6: 4 x ad, 2 x 2CY
(see below)
Whimbrel = 5

Moths

Orthotelia sparganella was the star of the show this morning - caught in an actinic trap in the reedbed. It is the fourth record for VC60 (West Lancs), with two of the previous ones at Leighton and the other in the south of the VC. It is best described as elusive and limited to wetland areas with bur-reed, the larval food-plant

Meds - are they really worth examining?
Anyone who has read & agrees with the Punkbirder Birdwatch article on the theme of 'car potato' gull subtleties when people might be better off pioneering new bushes and coastal fields to thrash for migrants (& they do put their money where their mouth is), please move on!

2CY one: Most of the views of Meds are of sleeping birds on Red Nab. Take care! One 2CY looked like a 'round-ended' "adult". In other words the outer 5 or so primaries were in moult stages 3-4 = 'half-grown' in English. The next stage of ageing this bird was to examine the tips of these growing primaries. If white = advanced adult or 3CY=moulting into adult plumage from 2nd summer. A wing-stretch (convenient!) saw these growing primaries had black terminal 'spots' visible, therefore = 2CY moulting from 1st summer to 2nd winter. Back-up = wait for it to show the bill and, bingo, it was a rather dirty orange-red = 2CY.

2CY two: much easier: at least 4 old original primaries still not moulted, plus some dusky bits on the wing coverts

ADULTS: One required caution. It had a similar stage of moult to the first 2CY. Therefore because there are no old primaries to assist the ageing, this bird MAY be a 3CY which has moulted all the "recognisable" 2nd summer features. Indeed, the advanced stage of the moult (sorry for confusing bad english in earlier text) might suggest a non-breeding 3CY. Therefore 3CY birds post-moult become "adults" for the rest of their lives although at least one bird of known age retained blacker legs throughout the 3rd winter than one would have expected on an adult. Subtle, and one is again reminded of the Punkbirder article!

Storm Petrel finds the outfalls 'soup'

Heysham Obs
Ocean Edge foreshore/Red Nab/outfalls 1125-1200hrs
Storm Petrel - one careering around between the red buoy and the seaward end of Stage 2 outfall (at least) 1135-1145ish, then lost behind incoming IOm ferry. No subsequent sign as the 'soup' rapidly dispersed on the incoming tide. It may have been there all morning - didnt notice it 1125-1135 due to checking gulls.
Med Gull - FOUR: 3CY new in - virtually full summer plumage still, with just a little peppering on the forehead and no evidence of any moult of at least the outer primaries as seen at rest. 2 x adult and 1 x 2CY, the latter really hard to see!
Whimbrel - 2

Elsewhere
Honey Buzzard light morph (sorry, not Osprey - my fault re-secondhand report) flew SE at upper Roeburndale late morning. Ruddy Shelduck still EM Pool

Quick gull check

Heysham Obs
Red Nab/Outfalls/Ocean Edge early stages of incoming tide
Med Gull - 3 adults Red Nab, one juvenile seaward end of Heysham One outfall
Whimbrel - 3

Moths
Meagre catch highlighted by Southern Wainscot & 4 Silver Y.