Weather whirlpool

Heysham Obs
A quick race round in terrible weather was actually worth it! Juvenile Shag are not the major twitch/photo (or indeed video) fest they are on the Fylde, but they have been thin on the ground here this autumn.

Ocean Edge foreshore
Wheatear - One still on Ocean Edge foreshore - now on the winter atlas!
Shag - one juvenile on the sea off the SW corner of Ocean Edge - most unusual - usually around the harbour
Twite/Linnet - flock of c20 with at least 3 of each

North wall
Med Gull - one adult in flight
Twite - at least 20
Linnet - at least 10
Ringed Plover - 8 on the old heliport

Outfalls etc after the switch to WSW7-8 at c1230
Little Gull - 2CY & 1CY on stage 2 outfall, adult flying out of bay - quick response to the weather!
Kittiwake - 2 x 1CY off the north harbour wall
The IOM ferry may have assisted in producing these birds so quickly

Middleton IE
Jack Snipe - 1


Elsewhere
Slavonian Grebe Pine Lake, 3 Great White Egret Leighton area & also in roost

Enjoyable morning by the office

Heysham Obs
The weather suggested the final vis mig morning would be a chore as I set of from High Tatham rather later than I should have been and inevitably ended up caught in traffic. Two birders were already in the car park on arrival and immediately a flock of Redwing flew over. I should have asked if I had missed anything. The next hour or so was as good as anything this autumn!

Vis by HNR office 0715-1115
These were all heading in a generally southerly direction at a height/purposeful manner suggesting they were migrating. Plenty, for e.g. of other 'blogging' gulls. All Woodcock seen included

Woodcock - two possibly flushed by the birders (first seen flying south behind them at 0735hrs, landed in the screening planting along Moneyclose Lane), one flew south out of the top path scrub (and landed along Moneyclose Lane) at 0800hrs, one flew out of the mist net ride behind the office at 0807hrs (landed in the tank farm)
Redwing - 148 & another flock heard but not seen
Fieldfare - just 11 very first thing
Greenfinch - 61
Chaffinch - 136
Starling - 275
Goldfinch - 25
Meadow Pipit - 2
Herring Gull - 24
Blackbird - 32
Mistle Thrush - 7
Brambling - 2
Song Thrush - 10
Siskin - 5
Reed Bunting - 1
Black-headed Gull - 9
Grey Wagtail - 2 together south- definietly late migrants
Whooper Swan - flock of 12 south VERY high
alba Wagtail - just 6
Collared Dove - 1
Jay - 2
Rock Pipit - 1
Snipe - 1
Linnet - 6
Common Gull - 2
Great Black-backed Gull - 3
Bullfinch - 2

Red Admiral - 4
Painted Lady - 1

Grounded
Chiffchaff - three by the office:
a) collybita-type giving collybita-type calls
b) brown one giving monosyllabic 'peep' call
c) greyish/buff one giving rather faint disyllabic call
Blackcap - 1CY male trapped with fat score of just 2
Green Woodpecker - one in the tank farm briefly
Wheatear - one Ocean Edge saltmarsh shoreline
...plus the Woodcock

Miscellany
Knot - 50,000 off Ocean Edge
Kingfisher - one Ocean Edge
Teal - 46 Middleton IE
Tufted Duck - 3 IE
Little Grebe - 1 IE
Snipe - 5 IE
Bar-tailed Godwit - 42 off OE

North wall
Med Gull - 2 adults
Twite - only 4 ringed birds seen - 2 from 'winter' 2008/9, two from earlier this week, indicating that many of the birds ringed this week have moved on and been replaced by new arrivals
Guillemot - 2 harbour

Insects
Single Peacock butterfly by the office. Also 2 geriatric Speckled Wood and a single Migrant hawker. An estimated 350 wasps flew SW past the office from a nest in the NE corner of the car park during the vis mig 4 hours. None returned via this route. No macros in the moth trap but 3 Silver Y seen in the course of the morning

Elsewhere
Slavonian Grebe Pine Lake. Avocet & 4 fence-hopping Snow Geese viewable from JB Point. 3 Great White Egret Leighton area, but only 2 definitely entered the roost. One Cetti's Warbler heard on the causeway

Highlighted by late insect movement

Does anyone know why the 'update link' where this site is being followed on other people's blogs is remaining at 2 weeks ago? Thanks.

Heysham Obs
No avian vis mig to speak of today but 3 Skylark casually recorded. Note the final national vis mig day of the trilogy can either be tomorrow (infinitely better for passerines) or Sunday (absolutely horrendous for passerine vis mig &, on the latest forecast, useless for any seabirds, indeed a classic 'lie in'/brownie-point retrieval morning). Supposed to be 0700-1100ish which looks pretty decent for Saturday

Ocean Edge/Red Nab
Linnet - c25
Twite - low single figures
Wigeon - 41
Kingfisher - probably 2
Med Gull - probably two adults but mobile
Black-tailed Godwit - 2
no sign of Black Redstart but plenty of suitable habitat

North Harbour Wall
Twite/Linnet - very mobile flocks in strong wind, probably up to 60 in total. A sample of 38 Twite on the seed revealed 17 unringed, two ringed last winter and 19 ringed two days ago.
Guillemot - 2 in harbour
Rock Pipit - 1
Meadow Pipit - c6
Kingfisher - 1
Bar-tailed Godwit - 3

Reserve
Record autumn count of FOUR Goldcrest! otherwise just 15-20 Blackbird and 2 Song Thrush on the migrant front. This has become a 'no-go' area for Fieldfare/Redwing in the last few days - odd.

Insects
Numbers of butterflies coming across harbour and flying northwards over the bay - Painted Lady 2, Red Admiral 3, Small Tortoiseshell 1, plus 2 others not identified. Also one Migrant Hawker! At least 6 Silver Y around the nature reserve car park and two Comma still flying on the reserve itself, but no dragonflies seen there.

Elsewhere
Slavonian Grebe still Pine Lake, showing little concern for power boat activities. 230+ social wasps in a moth trap at Wennington!! [what date is this?] . Migrant moths in this area have included single Vestal, Diamond-back & Rusty Dot Pearl, several Rush Veneer & Dark Sword Grass and plenty of diurnal & nocturnal Silver Y

Black Redstart day

Heysham Obs
Vis mig 0900-1000
Chaffinch - 21
Goldfinch - 4
Greenfinch - 7
Woodpigeon - 4
Reed Bunting - 1
Pink-footed Goose - 25
i.e. not a lot with no thrush passage over here

Ocean Edge/Red Nab etc
Black Redstart - female/imm found by a three lady birders who kindly informed us of the news on returning to the car park. Thanks very much! Still present about 1300hrs along the seawall between Red Nab and the outfalls
Knot - 10,000+
Wigeon - 36

North harbour wall
'Twinnet' - c45, c30 of which were Twite.

Grounded migrants
Chiffchaff - one, the first for a few days
a few (5-6) Blackbirds
see above for Black Redstart
Dunnock - two unringed birds trapped, one was released unringed as it had serious 'foot growths', a not uncommon problem with this species
Greenfinch - 5 unringed birds trapped

Elsewhere
The second male Cetti's Warbler at Leighton Moss was ringed today. NNEW on Great White Egrets or Slavonian Grebe. 3 unknown origin Snow Geese with feral Greylags at Leighton this evening! Vestal moth trapped at Millhouses & several Rush veneer, Silver Y & Dark Sword Grass in local traps. Two more nights of good moth trapping conditions!

Twite ringing

Heysham Obs
North Harbour Wall
Twite - 37 trapped (of these, 32 new birds ringed, 4 retraps and 1 control, ringed on the Ribble estuary)
Linnet - 6 caught and ringed
Meadow Pipit - approx 6 around
Rock Pipit - 1
Pied Wagtail - resident pair

Hut Moth Trap - southerly wind overnight just blowing into window so catch probably reduced:

Singles of Large Wainscot, Feathered Thorn and Silver Y plus 2 Red line Quaker

Elsewhere
Cetti's Warbler - 1+ Leighton causeway. Great White Egret - 3 around. Slavonian Grebe - still Pine Lake. Curlew Sandpiper Cockersands
AJD

Short and sweet

Heysham Obs
A quick visit turned out to be very quick with the only worthwhile sighting being two Silver Y's nectaring from the still-flowering orange buddliea next to the car park (thanks originally to Jon Stagg for this)

Elsewhere
Surely a British record 3 Great White Egret roosting at Leighton with 55+ Little Egret. Two singing male Cetti's Warbler next to the Leighton main causeway. Slavonian Grebe still Pine Lake

Green Woodpecker visits the reserve area

Heysham NR area
Green Woodpecker - 1 in tank farm area - presumably one of the two seen on Middleton IE in recent times.

North Harbour Wall
Twite/Linnet - A number of fragmented small mixed flocks (with one Goldfinch) around the mound and feeding area, perhaps 30 -35 in all. 26 Linnets on feeding site.

Harbour
Guillemot - 2

Red Nab
Kingfisher - 1

A Mammal and a Half....

Heysham Obs

North Harbour Wall
Med Gull - 1 adult
Twite/Linnet - flock of 32 at feeding station certainly included 4 Twite and 10 Linnet, with the remainder not firmly identified.

Grey Seal - 1

Ocean Edge
Rock Pipit - 1
Whooper Swan - 2 SE at 1035hrs
Wheatear - 1 Red Nab

Harbour Porpoise - the front half of an animal seen between Red Nab and power station outfalls. This unfortunate individual was freshly severed just behind the dorsal fin - perhaps the result of an encounter with a ship's propeller?

Elsewhere
Quite probably two singing male Cetti's Warbler Leighton Moss causeway. Slavonian Grebe Pine Lake. Two Great White Egret at least in the evening roost Leighton area. Juv Curlew Sandpiper Cockersands area & it looks like a Common Sandpiper (is it an adult??) is set to winter at Conder Pool again

Clarity at dawn and high vis

Heysham Obs
Its all about timing when you are going for possible pre-frontal falls off an ESE wind. Far too clear until about 1000hrs and the battle for the 'highlight' was a wrestling match between the almost annual autumn Yellowhammer flyover and a (seriously) mind-boggling count of 9 Mallard on the Obs Tower fire pond. Some predictable finchy vis from dawn (see Punkbirder site for a noble effort this morning at my old 1977/8 stamping ground at East Hills (I never made it pre-dawn!))

Heysham Obs office & reserve area 0745-0945
Song Thrush - 13 SE (plus another 30-35 unearthed on a 'thrash' - quite a good count for here)
Redwing - 60, mainly S/SW
Blackbird - 15 SE, plus c25 in the abovementioned thrash; all appeared to be males
Chaffinch - 72 SW, mostly high & some could have been missed
Greenfinch - 49 SW (as above)
Goldfinch - 15 SW
Reed Bunting - 2 (together) SW
Yellowhammer - f/imm SSE at 0820hrs
alba Wagtail - 13 SE
Meadow Pipit - 1 SE
Siskin - 3 SE & 8 grounded which then flew SE
Fieldfare - just 5 S
Redpoll spp (& sounded like a non-Lesser) - 1 SE
Linnet - 5 SE
Skylark - 1 SE
Jay - 2 possible vis mig birds south, low
Mistle Thrush - 1 SE
Grey Wagtail - 1 apparently on a wide-ranging blog & this was confirmed by sighting of colour-ringed bird caught on 27/9/09
Bullfinch - 1 possible migrant low to south
Goldcrest - 2, possibly 3!
Mallard - unprecedented 9 on Obs Tower fire pond - rare here outside breeding season

Ocean Edge
Wheatear - 1
Pink-footed Goose - 75 SE
Rock Pipit - 1

Middleton IE
Jack Snipe - 1

North wall
'Twinnet' - mixed flock of c40
Med Gull - one adult
Meadow Pipit - 6 grounded

Insects (it was warm!)
Red Admiral & Migrant Hawker Middleton IE

Elsewhere
Slavonian Grebe Pine Lake, 2 x Great White Egret Eric Morecambe Pool

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