Not enough showers!

Heysham Obs
After getting soaked checking rather moth-deficient national m.n. traps, the conditions for the seawatch were a bit disappointing with high fluffy cloud.  Dont think the early morning/low tide seawatchers saw anything of note.

Sea 0915-1015
Shelduck - flock of 8 out
Dunlin - flock of 36 out
Arctic tern - one in
Arctic Skua - dark morph out then landed on sea 0940hrs
Skua spp. - light morph seen in flight for about a second, then landed on sea in Kent channel.  Very hard to follow on sea with incoming tide & higher waves but glimpses suggested a Pom, but too far/not enough of a flight view to be certain.  NO-ONE at the Leighton/JBP end had their mobiles switched on - I did try!

Middleton industrial estate WeBS count:
2 Mute Swan, 8 Coot plus 8 chicks (3 broods of 2+2+4), 2 Moorhen, 6 Mallard (5 males, 1 female), 12 Tufted Duck ( 7 males, 5 females), 5 Little Grebe

Moths
NMN in the hut trap produced Eyed Hawk & Rustic Shoulder Knot - both new for the year

Elsewhere
Jenny Brown's Point:
0920hrs 1 dark phase Arctic Skua
1225hrs 1 Great Skua
1310hrs 1 Great Skua
1400hrs 1 Great Skua
Arctic Tern - 3

Skuas again

North Harbour Wall 0630-0845
Clear, calm, then W F2

Arctic Skua - 2 dark phase NE.  The first floated in at 0745 then took off and flew high; the second flew in at 0810.  At the same time a third but very distant  skua sp floated in but was unfortunately lost to view.
Swallow - 121 NE
Whimbrel - 1
Sandwich Tern - 3 blogging
Teal - 1 floated in
Great-crested Grebe - 2 in the low tide channel
Eider - 64 off Morecambe

Elsewhere
Jenny Brown's Point:
early pm 3 pale phase Arctic Skuas
1500hrs 5 pale phase Arctic Skuas (possible the 3 above plus 2 others)
Also Spoonbill flew NW at 1240hrs

Drizzle drops a Spotted Flycatcher

Heysham Obs
Nature reserve
Spotted Flycatcher - One around the Obs Tower fence at 1130hrs

North harbour wall/offshore
Common Tern - this was the highlight of the early morning.
The Common Tern hung in on Hey 1 Outfall and was joined by 4 Arctic Tern. Also an eventual buildup of 17 1st s Common Gull , otherwise sea completely dead in light but persistent rain.

Mammals

Grey Seal   1 in close offshore

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)