Patch-worker adrenalin

Heysham Obs
All the coverage was prior to mid-afternoon, so any late arrivals with the cloud-edge from the weather front may have been missed, but this certainly did not include any significant Meadow Pipit passage - conspicuous by its absence all day.  Must do better!

""Highlights""
House Sparrow - one at the feeder by the office briefly - very rare in spring
Mallard - Red Nab
Great-spotted Woodpecker - female ringed 

North wall
Gannet - one
Meadow Pipit - just 16 north
Skylark - 2 north
Twite - only 18
Linnet - 4
Bar-tailed Godwit - flock of 80 north

Elsewhere
A very thin scatter of Wheatear and a big arrival of Sand Martin this evening with 60ish at Leighton Moss (none on the equally-favoured Pine Lake last night)

Belated Little Gull and a few aerial squeaks

Heysham obs area
North Harbour Wall
Red-throated Diver - 3 floating in
Great-crested Grebe - 2 floating in
Red-breasted Merganser - 10 floating in
Eider 79 seen in the distance
Twite 60.
2 adult Med Gulls seen late afternoon.

Vis
Gannet 3
Wigeon 12
all heading NE
alba wagtail 16
Meadow Pipit 44
Rock Pipit 1
Skylark 4
Goldfinch 3
Carrion Crow 1 came in off the sea from and then continued NE

Red Nab
adult winter Little Gull - first of the year
42 Bar-tailed Godwit

Mammals
Grey Squirrel by entrance gate to reserve

Elsewhere
Great Grey Shrike still Dalton Crags

Dithering Kittiwakes

Heysham Obs
North wall early morning
Red-throated Diver - 3
Red-breasted Merganser - 13
Kittiwake - flock of 25 eventually u-turning out of the bay
Meadow Pipit - 2 north
Grey Wagtail - one north

Late afternoon
Med Gull - the same two unringed adults (see pics the other day) coming to bread with a third bird seen briefly
Twite - 61, including at least one Askam-in-Furness bird, one with a metal-only ring and 8+ unringed

Elsewhere
3+ Cetti's Warbler Leighton Moss.  20 Whooper Hornby am, including ringed bird

Return of the moggie

The only interesting thing this morning was the seacat coming into port.  Re-wash, anglers chancing their arm on the seawall by the outfalls or along the outfalls themselves at low tide, take note

North wall
Red-throated Diver - 1
Twite - 47 - 6 unringed
Linnet - 3 - one ringed

Moths
Acleris hastiana (& a Dotted Border) in the trap

Rather mundane

Heysham Obs
Good coverage of the coast, including the WeBS count, for little reward

North wall 0730-1145
Gannet - 7+6 in
Kittiwake - 20+2+3+30 in
Red-throated Diver - groups of: 3 out, 2 landing on the sea, 4 in very high & one out
Twite - 41.  Of 32 examined, 8 were ringed in winter 2008/9, 20 were ringed in autumn 2009, just two were ringed in 2010 and there were 2 unringed
Linnet - 2 with the Twite (both unringed)
Purple Sandpiper - one (with 68 Turnstone on wooden jetty)
Meadow Pipit - 2 north
plus a trickle of northbound Common Gulls

Ocean Edge
Very poor with no passerine migrants and a dog flush of the following from the uncovered remains of the saltmarsh:
Jack Snipe - one
Snipe - 3
Wigeon - 21

Elsewhere
Ad Med by the Grosvenor groyne on the WeBS.  Great Grey Shrike Dalton Crag.  3 Cetti's Warbler Leighton Moss.

Game on...........

Heysham Obs
Well, it was also the case yesterday on the sea, but we didnt match Seamus's early enthusiasm (see Fleetwood birder blog off the Links).  This is where this (and Seamus's) blog starts to change from lists/accounts of standard winter target fare into the daily spring migration (or lack of it).   Therefore, for postings of birds in situ during the winter months, read postings of birds which will be miles away by the time you read this.  OK, this is old hat to most of you, but we do get target birders asking for e.g. where the previous day's (heavenly) Tree Pipit is.

North wall 0730ish to 0930
Snow Bunting - female unfortunately flushed by car, flew over the back of the mound but could not be located - lots of nooks and crannies & may have gone over to the south wall (c0830hrs).  Hopefully it will find the nyjer seed.
Gannet - 33 in, including flock of 16
Red-throated Diver - 4+12+2 in, the latter flying quite high
Kittiwake - perversely none!
Purple Sandpiper - at least one on the wooden jetty but only one showing at a time!
Twite - c45, including 27 checked for rings - 5 unringed, one Askam in Furness bird from autumn 2008 (presumably the regular yellow over split dark blue/white), one metal-ring only on the right leg and one with the 2010 pale blue over split pale green/white - the FIRST to be read in the field, indicating that these have been mainly birds in transit caught earlier this month

Ocean Edge
Meadow Pipit - 2 north
Black-headed Gull - 410 on Red Nab
Wigeon - could only see 17

Reserve/Moneyclose Lane
Blackbird - a check at about 0815-0825 revealed an obvious influx totalling c35 with 'gangs' of 6 by the traffic lights and 5 near Ocean Edge

Middleton IE (thanks Malcolm)
Webs:  9 Tufted Duck, no sign of yesterdays 3 male Pochard, 4 Mute Swan, 15 Coot, 3 Moorhen, 9 Mallard, 2 Canada Goose, 3 Goldeneye, 2 Little Grebe, 2 Snipe, 5 Teal
Others:
Raven - 2 - where are they nesting this year - doesnt appear to be on telecom tower?
Fieldfare - 1 - scarce on spring passage
Great-spotted Woodpecker - two drumming (first record of this in the obs recording area???)

Mammals
An indeterminate distant view of what was probably a Harbour Porpoise and certainly a small cetacean

Elsewhere
Great Grey Shrike Dalton Crags at least midday, 200m south of trig point, 2 ad Meds over Galgate, Tundra Bean Goose Sand Villa morning only, Redhead Smew Freemans Pool YESTERDAY.  At least 17 Whooper Swan Hornby, including S53

Kittiwake famine is over

The apparantly paired-up passage Med Gulls which spent a short time along the north wall - the male is the upper bird.  Thanks to Mike Baron

Heysham Obs
Its been a great winter for people responsible for checking freight on ferries at Heysham port for storm damage.  For the same reason, it has been an excellent winter for birds which dont want to be blown into or diverted into Morecambe Bay.  Not quite so good for 'year-ticking' Kittiwake, with even the seductive entrails of the midday Isle of Man ferry drawing a blank.   An initially boring seawatch in good visibility was enlivened by a tight synchronous flock with flashing white underwings...

North wall 0900-1000ish
Kittiwake - flock of 8 in, then landed, then out & c16, presumably all this species, but flocks can get joined by migrant Common Gulls, on the sea mid pm
Meadow Pipit - 2+5+1+1+1+1 north
Red-throated Diver - 2 on the sea
Purple Sandpiper - 2 on the wooden jetty
Twite - 44 with 5 unringed
Med Gull - 2 ads: one full summer and one partial summer bird along the north wall - neither ringed and the partial summer bird definitely not one of the regulars on bill pattern (none seen earlier this week)

Ocean Edge/Red Nab
No sign of the Avocets:  4 Black-tailed Godwit, 13,700 Knot, c2,500 Dunlin, just 24 Wigeon left
Mistle Thrush in full song from Ocean Edge reception!

Just inland of Half-moon bay
Stonechat - one female

Dogwatch  1125-1145
20 minutes observing dogwalkers from the Heysham NR office window produced the following dog-related sightings (please bear in mind a large off-lead area is provided):
1) A couple in a red volvo - two off-lead dogs running around the reserve, did at least put waste bag in bin
2) Single male with dog walking in from Moneyclose Lane, straight over the dipping pond stile on to the reserve, no lead, lively dog all 'over the place'
3) Single female walking in using the same stile - more sedate dog off the lead, remained near owner during period observed 
4) Couple returning from the off-lead area with two lively off-lead dogs well ahead of them.  These went through the fence, on to the reserve and did a tour of the classroom area before their owners arrived back to the off-lead gate.  Returned to car.

Therefore in twenty minutes, none of the dog owners observed took a bit of notice of carefully worded, conciliatory but not over-fussy, signs

Elsewhere
Great Grey Shrike Dalton crags.  Tundra Bean Goose Sand Villa

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