Earliest ever ants in pants?

Heysham Obs
Knocking the Chiffchaffs off the top spot were several (initially unseen) smallish black ants which transferred to my clothing as I was packing up the mist nets and thence to a painful area.  I cannot remember seeing ants in March before.  No wonder the Green Woodpecker(s) are hanging around.  Otherwise routine stuff this morning, despite a promising wind direction and a bit of cloud/spits and spats

HNR Office area
Robin - lightweight unringed bird
Chiffchaff - 2 males moved through to the north, one via a mist net
Green Woodpecker - one on the reserve
Reed Bunting - one female caught which had been ringed at Middleton IE on 18/8/09
Meadow Pipit - 223 NE 0715-1015 (11 ringed = niggling wind).  There was then a surge just ahead of a splodge of uniform cloud with the birds orientating more west to east i.e. 'in-off', giving a total of 349 in 3.5hrs
alba Wagtail - 6 NE
Siskin - 1 NE
Woodpigeon - 2 high to the north
Carrion Crow - flock of 6 NE chased of by locals
Sand Martin - 3 together NE at 1145hrs

North harbour wall 0830-0930 (different vis birds to the office)
Meadow Pipit - 89 NE
alba Wagtail - 12 NE
Linnet - 4 off-passage
Twite - c60 off-passage
sea dead

Ocean Edge not checked, hence the Wheatear absence!

Elsewhere
Great Grey Shrike still Dalton Crags 150m S of trig point (awol yesterday morning).  15 Whooper Swans in fields near Gressingham Bridge this evening, presumably the remains of the wintering flock - one was darvic-ringed but cannot be certain this is the wintering bird.  Can anyone check in better light, please?

Watery eyes, wet specs and a Wheatear

Heysham Obs
A stuttering power walk around the north harbour wall mound area was about it for the morning - a half-decent Meadow Pipit movement was the on-going interest

North harbour wall 0945-1025
Meadow Pipit - 52 NE
alba Wagtail - 7 NE
Linnet - 1 NE
Twite - 61, but no decent views to check rings
Wheatear - one male
Purple Sandpiper - one flew on to the big skeer next to the red gate

Ocean Edge foreshore/grassy areas
Nothing notable

Reserve
Bombus terrestris

More mipits

Heysham Obs
North Harbour Wall 0710-0910
Seabirds
Red-throated Diver - 3 in, 5 on (including a flock of 4)
Canada Goose - 3 in
Eider - 69 mostly distant (i.e. off Morecambe)
Little Gull - very distant flock of 5 adult-types blogging in the outer bay
Black-headed Gull - 9+8 purposefully north

Vis
Meadow Pipit - 88 NE in a steady trickle
alba wagtail - 33 NE (1 landed briefly and was a male white wagtail - the earliest ever (genuine!) record here).
Goldfinch 2 NE, plus flock of 5 high NE at 1045hrs
Linnet 3 NE

Feeding station
Linnet - 2
Twite - 64 (at least one unringed bird)

General
Green Woodpecker heard along Moneyclose Lane (beware of singing Song Thrush imitating it - a novelty for here!)

Elsewhere
Female Marsh Harrier Leighton Moss at about 1000hrs.  Sand Martins back at Bela colony at Beetham. Great Grey Shrike Dalton Crags am at least

seasonal subtleties at a local patch

Heysham Obs
A lot of birders do seem to miss out on a sizeable seasonal chunk of their hobby from about now until mid-May.  Lack of knowledge and awareness of migrating passerines, especially translating flight calls to the actual species, is a skeleton in the closet for many people who see themselves as birders who have reached a 'reasonable standard'  

In this respect, we will be offering a tuition session on vis mig to hopefully also coincide with some spring seabird passage.  Last year's was very successful, providing good variety, if not quantity.

Saturday 1st May  0700-1000  Meet Heysham Nature reserve car park SD407599 at 0700
...............or drive straight to the north harbour wall from 0700 or earlier if you want to do some watching yourself cSD400604.  This date has been chosen to coincide with the sometimes spectacular Arctic Tern passage, the author's favourite part of the birding calender in the North Lancashire area

Please park on the two-way section of the north harbour wall road and avoid 'cluttering up' the single section around the metal gate.   Please contact 07989866487 or PMrsh123@aol.com or 07815979856 or Jeanrbrts6@aol.com for further details.  Thanks.

North harbour wall 0745-0900
Meadow Pipit - 110 north, later 27 north in 10 minutes (1050-1100hrs)
alba Wagtail - 18 north
Linnet - 7 north
Goldfinch - 16 north
Purple Sandpiper - one on the rocks below the red lighthouse (hard to see!)
Twite - 56, but flew off before rings could be examined
Common Gull - 18 2CY on seaward end Heysham 2 outfall
Herring Gull - influx of 2CY with c230 inshore & offshore
Red-throated Diver - 2 sp birds in, gaining height
Gannet - 5 adults in
Pink-footed Goose - 5 north
Nothing obvious on the sea, other than distant Eider to the north

Ocean Edge side
Zero of interest other than a Linnet 'in-off' and 8 "swans" out in the murk heading NW - proportions (and common sense) suggested Whooper but not seen well enough.

Ringing recovery
Interesting Twite double-control just received:

Ringed:  X292004 3F 16.11.08 Southport

Caught by ringer:  4F 01.07.09 Sanda Island, off Mull of Kintyre (Strathclyde)
Caught by ringer again: 4F 28.10.09 Heysham north wall 46 km

Middleton IE
8 Tufted Duck, 3 Goldeneye, 4 trilling Little Grebe, 3 Teal, 2 Snipe and a singing Linnet which I think was a vis bird having a rest.  10 Meadow Pipit north (1545-1645). 

Meadow Pipit Morning

Heysham
Visible Migration
After an early morning mist, a bit of movement, in particular of Meadow Pipits.

Meadow Pipit - 164 north.  Including 6 ringed by the hut.
Goldfinch - 21 N
Alba wagtail - 9 N
Green woodpecker - 1 in tank farm area.
Goldcrest - 1 by hut.  The first this spring.
Reed Bunting - 1 adult male trapped wearing ring fitted on 03/04/2009.
Mistle Thrush - 1 singing loudly on Reserve
Redwing - one tank farm
Siskin - 2 north

North Harbour Wall
Wigeon - 2 on sea.
Eider - 2 males
Twite - c50 initially, then c12 remained and remainder disappeared.  Only 5 trapped, of these 2 ringed & 3 unringed.  Sundays are not good for catching Twite here!
Linnet - 4 trapped, of these, 1 ringed & 3 unringed.

Moths
Dotted Border - 1, the only moth in the hut trap.

ajd

Elsewhere
Green-winged teal still Leighton Moss Griesdale Hide

Green green grass and a wet Wheatear

Heysham Obs
Bucketful of rain overnight and throughout the morning, commiserations with the coach party walking down the seawall

South of the harbour
Little Egret - one Red Nab (BTO challenge year tick)
Wheatear - one male on the high section of south Ocean Edge at 1000ish
Pied Wagtail - 6 grounded OE foreshore
Meadow Pipit - 3 grounded OE

North wall
Twite - 61 - one Askam-in Furness autumn 2008 bird, just ONE ringed in 2010, 11 unringed, about 35 ringed in autumn 2009 and the rest from various times in spring 2008/winter 2008/9
Linnet - 5 unringed birds with the Twite
Meadow Pipit - 2 grounded on the mound

Middleton IE
No Stonechat
10 Mallard, 4 Tufted Duck, 1 Pochard, 3 Goldeneye, 6 Teal, one Water Rail, 4 Mute Swan, 9 Coot, 6 Moorhen

Moth
First Hebrew Character of the year.  The difference between coastal sites and mature oak woodland at this time of year = 154 moths of 17 species last night at Millhouses near Wray!

Elsewhere
Grey Grey Shrike Dalton Crag - seen (distantly) from Keer Falls road VP, Green-winged Teal new in on the Allen Pool, later elusive on Barrow Scout.  At least one untagged Red Kite in the Dunsop valley

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