First Arctic Tern

Male Lesser Redpoll taken by John Mason

Heysham obs
North Harbour Wall
0700-0800
1 Arctic tern
12 distant Sandwich Terns
1 Reed Bunting NE
1 Meadow Pipit at the sand plant
NO TWITE

Nature Reserve
4 Redpoll (of a group of at least 9), including an adult male (see above pic) and 1 Willow Warbler ringed.  Chiffchaff calling.

Heysham Head & Barrows – 07.40hrs.-08.30hrs. Sunny but cold, little breeze.
10-12 Greenfinches & 20-30 Linnets in gorse bushes. 5+ singing Wrens. Song Thrush singing near castellated wall again but further down slope. 5-6 pairs Blackbird – no singing. 2-3 pairs Dunnock. C.25 Meadow Pipits flying over NE. C.15 Curlews near Throbshaw Point

Late Whoopers

Heysham North Harbour Wall
0700-0800


Beautiful weather, sunny, blue sky, excellent visibility - but hardly any birds to see!  The main sighting was a raft of 35 Whooper Swans floating into the Bay.
8 Sandwich Terns were also seen plus
11 Red-breasted Mergansers
3 Great-crested Grebe (a displaying pair and one other)
78 Eider visible


Vis - almost non-existent:
Lesser Redpoll 3
Linnet 1


Grounded
1 Meadow Pipit


Feeding station
Only 9 Twite today (including an unringed bird).  


Ringing
male Blackcap and Chaffinch


Elsewhere
Golden Eagle seen in the Langden Valley.  Osprey over Leighton Moss early morning.

Redpoll passage continues

Heysham

Nature reserve
Very short ringing session resulted in:
Willow Warbler - 2
Chiffchaff - 1
Robin - 1

North Harbour Wall
0650-0850
Redpoll sp 24
Linnet 15
Goldfinch 6
Chaffinch 1
Meadow Pipit 52
alba wagtail 7
Swallow 5
Sand Martin 6
Carrion Crow 1

Wooden Jetty
Still around 100 Turnstone and 1 Purple Sandpiper

Feeding station
c45 Twite still hanging on in there

At sea
Red-throated Diver 1 in
Sandwich Tern 10

The Sandwich Terns were behaving like Arctic Terns and, after feeding for a while and having a rest on the buoys, they started to call madly and circled up higher and higher until lost in the cloud, presumably heading NE overland.  They acted like this on Friday as well.

Other areas
The (literally) big news was a White-tailed Eagle over Leighton Moss.  An Osprey was also reported from there this morning as well (NB the use of the word "reported" here doesn't mean I'm doubting the record, it just means that someone reported one and put it in the book at the Moss).
Jean

145 metres from the King Canute tribute act

NO Wheatears seen in comprehensive coastal coverage!

Heysham Obs
A small flurry of migrants this morning, especially Lesser Redpoll - mostly early on - and a motionless sub-adult male standing in the water off Ocean Edge for at least 20 minutes whilst the sea lapped around his ankles.  Using the survey maps from earlier this year, the 274 Redshank flock he bisected kept pretty well exactly 145m away either side.  I dont think he was the start of a new version of Crosby beach.  North wall & reserve vis, as usual, involved different birds heading NE

Ocean Edge 0820-0840
Redshank - 274
Black-tailed Godwit - 5
Bar-tailed Godwit - 13

North harbour wall 0710-0850 (vis NE)
Linnet - 5
Meadow Pipit - 18
Goldfinch - 11
Sandwich tern - 17
Lesser Redpoll - 18
alba Wagtail - 4
Common Scoter - 16 in, 25 out
Gannet - 2 adults in
Red-breasted Merganser - 2
Purple Sandpiper - one on jetty with Turnstone

Heysham Nature Reserve (vis very intermittent 0705 to about 0830)
Willow Warbler - at least 4 migrants early on & one ringed later
Meadow Pipit - just 11 NE (1 ringed)
Lesser Redpoll - at least 30 NE (13 ringed)
Chiffchaff - 2 ringed
Blackcap - 2 males ringed
Goldfinch - 15 NE
Linnet - 17 NE
Swallow - 2 NE

'Seen-from'
Marsh Harrier female north towards Heysham Moss over the bypass at 1030hrs

Butterflies
Peacock (4), Small Tortoiseshell (4), Comma, Speckled Wood, Brimstone (2)

Middleton IE/Red Nab area
Singing birds included:  11 Chiffchaff, 4 Willow Warbler & Blackcap

Another Wheatearless mixed bag

Heysham Obs
North harbour wall 0700-0830
Lesser Redpoll - 4+NE
Red-throated Diver - 5 & 3 late morning
Sandwich tern - 19, with 10 still around the buoys late morning
Canada Goose - flock of 4
Twite - c60 early morning, just one unringed bird seen
alba Wagtail - 5 NE
Meadow Pipit - just 29 NE
Linnet - 14 NE, others later with Twite
Goldfinch - 5 NE
Common Scoter - 6 in then landed
Sand Martin - 1 NE
Siskin - 2 NE

Heysham NR office and area
Not a lot of time this morning and late with it, therefore the vis was very intermittently logged, even for just 0730-0900hrs
Dunnock - unringed bird caught (unusual)
Meadow Pipit - 62 NE (3 ringed)
Goldfinch - 21 NE
Swallow - 2 NE
alba Wagtail - 2 NE
Lesser Redpoll - 1 NE
Woodpigeon - flock of 12 rather confused and ended up heading SW (also seen north wall)
Willow Warbler - singing male by classroom
Jay - one 'intruder', possibly a migrant, chased off by the local bird

Moths
The Hebrew Character total reached a giddy 17, but 'only' 14 other moths this morning

Mammals
Rabbit in the bottom shelf of a mist net for a short period.  Grey Squirrel on Moneyclose Lane & apparent drey located

Elsewhere
Osprey north over Skerton Weir early morning

A case of what might have been

Heysham Obs
A couple of very distant 'things' in flight up the Kent channel seemed to suggest one of the smaller grebes with (sp) Slav the most likely candidate.  Otherwise a reasonable hour of variety on the sea.  Lets kickstart things by suggesting the Black Guillemot is not going to return (worked with booming Bittern!!)

North harbour wall 0730-0830
Gannet - 12 in then out
Whooper Swan - flock of 20 north
Red-throated Diver - 3 out one in
Red-breasted Merganser - 2 out
Kittiwake - flock of 26 in
Razorbill - 4 on the sea
Common Scoter - 27 in
Sandwich Tern - 2
Meadow Pipit - 27 NE
Lesser Redpoll - 2 NE
Linnet - 5 NE
Chaffinch - 2 NE
Goldfinch - 1 NE
alba Wagtail - 2 NE
Twite - still c60

Reserve by office 0730-0900
Chiffchaff - one ringed and at least 2 other migrants
Green Woodpecker - first thing
Meadow Pipit - c55 NE
Goldfinch - 11 NE
Swallow - 1 NE
alba Wagtail - 6 NE
Great & Blue Tit - unringed singles quite unusual at this time of year

Moths
Pretty decent catch with what might be record (!) numbers of Clouded Drab for here - never been common:  Hebrew Character (13), Clouded Drab (12), Common Quaker (12), March Moth (4), Shoulder Stripe (1), Diurnea fagella (1)

Foggy birdless moth-fest of a morning, Red Admiral and transmittered Osprey in the afternoon!

Heysham Obs
Coastal sites/Heysham NR
Meadow Pipit - combined total from 7ish to 9.30ish = 81 NE, but most of them were not visible in the fog, therefore underestimate.  Trickle throughout the day
Siskin - 2 NE
alba Wagtail - 7 NE
Linnet - 16 NE
Fieldfare - one heard in the mist but no grounded migrant thrushes on the reserve (too late?)
Turnstone - c100
Twite - exactly 62 but not possible to check rings
Chiffchaff - 2+ migrants (1 ringed)
Wren - singing male by the office which appears to be holding territory - definitely new in - NO, it was suppressed yesterday! - only the seond on the reserve this spring
Blackcap - first singing male of the year - again passed through
Wheatear - one materialised in the evening!

Osprey
'Talisman' flew either over, just inland or just out to sea here at 1400hrs (the text gives 'over' Morecambe Bay, the map suggests along the eastern side of) as part of a 289km journey from Shropshire to Hawick (via transmitter data).  Talisman was Morven's mate in 2009, successfully rearing young [Morven seen flying past here last April]!

Moths
More than the rest of the year so far put together!  Record count of 3 Shoulder Stripe, a latish March Moth, Parsnip Moth, otherwise the usual suspects:  13 Hebrew Character, 6 Common Quaker and 5 Clouded Drab

Butterflies
A Red Admiral in the sheltered NE corner of the reserve was a major surprise, given the severity of this last winter.  Have any others been reported in the area?  TWO male Brimstone and a Comma also seen, as well as a glimpse of what was probably Small Tortoiseshell.  Plenty of bumble bees today.

Elsewhere
Transmitter-carrying Osprey 'Morven' roosted overnight near Kirkby Lonsdale (6th/7th).  5 Whooper Swan still at Melling

Belated Black Red discovery?

Due to an unfortunate (and slowly increasing) misuse of the reserve by a handful of individuals, resulting in an unacceptable amount of excrement & off-leads within the areas used by school groups and indeed other path users, no dogs allowed on the main Heysham Nature reserve, as reinforced by notices this morning.  There is, of course, a huge area along the path to the south of the 'cream store' - the Landscape Strip & Nature Park - which can  be used for exercising.  This is a joint decision by British Energy estates, ADAS and the Wildlife Trust via the Land Management meeting

Moneyclose Lane is in very poor condition at the moment with the 'normal' driving line being heavily rutted.  This has led to rather a lot of Ocean Edge traffic, presumably short-stay visitors not familiar with the road, driving along the centre.  This makes turning left out of the reserve rather more dangerous than it usually is.  Take care and look left before turning   

Heysham Obs
Useless due southerly this morning with not a single Wheatear on a coastal trawl & just a bit of early morning vis, until a check was made (for the first time this year) of the power station non-op land.  This produced:

Black Redstart - female-type by the Morecambe Metals skip at the southern end of the non-op land.  View area from Nature Park fence.  Surely not a new arrival in this mornings useless weather?  Please note that if it does stay around, photography 'into' the PS site may be challenged.

North harbour wall 0700-0830
alba Wagtail - 6 NE
Meadow Pipit - 73 NE
Linnet - 10 NE
Whooper Swan - flock of 6 NW
Goldfinch - 5 NE
Lesser Redpoll - 1 NE
Swallow - 2 NE
Siskin - 2 NE
Twite - 75-80, later 42 examined and all ringed
Red-throated Diver - 3 out

Moths
First March Moth of the year!!

The Wheatear drought continues

Heysham Obs
Still only one Wheatear at a time - where are they?!

North wall
Twite - 36
Red-throated Diver - 1 in
Kittiwake - 13 (flock) in
Purple Sandpiper - 1+ under jetty
Turnstone - at least 176 under jetty
from anonymous note (thanks to whoever it was!):
Little Gull - 2
Gannet - 6

Ocean Edge
Wheatear - just the one
Common Gull - 76 outfalls/tideline

Mammal
Grey Seal offshore

Moths
A change of bulb and a change of fortune - helps when the light actually comes/stays on!  Just orthodross, but a strange composition for here with no Hebrew Character = 4 Clouded Drab, 2 Common Quaker

Mundane to the ridiculous

Heysham Obs
Mega-alert in the evening with a Red-legged Partridge seen running along Cyprus Road in Higher Heysham suburbia.  Major Heysham blocker, last seen goodness knows how long ago.  North-westerlies are unpredictable at this time of year with some significant early morning seabird movements on occasions.  Not this morning.  As far as I am aware the usual 1.5hrs produced just the following:

Red-throated Diver - 5
Gannet - 2
Twite - c60 all, or the vast majority, ringed
Linnet - 2 on seed
no passerine vis

Middleton IE
Snipe - 1

Elsewhere
Typical early April record of Hooded Crow on the sandflats at Glasson, also 2 Avocet there.  Bittern 'grunting', therefore presumably usual elderly male, at Leighton Moss 0815-0830 (3 lots of 3) - the first report of this activity this year, despite "24/7" coverage.  Booming better in the evening.