Meds About

6 Med Gulls : 3 Adults : 1 2CY ; 2 1CY

Middleton  Industrial Estate Webs

2 Mute Swans
16 Coot
2 Moorhen
5 Mallard
4 Tufted
1 Pochard
3 Little Grebe
2 Snipe
also 1 Raven

Ocean Edge
4 Wheatear
1 Little Egret

Non-event

Heysham Obs
The time slot was the early morning, the weather was worse than forecasted.   It has been brought to my attention that a joke involving aircraft (this morning's visit being quicker than a Ryanair turn-round) was in very bad taste today.  I am really sorry about this - it was completely unintentional, although forgetting the significance of the date is almost as insulting.  Very sorry to upset at least one person. I have removed the offending sentence

Ocean Edge
One adult Med Gull

NR Office
2 Chiffchaff and a single Lesser Whitethroat
c36 Swallow south

Mound
10 Linnet

Please note that there appeared to be a movement of Lap Bunts following the front at some other NW sites.  Tomorrow morning?

Civilised 'lie-in' & back to coastal birding

Heysham Obs
Back to the usual west coast birding this morning after an aborted attempt at passerining the mound (couldnt see a thing walking into driving rain), and it wasnt bad! 

Ocean Edge/Red Nab/outfalls on turning tide & high tide count
Black Tern - juv in the channel/briefly end of Hey one outfall.  Appeared to be slowly making its way out of the bay
Common or Arctic Tern - juv seen very briefly end of Heysham one - appeared to go into bay. 
Curlew Sandpiper - two juvenile with 27 Dunlin and 9 Ringed Plover off Ocean Edge - unfortunately not in the BTO challenge area
Med Gull - adult Red Nab, adult off Ocean Edge, two adults harbour mouth and at least one 1CY on the outfalls/harbourmouth
Little Egret - one Red Nab qualifying for BTO challenge
Whimbrel - latish bird for here Ocean Edge
Bar-tailed Godwit - juv Red Nab

WeBS
Cormorant - a record 108 on the wooden jetty!
Shag - at least one possibly two 1CY on the wooden jetty (obscured)
The 1CY Med joined the two adults (one Czech-ringed) on the north wall railings
Turnstone - 117 wooden jetty
Curlew Sandpiper - the two were with an even larger flock of Dunlin (41)/R Plover but they wouldnt go into the BTO challenge area - landed briefly on OE west field, then flew towards Potts corner
Ringed Plover - 21 heliport, 17 mobile birds with OE area calidrids

Sea
Shelduck - flock of 38 flew south at HT

In situ or with the tit flocks

Heysham Obs
Not worth getting up early this morning, especially once I was stuck behind an O'Reilly lorry along Morecambe road/past ASDA, always an bad omen in my experience.  Still quite a few migrants around Heysham NR this morning but the sylvias had found their own bit of bramble and the phylloscs were mainly concentrated in and around a Long-tailed Tit flock.  Therefore no evidence of new arrivals and the vis was similarly rather poor with very bad timing by the Grey Wagtails as regards ringing!

Office area
Lesser Whitethroat - 3
Whitethroat - 2
Blackcap - 2
Chiffchaff - 5
Willow Warbler - 2
Ringing: just 2 Chiffchaff, one Willow Warbler, one Whitethroat, two Greenfinch, one Great Tit & a Magpie!

Vis mig by office 0630-0900
Coal Tit - the start of an autumn  irruption?  2+3+2+1+2 noisily south
Meadow Pipit - 16 S
Grey Wagtail - 1+4+1+2 SE
Reed Bunting - 1 SE
Goldfinch - 6 (flock) high south-east
Chaffinch - 1+1+1+1+1+1+1 south
alba Wagtail - 5 S
Swallow - 28 S
House Martin - 11 S

Moths
Dusky Thorn trapped at Middleton NR last night - a long overdue new species for SD45E

What a bonus!

Heysham Obs
A nice calm morning amidst all the low pressure areas produced a fair amount of vis mig and a reasonable number of grounded birds in the Middleton NR mist nets:

Middleton NR 0615-1145hrs
Osprey - one circling very high receiving attention from many large gulls at 1130hrs - drifted even higher SE
Common Buzzard - one south about 1025hrs
Grey Wagtail - 14 SE (7 ringed)
Tree Pipit - 5 SE (four very early on, one mid-morning)
Swallow - 215 SE (almost certainly undercounted)
Meadow Pipit - 115 SE - mainly VERY high
Reed Bunting - 8 grounded briefly/SE (all caught & ringed!)
alba Wagtail - 6 SE
House Martin - 35 SE (undercount?)
Kingfisher - one ringed
Lesser Whitethroat - 2 seen
Sedge Warbler - at least 6 (3 ringed)
Reed Warbler - one

Ringing comprised:  Garden Warbler (1), Sedge Warbler (3), Chiffchaff (4), Willow Warbler (2), Reed Bunting (8), Goldfinch (3), Grey Wagtail (7), Swallow (9), Great Tit (2), Blue Tit (4), Kingfisher (1), Wren (1), Coal Tit (1).  Managed to avoid any tit flocks - all tits caught singly!

Heysham N Reserve
Perhaps the same Kingfisher was seen feeding in front of the pagoda hide at lunchtime
Lesser Whitethroat in the brambles by the office

Reasonable morning by the office retrieved or did we miss the big one?

Heysham Obs
High Tatham dawned with rain and a slow start was exacerbated by a Lune valley tractor convoy in weather which was looking better by the minute as Heysham was approached.  The nets next to the office were hastily erected at 0720hrs, catching a Sedge Warbler within about 10 seconds of starting to set the first net!  A Long-tailed Tit flock was 'in residence' in the mist net ride but predictably melted away, along with attendant Chiffchaffs and 'tack' spp, not helped by that bane of early morning ringing, a mist net pole going awol.   By 1200hrs, the situation was somewhat retrieved, but did any of these early birds accompanying the tit flock (which was not relocated) actually reappear in the area?

Office area 0720-1200hrs
Whitethroat - 2 ringed and a retrap ringed at Middleton on 31/8 at 15.5grms and now weighing 19 grams with a fat score of 4.
Lesser Whitethroat - one ringed and another seen
Chiffchaff - at least 10, mainly early & only two caught & a further 6 along Moneyclose Lane
Willow Warbler - one ringed
Sedge Warbler - one ringed
Garden Warbler - one ringed
Blackcap - two seen
Goldcrest - one with the tit flock and another along Moneyclose Lane

Vis mig 0730-0830hrs by the office
Grey Wagtail - three SE whilst looking for mist net pole!
Redpoll spp, - 4 SE
Meadow Pipit - 11 SE
Swallow - 44SE
House Martin - 4SE
Goldfinch - 36 high to the south in dribs and drabs
Chaffinch - 27 as above, but including group of 8 - quite early for vis mig birds here
Greenfinch - no obvious vis mig but another influx of unringed birds in the nets totalling 14
Great-spotted Woodpecker - surprisingly, an unringed adult female was caught (along with a retrap juv)

The tide was too far in/high for any proper shore coverage in time available

Whats hiding in bent-double bushes?

Heysham Obs
Mound/heliport area
Shag - 1CY on the wooden jetty
Whinchat - one
Wheatear - 7
Phyllosc - one seen v briefly
Pied Wagtail - 8
Meadow Pipit - one
Linnet - now 12
Robin - one
Swallow - 8 south the only vis

Ocean Edge/Red Nab high tide
Wigeon - first of the autumn on Red Nab
Kingfisher - one (seen yesterday by Malcolm)
Med Gull - 3 adult, 2 1CY (no rings seen)
No Sandwich tern
Swallow - 5 SE (coasting)

Office/harbour/outfalls/dog track circuit pm
The western side of the of the screening planting along the dog track was sheltered.
Pied Flycatcher - Female/imm in long-leaved willow, flycatching & calling fairly frequently near the dog walk pond
Chiffchaff - 8 along the dog track, many with 'swee' calls or slightly dysllabic variations on this
Sedge Warbler - juvenile in the Rosebay along the south harbour wall!
Med. Gull - one of the 1CYs on Heysham one outfall (2 1CY Common Gull Heysham 2)
Wheatear - 2 Red Nab
Swallow - 44 south

Poor landbird return but influx of gulls

Slumbering female Meadow Brown.  Thanks Janet

Heysham Obs
North harbour mound area
Wheatear - one
Robin - one
Wren - one
Chiffchaff - one, flew quickly inland
Linnet - 6
Pied Wagtail - 22 (ex-roost?)
Grey Wagtail - 4+2 south the only vis!

Reserve area
Meadow Pipit - 10 SE
Grey Wagtail - 4 SE (one ringed)
Chiffchaff - one ringed

Middleton IE
Reed Warbler - one
Chiffchaff - one
Blackcap - 2
Green Woodpecker - one (first autumn sighting?)
Grey Wagtail - one SE [TOTAL of 11 for day]

Ocean Edge/Red Nab
Wheatear - 3
Med Gull - 3 adults, one 2CY, one 1CY
Sandwich Tern - 10
Dunlin - 18
Grey Plover - (just) 4 - usually an influx this time of year
Little Egret - one
Black-headed Gull - 644

Elsewhere
American Golden Plover reportedly seen in flight (& presumably heard?) at Arnside early morning - flew upstream.  Low single figures of juv Curlew Sandpiper either side of the Lune estuary & moulting ad Conder creek.  Juv Wood Sandpiper Aldcliffe Lane end (2nd day)

Reasonable selection of common migrants

Heysham Obs
Thanks for the coverage of the reserve/British Energy area!  Not sure who it was.

Heysham office area vis  06:40-08:00
Tree Pipit                        1
Meadow Pipit                   44
Grey Wagtail                    3
Alba Wagtail                    1
Swallow                           72
Goldfinch                         10
Chaffinch                          3             all south/south-east

Nature Reserve hut area
Chiffchaff 4, Whitethroat 2, Blackcap 2+, Coal Tit 2 (same 2 later at Red Nab?), GS Woodpecker 1

Moneyclose Lane
Jay 1, Bullfinch 4 (2+ juvs)

Red Nab/Nature Park bushes
Spotted Flycatcher 2, Garden Warbler 1, Blackcap 2, Chiffchaff 5

Red Nab/Ocean edge
Wheatear 3, Sandwich Tern 15+

Middleton NR (thanks Malcolm)
Whitethroat, 2 Reed Warbler, first Snipe of the autumn

Quiet Morning

Heysham
No obvious migrants around the hut.

Ringing
Grey Wagtail: Two trapped and colour ringed
Greenfinch, Robin, Blue Tit  : one of each trapped was the whole total between 06.00 and 10.30.

Insects
Painted Lady by hut

ajd