Twittering

Heysham Obs
North harbour wall
Twite - A nice build up of Twite this morning after a week of erratic low numbers. The maximum count involved 14 unringed birds on the seed and a more mobile mixed 'Twinnet' flock of c20
Med Gull - one adult in harbour

Ocean Edge etc
Little Gull - a 1CY was resting on the sea with Black-headed Gulls off Red Nab

Elsewhere
Great White Egret - 2 left the Leighton Moss roost and headed past JBP towards Humphrey Head. Slavonian Grebe still Pine Lake having avoided being WeBS counted yesterday!

No obvious sign of Snow Bunting

Heysham Obs
No sign of the Snow Bunting during reasonably thorough search. No sign at all of any Purple Sandpiper despite careful search of the outer skeer along the base of the wooden jetty (location during last winter's habitual behaviour at this stage of the tide). The depression track of the one hitting us this evening is pretty useless - it looks too far to the south for any decent prolonged seabird winds....but only needs a little shift

North harbour wall
Rock Pipit - 1
Twite - 8 in situ early am and 12 psychic individuals which flew high to the north over Ocean Edge/Red Nab/outfalls undoubtedly 'hearing' that the food had just been put out (1215hrs). More seriously, the Twite are very mobile at the moment and these birds came from the south of Ocean Edge saltmarsh (which didnt appear to hold any Twite today), probably from the Lune Estuary. 13 Twite on the seed late afternoon
Linnet - 4
Med Gull - 1 ad
Pink-footed Goose - 140 + 130 NE 0730-0800
Meadow Pipit - 2

HNR Office 0905
Canada Goose - 1 SE!!

Elsewhere
Black Redstart just OOA at Cocker's Dyke (but visible from area boundary ramp?!) & Black Redstart still at Cockersands abbey farm. Great Grey Shrike near 'trig point' at Dalton Crag at least 1000hrs & 1130hrs. 3 Great White Egret into roost at Leighton Moss this evening (& one still Ribble/Southport area). Cetti's Warblers seen/heard along causeway & lower hide area (2 birds). No obvious sign of Slav Grebe on Pine Lake during WeBS count

Snow Bunting

Pics taken today by Lou Cross along the north harbour wall. Thanks Lou

Heysham Obs
The only sighting known about today was a Snow Bunting along the north harbour wall found by Lou Cross on a lunchtime walk. Pics imminent

Elsewhere
Black Redstart still Cockersands Abbey area. At least one Great White Egret Leighton Moss area. The third Cetti's Warbler of the autumn (heard yesterday) was trapped and ringed at Leighton Moss

Blackcaps still around/moving through

Heysham
Ringing. New birds ringed as follows: Blackbird 2, Robin 2, Goldcrest 2 (where are all the others?), Greenfinch 2, Blackcap 2, Song Thrush 1, chaffinch 1, Long tailed Tit 8.

North Harbour Wall
Great Crested Grebe - 1, not so numerous here lately
Twite/Linnet - 5 only. At least 2 Twite, one ringed, the other unringed.
Pink-footed Goose: flocks of 60+60+70+250 north
Whooper Swan - 3 north
Merlin - female 'in-off', then SE
Snipe - 2 on half-moon bay

Middleton IE
Mute Swan - 2
Little Grebe - 2
Goldeneye - 1
Tufted Duck - 5

Insects
Red Admiral - 2 flying along NHWall to SW

(all ajd)

Sheepdog trial

Heysham Obs
A manic mutt in the 'collie type thing' category spent 10 minutes trying to round up an Oystercatcher flock off Ocean Edge. It must have run about 5 miles before returning to land. Seen in flight were:

Bar-tailed Godwit - 2
Little Egret - 2

North wall late afternoon
Czech-ringed adult Med Gull

Elsewhere
Black Redstart still at Cockersands

Heysham
Green Woodpecker - 1 still around in the obs tower/tank farm area
Raven - 1 calling from transmission tower

North Harbour Wall
Peregrine Falcon - 1 troubling Knot below north wall
Linnet - 5 trapped and ringed
Twite - 5 retrapped and 19 new birds ringed (by 14.30!), after day-long struggle with equipment and unwanted but probably well-meaning visitors.
(all ajd)

Elsewhere
Black Redstart - f/imm between Cockersands CP and Bank End

Heysham
North Harbour Wall
Twite - 7 in one flock, c18 in another possibly mixed Linnet/Twite flock. None trapped owing to continual visits to area from humans and dog.

Inshore
Little Egret - 2 Red Nab
Kingfisher - one outfalls
Guillemot - 2 still in harbour - when they went AWOL previously=when they were a regular winter fixture, they were in the underground reservoir by the intake from which they can get in and out on high tides but are 'trapped' on neap tides. We ringed 6 (including one of the nominate northern form - blacker back, longer bill etc) during 'rescue' operations with a landing net, which fell foul of about 20 pages of prohibitive risk assessment and the discovery they could get out on the high tides

Middleton
Pink footed Goose - 1 on "no swimming" pond
Mute Swan - 4
Teal - 14
Tufted Duck - 4
Mallard - 5
No Snipe present

Elsewhere
Great Grey Shrike back at Dalton Crags but absent from the usual area in the afternoon. The colour-ringed Great White Egret seems to have moved south to the Ribble, leaving 'just' two in the Leighton roost

Ornithological SAD

Heysham Obs
'Nothing moving' was the chorus this morning and, in the case of Twite and Guillemot, nothing seen.

North harbour wall
A 30 minute seawatch produced a few beer cans and c6 assorted common seagulls
Cormorant - 43 on wooden jetty
No sign of any small waders on the wooden jetty
Med Gull - one adult

South of the harbour
Kingfisher - TWO on outfalls
Little Egret - one OE saltmarsh
Jack Snipe - one OE saltmarsh

Elsewhere
Nothing yet on LDBWS site

The Rain Finally came about 1o'clock

Heysham
Snipe - 2 flushed from the far marsh.

Norht Harbour Wall
Linnet - 1 on freshly replenished niger was the only passerine seen in the wet & windy conditions!

Herring Gull - 1 unfortunate individual flying with one leg virtually severed above the tarsal joint.
(ajd)

A dinosaur looks at birds...eventually

Heysham Obs
Belated appearance (anyone around first thing?), following a 'meaning of life' session adding scart, freeview and digital to the vocabulary. Preceded by a bit of home-based vis, so no early morning coverage here in surprisingly calm conditions

North wall
Med Gull - one adult
Guillemot - 2 in harbour
Twite - just 5 seen

Ocean Edge
Rock Pipit - 1
Bar-tailed Godwit - 4 at high tide
Kingfisher - 1

Elsewhere
Early morning vis included 16 Bramblings west over High Tatham and 9 over Hutton Roof