Black and white bentbills

Heysham Obs
Ocean Edge
Avocet - two feeding along the channel off Ocean Edge saltmarsh
Black-tailed Godwit - 17 as above
Loads of small waders, mainly Knot/Dunlin, in the 5-figure region but no time to count.  These were corralled at the Ocean Edge end by a significant number of vehicles on the sand & dogs charging around off the Potts Corner area
Med Gull - second winter moulting to second summer on Red Nab

North wall
Twite - a small catch again revealing passage with 5 unringed and 5 ringed birds caught - again no white/green birds seen (see yesterday)

Mammals
Live Grey Squirrel on the fence by the entrance gate

Elsewhere
Red Kite reported at Leighton Moss at midday.  No sign of any Whoopers at Hornby mid-afternoon

Shocking Shoveler

North Harbour Wall
Visible from the North Harbour Wall at high tide:
Shoveler - male on the sea
Red-throated Diver - 7
Eider - 93
Purple Sandpiper - 2
Twite - 45.  These did not contain any of the pale blue site ring over split white over green colour-rings from the catch the other day, indicating that these were birds on the move.  Similarly, an absolute minimum of 6 unringed birds (out of c30 seen properly)
Linnet - 1
Black-tailed Godwit - 7.  A rare sighting from the north wall.

Elsewhere
20 Whooper Swan still just north of Hornby including darvic S53.

Underguesstimates

Heysham Obs
Nothing worse for challenging the human eye than a huge rather distant flock of Knot (or Starlings) being Peregrinated.  Your counts have about as much credibility as a calculator in george osborne's office.  Therefore a flying swirling estimate of 10,000 Knot turned into a careful spread out along the tideline '100 block' count of 15,700, plus the fact that 3,800 of the "flying Knot" were Dunlin!

Ocean Edge foreshore
Knot - 15,700
Dunlin - 3,800
Black-tailed Godwit - 12
Black-headed Gull - 6+5 'purposefully' north

near Middleton ex-ICI
Stonechat - pair near the tanks on the west side of the new access road

North harbour wall
Red-throated Diver - 5
Twite - 46
Linnet - one
Purple Sandpiper - one on the wooden jetty at lunchtime

Mammals
A milestone was reached with the first dead Grey Squirrel ever to be found (as far as I can remember) on Moneyclose Lane - they are quite scarce around here other than during autumnal dispersal

Elsewhere
Great Grey Shrike seen at Dalton Crag in the 'usual area' this morning.  Great White Egret still Leighton Moss

Double-figure dots

Heysham Obs
Technocrat Jean Roberts has now introduced 'live traffic feed' - see bottom of side panel

North harbour wall
Red-throated Diver - absolute minimum of 12 and possibly as many as 20 offshore, depending whether the same birds remained in situ on the dropping tide
Common Scoter - male offshore, then out
Whooper Swan - flock of 13 north mid-pm
Purple Sandpiper - 2 by the wooden jetty with 25 Turnstone
Greylag - one 'in'
Eider - 96
Twite - 46 - all appeared to be ringed
Meds - regular birds presumed gone as is normal for e.g. Czech bird:

EX78711 1 03.06.03 Chomoutov, Olomoucky, CZECH REPUBLIC
Seen 24.08.03-26.03.04 Heysham Harbour
Seen 22.07.04-09.03.05 Heysham Harbour
Seen 20.7.05-06.03.06 Heysham Harbour
Seen 08.07.06-06.03.07 Heysham Harbour
Seen 04.08.07-09.03.08 Heysham Harbour
Seen 18.07.08-at least 23.02.09 Heysham Harbour
Seen 07.07.09-07.03.10 Heysham Harbour

HNR office area
Goldfinch - one north
Meadow Pipit - 2 north
Blue Tit - unringed bird now ringed - the only bird caught in two rounds before the wind increased
Green Woodpecker - one calling in the direction of Ocean Edge mid-afternoon

Elsewhere
Two Small Brindled Beauty trapped overnight at Millhouses near Wray (known site, but first of year)

Twite On Their Way Home

North Harbour Wall

Twite - 39.  Ringing session this morning caught 15 retraps, 17 new birds.  The 7 not caught were already ringed.  Until recently, virtually all the "local" birds were already ringed, today ~ half were new birds indicating movement through the area towards breeding grounds.
Linnet - 1 trapped.
Med Gull - no sign of any birds.  Did anyone else see any there or have they moved off?
Eider - 4 males

North Harbour Wall
Med Gull - 3 Adults
Twite - 46
Purple Sandpiper - 1 wooden jetty

These, the only reports so far.

Twite on the move

Heysham Obs
North harbour wall
Scaup - very distant flock of 2 males and three females - presumably the same as February?  Also 3 'dark smallish ducks' further out!
Great-crested Grebe - 17
Red-breasted Merganser - 14
Eider - 80+
Red-throated Diver - one
Purple Sandpiper - one underneath the wooden jetty with c20 Turnstone at low tide
Twite - 51, 32 were examined for rings and a total of 14 seen to be unringed (recently no more than 1-2).  Were these vis mig birds or a result of new birds at the presumably communal roost - almost certainly the latter.  We still dont know where these birds roost, but it seems to be south of Ocean Edge.
Med Gull - two adults, including Czech-ringed bird (thanks Mike)

Heysham NR
Meadow Pipit - 2 north - forgot about these
Goldfinch - 1 probably migrant north

Middleton IE (thanks Malcolm)
4 Mute Swan, 11 Coot, 7 Moorhen, 6 Mallard, 11 Tufted Duck, 3 Pochard, 3 Goldeneye, 2 Teal, one Little Grebe and a singing male Reed Bunting.  Perhaps surprisingly c/f elsewhere, no migrant Stonechats - one just to the east along the bypass fields

Elsewhere
20 Whooper Swan near Hornby, including darvic S53.  Great White Egret Leighton Moss, also 2 Cetti's Warbler & Bearded Tit in eight separate areas

Foggy constraint

.....put the lid on the early morning offshore observations

North harbour wall
Med Gull - two adults on the north wall, one Czech-ringed - both in full summer plumage
Twite - just 8 on the seed

Heysham NR
Green Woodpecker - one calling down Moneyclose Lane
Siskin - one north
Meadow Pipit - one north

Ocean Edge area
Black-tailed Godwit - 11 (unringed)
Knot - c3,200
Dunlin - c2,500
Bar-tailed Godwit - c1,200

Elsewhere
20 Whooper Swans along A683 just south of Hornby, including darvic S53.

Heavenly Siskin

Annual Report
30 copies of the 2009 Heysham Obs report have now been printed but still need ring binding with the colour front cover added.  They should be available early next week, or perhaps earlier, from the Heysham NR office or in a short time, when the necessary admin has been carried out, at Leighton Moss shop.  Thanks to Tony Moriarty and EDF/British Energy for printing

Heysham Obs
North harbour wall early morning low tide
A bit disappointing:
Siskin - heard twice high overhead
Red-throated Diver - 1
Twite - 32
Linnet - 1
Red-breasted Merganser - good count of 21

No high tide checks today

Heysham Nature Reserve
Green Woodpecker - by the entrance gate
Blue Tit - unringed bird trapped
Grey Wagtail - one high to the north
Reed Bunting - female by the feeder for a short time

Elsewhere
Great White Egret and single Avocet on Allen/EM Pools.  Smew Freemans Pool.

'Early' morning low tide rewards

Notice and apology
Anyone recently using the contact e-address for Reuben Neville by shading and right-clicking on properties has not been receiving the correct address.  The correct address was showing on the blog, but a false address was showing on the properties.  This was obviously the reason why e.g. the Sandwich Bay group could not get through on e-mail the other day and we are really sorry about that.  The address showing under links IS correct and is also now the one on properties!

Heysham Obs
North harbour wall
Whooper Swan - 22 on the sandflats to the north 0925hrs
Dark-bellied Brent Goose - two, at least one of them adult, flew past the wooden jetty, along the channel and landed on Aldren's Hedge skeer off Sunny Slopes at 0905hrs
Red-throated Diver - one early on, then two later floating in
Eider - 105 visible at low tide
Red-breasted merganser - 10
Great-crested Grebe - 7
Wigeon - flock of 54 floated into the bay - not the Red Nab birds
Pink-footed Goose - 60 south 0850hrs
Purple Sandpiper - 2 on wooden jetty
Twite - c50 - 32 examined on the ground contained two unringed & the regular Askam bird.  Please view these birds ONLY from the road.  Thanks.
Grey Wagtail - one north - the first migrant this year
Med Gull - 2 adults

South side
Black-tailed Godwit - 2
Wigeon - 71
Med Gull - one adult Red Nab, then flew south

Elsewhere
Male Snow Bunting Teal Bay 0930ish but disappeared south.  An unringed Great White Egret is now back at Leighton; in front of Jackson hide during the day and roosting at 1728hrs in the evening (the ringed bird of last autumn/early winter is now near Cardiff).  A visit to Thrushgill plantation gave 35 minutes without seeing or hearing a bird - is this a record for daylight hours in this area in recent times?