Useless wind develops

Heysham Obs
Any logical summary of migration should suggest that southerly winds were something to anticipate.  Not the case - everything seems to 'move parallel' and nothing seems to land.  Add clear conditions and there is a recipe for uselessness

Office area 0650 - 0820
Tree Pipit - 2 north together 0700hrs - a good spring for this species, +1 at 0915hrs
Siskin - one north (or at least one heard flying north) 0750hrs
Swallow - 22 NE
nothing obviously grounded other than an unringed male Lesser Whitethroat trapped by the office (in addition to perpetually singing bird) before the wind put paid to any further mistnetting

Sea
Kittiwake - flock of 35 floating in
Mute Swan - four sat on the sea off the north wall
Sandwich Tern - 3
Swallow - 2
Red-throated Diver - 1 out
Whimbrel - one inshore

Mammals
Grey Seal early morning in low tide channel

Winter's last gasp?

North Harbour Wall 0630-0830

Vis
Pink-footed Goose - 40 north at 0740hrs.  Is this the last lot?
Goldfinch - 1 NE
Swift - 3 NE, 9 later (1245-1315)
Swallow - 23 NE, 16 later (1245-1315)
Whimbrel - 2 N 1245-1315hrs

On/over/in the sea:
Arctic Tern - 84 (23 + 1 + 60) - the flock of 60 went high up into the sky over the harbour/outfalls area and headed NE
Sandwich Tern - 2
Gannet - 5
Red-throated Diver - 2
Dunlin - 5
Grey seal - 1

Turnstone 15
Knot - 1 with the Turnstone

Grounded migrants
Willow Warbler - 4 females trapped HNR
Wheatear - 2
also unringed Whitethroat, Lesser Whitethroat and female Blackcap of unknown status.  An unringed Wren was caught, supporting the observation that most of the now reasonably healthy Wren population involved mid-April infill of empty territories by 2CY birds of unknown origin.  Most interesting - where had they wintered?
Middleton IE
Reed Warbler - one singing by central/western marsh entrance gate

Lazy skuas

Arrived  a bit late!  Aiden and Peter Branch had beaten me to it and already seen a pale-phase Arctic Skua lazing on a sandbank.

North Harbour Wall 0640 -0840
Clear, calm, 2/8 cloud (cirrocumulus overhead, cumulus out to west).
High tide 8.3m at 10:20hrs
Arctic Skua - 2.  Both dark-phase, floating in on sea at 0650 and 0730.  The earlier bird flew off north at 0800.
Arctic Tern - 51 (14, 10, 17, 10)
Red-throated Diver - 1 in
Sandwich Tern - 12
Whimbrel - 1
Ringed Plover - a flock flew over but weren't located.  Sounded like 10 or more.
Swallow - 9, all after 0810hrs
Yellow Wagtail - 1 at 0800hrs
Wheatear - 2 (male and female)
Turnstone - 21

That was it.   A strange morning but glorious weather for sitting around, which is what most birds were doing.

A Swift seawatch

Well, not that many Swifts, but at least there were some!

North Harbour Wall 0645-0805 - 1300
NE F3-4, overcast, spots of rain. Visibility moderate.

Gannet - 2 out very distantly
Common Scoter - 8 out
Swift - 8 in + 20
Swallow - 1 in
Whimbrel - 9 present
Wheatear - 1 present
Turnstone - down to 9 -21were seen later
Peregrine - 1 trying to whittle down the Tunstone even further.

First Fulmar of the year

Heysham obs

North Harbour Wall 0605 - 0835
Clear, NE F1-2
High tide at 0850hrs 7.9m

Fulmar - 1 in
Arctic Skua - 2 both pale phase. 1 at 0625hrs and 1 at 0719hrs
Arctic Tern - 88 (18+1+3+30+30+6) in
Sandwich Tern - 17 in
Gannet - 4 in
Kittiwake - 4 in
Red-throated Diver - 3 in
Mute Swan - 10 in (!)
Dunlin - 17 in
Guillemot - 1 on
Swallow - 1
Turnstone - 12 on the jetty

Distant tern flocks defy identification

Heysham Obs
North harbour wall 0625-0845
"Comic" Tern - all flocks seen well in recent years have been Arctic:  4+30+20+20 in
Arctic Tern - 7 slowly making their way into the bay during a whistle stop visit at 1210hrs
Common Scoter - 7 NE
Swallow - 6
Siskin - 2

Ocean Edge foreshore
Lesser Whitethroat - one on the rocks looking a bit tired!
Wheatear - 2
Dunlin - 250 schinzii/arctica
Ringed Plover - 5 tundrae
Grey Plover - 10

Little happening early morning in strong north-easterly

Heysham Obs
North wall 0630-0800
Arctic Tern - 7+12 in
Sandwich Tern - 12 in
Siskin - 2 NE
Swallow - 3 NE

Middleton Ind Est
A minimum of 17 Lesser Black-backed and 5 Herring Gull nests counted on roof tops (SD45E)

Better by recent standards!

Heysham Obs
North harbour wall 0.25hrs early morning & 0930-1030
Arctic Tern - 6+36 NE
Arctic Skua - pale morph blogging - quite distant c1000hrs
Sandwich Tern - 29 in
Swallow - 47 in
House Martin - 2 in
Meadow Pipit - 1 in
Swift - 2 in

North harbour wall 1540-1600
Dark-bellied Brent Goose - one seemingly "forced off" Red Nab by the tide headed diagonally across the bay to the north, therefore always rather distant in unimpressive afternoon light & Brant/hybrid not ruled out (obvious 'necklace')
Swallow - 39NE, mostly along the seawall & some probably missed

Heysham Nature Reserve
Willow Warbler - three trapped and two others 'bounced' out of the net before the wind got up at c0730hrs
Whitethroat - one ringed, at least two other migrants seen
Wheatear - one on adjoining non-operational land

Ocean Edge
Wheatear - 2
Whimbrel - 3 on foreshore

Moths
The charismatic Brown Silver Line made its first appearance

Elsewhere
Arrangements have been made to view a distant and elusive singing male Savi's Warbler near Leighton Moss.  Directions from Leighton Moss.  This is a 'test case' for this new site (warden's words) and any problems, such as a photographer tape luring so they can sell their 'exclusive' pics, will lead to any future records from here being suppressed.   Not seen/heard 1500-1900hrs.

Saved by the pug

.......showing all the features in some detail.........

Heysham Obs
Seriously challenging early morning visibility for seabirds and the 'flipside' of these conditions, potentially grounded migrants, appeared to be absent but there was (just) too much damp in the air for any mist netting (condensation on nets and wetting any captures).  The moth trap came to the rescue

Moths
Oak-tree Pug - first record for here since two in May 2000 (the only previous), plus TWO Streamer (second and third this year but only four or so previous records since 1980)

A bird
The only one worth mentioning was the first (singing male) Reed Warbler of the year for here on Middleton IE.  There were still c75 Turnstone on the north wall skeers but absolutely nothing else of even the remotest note

The volcano synopsis returns as migrants continue to struggle through

Heysham Obs
There is a superb weather synopsis at the moment (in association with petrol costs) to encourage people not to chase around after a smattering of bog-standard early May scarcities plus a few Red-rumped Swallows where it is raining over a gravel pit and go out and do some Atlas coverage!  It is a seriously dreadful 'rare' synopsis with no obvious change ahead other than a few struggling common migrants might be grounded in tomorrows belt of mist/rain.  Just done a very detailed check of all sorts of weather sites and worth a flutter on the coldest May on record and certainly the worst for rare birds (to about 20th at least)?    The second CES visits look a bit difficult in constantly strong northerlies and National Moth Night a non-entity.  Hopefully they are all wrong.

North harbour wall 0630-0830
Arctic Tern - 46 (9+16+6+15), all rising high & heading inland to the north-east
Sandwich Tern - 44, mixture of bloggers and migrants (including birds spiralling up high)
Whimbrel - 1
Kittiwake - flock of 22 'in' high
Woodpigeon - flock of 3 headed west out to sea!
Swallow - 1

Brief sea check on the incoming tide
Nowt!
Whimbrel - 3 Ocean Edge foreshore
Mallard - pair Red Nab
House Sparrow - male Ocean Edge reception area

Mammals
Grey Squirrel by reserve entrance.  Grey Seal offshore.