Good finchy vis until the pager was belatedly checked

Heysham Obs
Perhaps the most telling thing about today was 2 x Yellow-browed Warbler & 1 x Eastern Crowned Warbler in some very inviting east coast bushes and not a single Goldcrest. So it is not just Heysham, Walney etc which is experiencing this quite extraordinary absence following a spring passage which suggested the species was unaffected by the winter

Vis mig by the office 0845-1000 (rain stopped the movement at about 0957hrs)
Chaffinch - 101 SW
Greenfinch - 58 SW
Goldfinch - 38 SW
Pink-footed Goose - flock of 54 S (& see below)
Linnet - 5 S
Reed Bunting - 1 SW
Brambling - 4+1 SW
alba Wagtail - 2 SE
Meadow Pipit - 5 SE
Twite - 6 (flock) S (rare on 'pure' vis)
Siskin - 5 SE
also:
Redwing - 5 lifting out of bushes & high inland
Song Thrush - 7 as above
Blackbird - 4 as above

No audible crests or phylloscs in the region of the office

Red Nab
Rock Pipit - 1
Wheatear - 1
Kingfisher - TWO

Middleton IE
Green Woodpecker - 1
Snipe - 9
Pink-footed Goose - 102 S

Insects
Migrant Hawker & Common Darter Middleton IE

Elsewhere
Slavonian Grebe Pine Lake, 2 Great White Egret Leighton area, 2+ Hawfinch Sizergh

Heysham
Vis 0745-0845 (generally south unless stated) :
Meadow Pipit 26
Chaffinch 32
Goldfinch 2
alba Wagtail 3
Linnet 1
Starling 30>NE
Greenfinch 1
Redwing 2

Elsewhere
Slavonian Grebe still at Pine Lake, 2 Great White Egrets at Leighton Moss

More bits and bobs

Heysham Obs
North harbour wall
Rock Pipit - one
Meadow Pipit - 12 'in-off'
Twite - 25
Linnet - 3
Guillemot - 2 in harbour
Med Gull - one adult
Bar-tailed Godwit - 5

Ocean Edge
Rock Pipit - 1

Insects
Small Tortoiseshell north harbour wall. Red Admiral south.

Elsewhere
Slavonian Grebe still Pine Lake. Long-billed Dowitcher in high tide roost Bank End area

A very wintry minimum

Heysham Obs
This posting could have been written anytime between mid November and the end of February but in October is just a waste of a potential migration day

Ocean Edge etc
No passerines along the shore
Bar-tailed Godwit - 32
Black-tailed Godwit - 1
Knot - 3,200
no dowitchers with 230 Redshank

North harbour wall
Med Gull - 2 adults (one Czech-ringed)
Twite - 26 (no opportunity to see ring status, presumed same lot as yesterday)
Linnet - 3
Robin - 1

Elsewhere
2 x Great White Egret in the overnight roost at Leighton, Slavonian Grebe still Pine Lake

A small corridor of vis

Heysham Obs
After a good thrush count at High Tatham, a visit to Heysham hit some unexpected rain which then appeared to retreat westwards. Between 0900 and 0930, a perhaps surprising number of birds were heading S/SW along the edge of this rain before it tracked east again

Vis mig by the office 0900-0930
Redwing - 62 SW
Chaffinch - 36 SW
Brambling - 2 SW
Goldfinch - 11 SW
Greenfinch - 28 SW
Siskin - heard S/SW
alba Wagtail - 1 SE

North harbour wall up to gate
Twite - 27 (just 6 ringed - all during autumn/winter/spring 2008/9)
Linnet - 3
Rock Pipit - 2
Meadow Pipit - 4 grounded

Elsewhere
High Tatham vis mig 0720-0820: Redwing - 630 east, 400 west, Fieldfare - 36 east, Chaffinch - 12 south, Black-headed Gull - 16 south, Blackbird - 5 west, Starling - 360 west, Redpoll 2 south, Goldfinch - 5 south. Slavonian Grebe still at the north end of Pine lake. 1-2 Great White Egret Silverdale/Arnside area. Long-billed Dowitcher still Cockersands in the morning at least

Saved by a few Chaffinches

Heysham Obs
Ian Botham and mother in law stuff this morning for the second of the two 'vis mig' days. Cloud spilled in from the west hitting an increasing low-level south-easterly leading to rain by 1100hrs. Actually better than expected due to a low-level finch passage

Heysham NR office 0715ish-1115ish
Pink-footed Goose - 26N & 55S
Cormorant - one high to south
Siskin - 1 south
Skylark - 2 SE
Chaffinch - 111 S/SW
Redwing - 6
Blackbird - 2
Goldfinch - 14 S
Greenfinch - 15 SW
Woodpigeon - 11 S
Starling - 20N, 9S, 17N, 18S
Grey Wagtail - 3SE (one ringed at Middleton)
Meadow Pipit - 6S
alba Wagtail - 8SE

Grounded - Chiffchaff one by office

Ocean Edge/Red Nab
Kingfisher - 1

Highlights whilst trawling around doing WeBS
Pink-footed Goose - c85 & c65 S
Twite - 26-28
Linnet - c10
Med Gull - just the one adult north wall
Guillemot - one in harbour, one along north wall at HT

Elsewhere
Slavonian Grebe Pine Lake (thanks Steve). Long-billed Dowitcher Cockersands in am only, late Sanderling there pm

Heysham Obs
Today's pin-up: Lesser Redpoll at Middleton

Ocean Edge/Red Nab (MD)

Kingfisher - 1(+?)

Wheatear - 1

Bar-tailed Godwit - 47

Wigeon - 34

Snipe - 4

Ringing
Ringing was undertaken both on the Reserve and Middleton this morning. New birds ringed were as follows:
Grey Wagtail 1 (Middleton), Dunnock 3, Chaffinch 19 (mainly Heysham), Robin 1, Blue tit 5, Coal Tit 1, Wren 1, Reed Bunting 6 (all Middleton), Lesser Redpoll 1, Goldcrest 1, Song Thrush 1, Blackbird 1, Long tailed Tit 1, Great Tit 1. (AJD & JR)

Elsewhere

Bittern ring number 02 seen at Leighton (see LDBWS posting). Long-billed Dowitcher early & late at Cockersands, but not 'middle'. Two Great White Egret still Leighton area (& third just outside our area at Humphrey Head). 6 Whoopers back in the Lune valley (Wenning Foot)

Redwing and Fieldfare piling through the Aire/Wenning gap this morning with 11,000+ Redwing & 8,000+ Fieldfare west past the vis mig watchpoint at Hutton Roof in about 7 hours, then heading NW. Note the change in wind direction to a light SW tomorrow and maybe this will bring Heysham & Caton Moor ('dead' for the first two hours this morning) into play for tomorrow's national vis mig day.

A bit of vis and that

Heysham obs

Vis by the office:
Apart from an initial rush of Redwing lifting off the Tank Farm there was little movement in the skies until 10am. Many birds headed north into the wind, whilst sensible species like Chaffinches headed south to warmer climes:
Skylark 15 (6>s, 9>N)
Meadow Pipit 4 (S)
Rock Pipit 1
Grey Wagtail 1 (SW)
alba Wagtail 12 (S)
Blackbird 1 (S)
Fieldfare 29 (28 SW,1 N)
Song Thrush 2
Redwing 204 (39>S, 165>N)
Jackdaw 70 (17>S, 53>N)
Larger corvids 25
Starling 85 ((37>N, rest S or SW)
Chaffinch 16 (S)
Greenfinch 8 (3>S, 5>N)
Goldfinch 5 (S)
Siskin 5 (S)
Redpoll sp 2 (S)
Great Spotted Woodpecker flew south but might have been going to Middleton.

On the reserve: Tawny Owl on the cream store pre-dawn. Greenfinch were notable by their absence, Robins notable by their presence - at least 14 Robins 'ticking'. 11 Blackbirds, 3 Song Thrush and then the usual Dunnocks, Wrens etc

Ringing: the grand sum of 2 birds, one of which was a retrapped adult Great Tit (first ringed in March this year) and a new Grey Wagtail which now sports yellow and white colour rings.

Elsewhere
Cetti's Warbler male retrapped at Leighton Moss (11 days). Long-billed Dowitcher still Cockersands but missing for some time around midday. 2(+?) Brambling with Chaffinches in the beech copse 2/3 of the way up the Caton Moor cul-de-sac

More mist and Redwings but little diurnal passage

Heysham Obs
Passerine migrants
Redwing - c60 roosting at Middleton, 21 seen after dawn
Fieldfare - 26
Meadow Pipit - 18SE
Chaffinch - 5S
Redpoll agg - 1
Reed Bunting - much fewer than in recent days with just 3 ringed and a maximum of 5

North wall grounded birds (poor visibility)
Meadow Pipit - 15
Rock Pipit - 1
Twite - at least 9
Linnet - at least 34
Twite/Linnet - c8
Med Gull - 2 adults - one Czech-ringed

Ocean Edge foreshore
Wheatear - 1
Meadow Pipit - 13 grounded
House Sparrow - 4 (one male) by Ocean Edge shop, then high to SW

Elsewhere
Long-billed Dowitcher still Cockersands all day

Small sit

Adult Redwing blackberried at Middleton this am. Thanks Jean

Heysham Obs

*** Go back a couple of days for some comparative Robin pics

Overnight
Lots of Redwing on the move over Heysham (per Malcolm)

Vis mig HNR 0730ish to 1030ish
Redwing - 1,206 SW, then turned about Red Nab and recorded flying E over Middleton IE and presumably some of these picked up still heading east by Eddy overlooking Lancaster. 90% between 0745 and 0835
Chaffinch - 31 SW
Starling - 326, mainly SW
Goldfinch - 4 S
Meadow Pipit - one circling around high up
alba Wagtail - 7 SW
Greenfinch - 7 SW
Song Thrush - c10, grounded from height then heading high inland in the usual manner
Coal Tit - noisy singleton S
Rook - 2 SW, then u-turned NE
Fieldfare & Mistle Thrush - NONE

Vis mig Middleton IE (almost all the same Redwing as above?)
Redwing - 999 east!
Reed Bunting - minimum 13 (9 ringed, no retraps)
alba Wagtail - 2
Song Thrush - 2
Woodpigeon - 11
Meadow Pipit - 16
Fieldfare - definitely heard with first lot of Redwing
Linnet - 2
Carrion Crow - 1
Chaffinch - 1
Snipe - 6 flew in from the north & landed
Starling - just 3
Grey Wagtail - 3 birds but all thought to be blogging

Grounded
Blackbird - 20-30 reserve, 20+ Middleton
Stonechat - female Middleton
Goldcrest - one Middleton
Chiffchaff - one ringed Middleton
Supremely 'dead' by HNR office e.g. yet again no Goldcrest or evidence of migrant Robins.

North harbour wall
Med Gull - Czech-ringed adult
Meadow Pipit - 17 on the mound
Rock Pipit - one mound
Linnet - c8
Guillemot - 2 in harbour still

Ocean Edge foreshore
Med Gull - one ad (different to above)
Meadow Pipit - 17 - apparently same birds as mound!

Ringing
9 Reed Bunting, one Chiffchaff & 3 Redwing ringed Middleton in shorteneed session and just the one Blackbird at HNR

Elsewhere
Long-billed Dowitcher juv still on foreshore near Lighthouse Cottage Cockersands (found late yesterday). Please dont block road to Crook Farm.