Diverse, but mainly routine

Some Leach's Petrel images from yesterdays seawatch. Thanks to Mike Watson.

Heysham Obs
Good coverage this morning & a visiting birder has just reported a Bonxie (distantly) off Ocean Edge and lo and behold, it correlates with both the pager and text messages. Thanks Malcolm, Jeff & Dave!

Heysham north wall
Stonechat - female - first autumn migrant
Guillemot - one by the harbour waterfall
Med Gull - ad & 1CY visible on hey one outfall

Eider - 5 (3 males)

Ocean Edge/Red Nab (low tide)
Black-tailed Godwit - 2
Bar-tailed Godwit - 15

Snipe - one on Red Nab
Kingfisher - 1
Wheatear - 1
Merlin - 1
Knot - 2,300
Wigeon - increase to 7 (2 since 29/9)
Bonxie - seen offshore from OE by 'Dave' at about 1145

Vis mainly by office 0720 to 1030
Grey Wagtail - 1
Meadow Pipit - 47
Chaffinch - 62
Goldfinch - 6

Snipe - 3 south
Reed Bunting - 2
alba Wagtail - 24
Whooper Swan - 3 low to the south 0930
Pink-footed Goose - just one skein - 55 south at 1030

Grounded by office
Blackcap - one female
Robin - quite a bit of early morning ticking and chasing
Song Thrush - one, then inland
still no Goldcrest!

Elsewhere
Two Great White Egret distantly from the EM Pool. Bonxie Lane Ends 1125ish. Dark-bellied Brent Cockersands, then Bank End

The 'perfect depression' as expections exceeded

Heysham Obs
With a very narrow margin as regards the correct wind direction, 'perfect' depression tracks producing decent autumnal seawatches are quite a rare event in the Bay. Add a decent tide time & height (not too 'splashy'), stronger overnight winds than forecast, plus a well-timed high tide squall and the result was far better than anticipated. As seems to be usual on a Saturday, no local observers, but Mike Watson and Anne & Peter stayed for the duration. Also, as anticipated, no joy for JBP observers in a 'wind shadow', although at least one Leach's Petrel reached Teal Bay. The knock-on from this (i.e. nothing right in the inner bay) was that the Leach's Petrel movement finished quite early in the dropping tide cycle with nothing after 1500hrs. High tide was 1034hrs, therefore, as is not atypical with Leach's Petrel, the vast majority of the observed movement out of the bay (as opposed to being swept in at longer range) was on the dropping tide.


North harbour wall & area 0915-1500hrs
Leach's Petrel as follows (timing past the yellow buoys), some as close as 70 metres: 0915, 1058, 1115, 1152, 1209, 1213 (2), 1215 (2), 1216, 1221, 1225, 1234, 1237, 1242, 1244 (2), 1247, 1253, 1256, 1300 (2), 1302, 1307, 1309, 1310, 1312, 1317 (2), 1318, 1320, 1324, 1327, 1335, 1351, 1354, 1357, 1402, 1444, 1456. These were definitely unduplicated birds, all heading out of the bay, with no backtracking & all birds clearly visible for lengthy periods. A majority were just inside the line of the yellow buoys but some were quite close & photos will be posted later if sharp. Second-hand report of one about 1830hrs on the early stages of the incoming tide
Little Gull - 3 x juv, one ad out
Kittiwake - 2 juv out, 2 behind IOM ferry
Med Gull - 2 x ad & 1 x 1CY along the seawall at various times
Bonxie (Great Skua) - one 'in' at 1415hrs
Arctic Skua - described as dark morph 'out' at about 1110hrs with another mid afternoon (seen by other observers)
Fulmar - 2 out
Guillemot - one on sea
Arctic Tern - juv on outfalls
Red-throated Diver - one on sea
Pintail - 3+1 out
Shearwater spp - extremely distant bird - probably the Manx seen just previously off Morecambe
Good numbers of common wader species on the move

Elsewhere
Arctic Skua JBP, 3 Barnacle Geese JBP, juv Little Gull & Manx Shearwater & Leach's Petrel off north Morecambe. Two Great White Egret left the island mere roost at Leighton at 0720 & 'flew SW'. No further news.

Coastal biodiversity

Should be a few seabirds tomorrow of strictly local interest - might be Leach's, but it is touch and go whether it has been blowing long enough & it is a 'one day blow'. Looking ahead, if you believe any weather forecasts at the moment, the weekend 10/11th October looks reasonable for a decent passerine search with YBW possibilities

Heysham Obs
Another atrocious piece of weather forecasting knocked any vis/ringing on the head but did produce some time to give the tide a good grilling.

Ocean Edge/Red Nab/outfalls
Pale-bellied Brent Goose - juv on Red Nab, then flew along tideline towards Lune Estuary, landing about 2 miles along. Unringed.
Black-tailed Godwit - 4
Bar-tailed Godwit - 7
Ringed Plover - 24; no sign of the colour-ringed bird as yet
Grey Plover - 166
Knot - 430
Dunlin - 62 (much reduced & no Little Stint today)
Med Gull - 2 x unringed adult and one 2nd W (2CY) (new in?) & presumably the long-staying 1st W (1CY)
Common Tern - juvenile outfalls but not seen at high tide

Harbour area/north harbour wall
Shag - juvenile on the sea then floated out of sight behind wooden jetty. A slow autumn for this species & this, I think, takes us past Darwen Moor as the top county site i.e. 2!
Linnet - 13 on the mound
Wheatear - one heliport
Pintail - 27 (flock) south

Absolutely zilch overhead & no obvious grounded migrants on the reserve by the office

Elsewhere
2 Great White Egret left the island mere roost at Leighton Moss at 0700hrs, rested for c 20 minutes before flying out to the Allen/EM Pools where still present at midday

Excellent wader fest off Ocean Edge/Red Nab

Heysham Obs
Rather too late a start this morning - it wasnt supposed to be flat calm!! The weather forecasting for this area has been atrocious this last fortnight. This was a real shame, having just accessed the Walney & Fleetwood birder sites and also been aware of the contrasting lack of any substantial passage on the usually excellent Caton Moor site. Impressions at Heysham from 1015hrs, however, were that the Meadow Pipit passage was miniscule compared to Walney with no obvious evidence that there were contrastingly huge early morning movements (which would also surely have been reflected at Caton Moor and the movement at Rossall certainly seemed to get off to a slow start?). Therefore most of the movement, in very clear weather, was along the 'outer west coast' i.e. Walney to Rossall. We've already missed your early morning Stone Jetty cameos this morning, Jon, with no adequate replacement in sight! Therefore the only early morning vis coverage in this area was at Caton Moor and Bryan Yorke covering Hutton Roof. Perhaps the most unfortunate thing about the early morning Heysham vis/ringing miss was the good Grey Wagtail passages at both Rossall and Walney - previous experience suggests that Heysham, whilst never receiving the same Meadow Pipit numbers, is usually better for this species - one reason why we are colour-ringing them

Ocean Edge/Red Nab mid-late morning
Little Stint - one juvenile (deja-vu 2008!)
Dunlin - c250
Knot - c550
Black-tailed Godwit - 6
Med Gull - 2 adults
Little Egret - just one
Rock Pipit - first of the autumn along the foreshore

Vis mig 1015-1055
Meadow Pipit - 42
Skylark - 5
Chaffinch - 13
alba Wagtail - 4
Pink-footed Goose - 37
Carrion Crow - 3

Butterflies
Painted Lady 3, Red Admiral 5 (3 heading south), Speckled Wood 6+ - all by the NR office

Elsewhere
Great White Egret - 2 Allen/EM Pools, later in the Island Mere roost (one French-ringed). A record 61 Little Egret on the shore (57++ in the roost). Juvenile Curlew Sandpiper Aldcliffe area on Lune itself

Nothing doing

Peak migration time but no observers available (studying the eastern Atlantic/western North Sea flyway for Sandhill Crane). The worst run of coverage since this site was started

Some should be on the prowl tomorrow

Heysham
No reports today so far

Heysham

No Reports for today so far.

Vision impossible

Heysham Obs
A solitary session of vis mig & ringing. It would not have been possible to combine these if the site had offered tutored 'vis' on this, the first of the national vis mig mornings......and this aspect was taken care of at nearby Caton Moor. In the circumstances, it was a good job there were no punters to see me lose all vestige of any 'cred' left in the locker. The screw holding a lens for my variefocals decided to fall out at about 0635 & I couldnt find it. I grabbed a couple of ancient pairs and made sure my computer glasses were brought. Vis mig was carried out by a) using the variefocals minus lens for anything above pylon height b) closing the right eye for anything at or just below pylon height c) switching to the computer glasses for anything within about 8 metres. The problem was a medium range elongation problem and a flock of double-headed Blue Tits and Long-tailed Tits looking like flying garter snakes was the result. The pairs of old glasses were useless.

Then the hunger factor. The 'vis' was supposed to be 0700-1100 and it was preceded by cold coffee and Weetabix dust, as the last piece had disintegrated, at 0630hrs. Whilst going to the loo is acceptable robust science, making beans on toast during a vis mig survey is completely out of order......especially as I was really struggling for birds & didnt want to miss the key 'event'!

Ringing
Interesting: 6 Grey Wagtail were caught and one of these was ringed at Middleton IE (c1.5km SE) on 14th September 2009! Clearly a bird intent on wintering around here and, as such, was initially on the small pond next to the classroom, then called two migrants down, then all three eventually entered the net together. On release, two headed high to the SE (as usual), whilst the third (presumably ringed bird) headed low to the NE. Wren, Chaffinch, Great Tit & Blue Tit completed the catch.

Vis by the office 0700(ish)-1100
Meadow Pipit - 10 SE (honestly!)
Grey wagtail - 9 SE (5 migrants & one off-passage bird ringed)
alba Wagtail - 28 SE
Dunnock - 3 separate 'fidgety' birds eventually flew south
Chaffinch - 30, mainly SW
Mistle Thrush - 1 SW
Swallow - 14 SE
Siskin - 4 SE
Greenfinch - 3 SW (conspicuous by their absence this morning)
Song Thrush - one in high from north, landed, then headed high to east
Jay - one purposefully high to the south
Linnet - 3 S
Coal Tit - 2 on their own S
Starling - 40+27+13 SW
Pink-footed Goose - c110 S right on the nail at 1100hrs
Goldfinch - 10 SW
Reed Bunting - 2 S

Grounded
Single Chiffchaff and Blackcap by the office

Middleton IE
The belated first Teal (3) of the autumn, plus perhaps 10 of the Swallows recorded during the vis survey

Could the couple who covered the coastal areas early afternoon please post anything of interest as a comment. Thanks.

Elsewhere
Great White Egret in to roost at the Island Mere (after spending at least part of the day out of the area at Humphrey Head - definitely same bird??). Sadly very little evidence of any vis mig counts in this area, other than the advertised event at Caton Moor (see LDBWS posting) & presumably also at Silverdale

Still too windy

Heysham Obs
A proposed ringing session at Middleton fell foul of a fresh early morning westerly, so a low-key effort next to the HNR office was Plan B. Just one Grey Wagtail and a few Greenfinch ringed

Vis mig 0645-1100
Not a lot:
Goldfinch - 2
alba Wagtail - 5
Starling - 50 SW
Chaffinch - 14
Reed Bunting - 1
Greylag - 11 S
Pink-footed Goose - 2+50 S
Grey Wagtail - 5
Greenfinch - 7 SW
Meadow Pipit - 13 SE
Rook - 4 north together - a significant record this
Skylark - 1
House Martin - 1

Grounded
Wheatear - 1
Song Thrush - 3 possible migrants together
Canada Goose - 9 Middleton IE
No warblers or 'crests despite two tit flocks past the office

Outfalls area
Med Gull - 1 x 1st W, 1 x Ad
Black-tailed Godwit - 4
Bar-tailed Godwit - 2

Elsewhere
Great White Egret Leighton Moss area (including o/n roost). 6 Glossy Ibis on Kent Estuary LAST night but NNEW so far today

Pick a number between 6 and 22mph

Heysham Obs
We are officially 'on the boundary' between the high pressure and mist and low pressure/jetstream and cloud & wind. So the forecasters have been all over the place with e.g. XC giving actual wind speeds considerably higher than forecasted ones (in Wind History section).....which then increase as the time approaches. The admirable Eno has been the most accurate, actually mentioning 'breeze' and backing up with at least low teens of wind speeds. Our area seems to be behind the back of the BBC national forecasters as they do a clockwise 'circular' tour of the British Isles and miss out the middle = us.

So we've been getting up with good mistnetting/vis intentions and largely failing on both counts on the last 5 mornings. This morning was just too windy for any nets by the office and the vis was feeble, although an 'in-off' Dunnock was a nice quirk and the first clear-cut e.g. for a few years. As on previous occasions, it was with Meadow Pipits coming from the direction of Walney

Ocean Edge/outfalls pre-newspaper 0730-0800hrs
Dunnock - one in-off with Meadow Pipits, then landing on the shore contact-calling before flying south
Meadow Pipit - 26 SE
alba Wagtail - 5 SE
Grey Wagtail - 3 SE
Black-tailed Godwit - 3
Shelduck - 114 on shore

North harbour wall with newspaper 0807-0830
Eider - 5 inshore
Meadow Pipit - 3 SE