Two good new sightings amongst the dross

Heysham Obs
..........with apologies to Pink-footed Geese flying overhead.  Unscheduled rain & wind first thing knocked most of the ringing on the head until well after dawn and the overhead conditions conspired against any significant vis over Heysham with what there was passing to the south of the Power Station.  The first Meadow Pipit did not pass over the nature reserve reserve office until 0900hrs!!!!  However (vis mig c0630-1000ish):

Ring Ouzel - noisy individual, looked like 1CY male byt the office, then on the tank farm 0730hrs - very unexpected in the met. circumstances and surely of British origin?
Common Buzzard - one heading south, soaring, at about 0945hrs - rare over the reserve - just about annual
Chiffchaff - 2 ringed Middleton (none by the reserve office for the first time this month)
Robin - definite influx with 3 ringed in a small amount of mist netting
Meadow Pipit - no more than 20 recorded heading SE
Grey Wagtail - just the one seen heading SE
Swallow - 42 SE
House Martin - 6 SE
Chaffinch - 11 SE
Pink-footed Goose - 64+53+70 S plus others seen from Caton Moor heading S/SE over the Bay!
Lesser Whitethroat - one calling by the office

No known coastal coverage this morning

Elsewhere
Curlew Sandpiper & Ruff Sunderland mudflats

Good vis but not helping the Grey Wagtail study

Heysham Obs
Have got so used to catching Grey Wagtails in mist nets, I had forgotten about the dreaded north-westerlies where birds move in relatively strong winds, having been held up by even stronger winds for a few days.  None of our mist net sites are north-westerly-friendly.  I had forgotten how to set the 'whoosh' net - the ideal method in these conditions- not good when an error with the elastics can be at the very least quite painful!

Vis mig and other stuff north harbour wall (0630-0730), Ocean Edge (0735-0750), by the office (0755-0930)
Meadow Pipit - 432 (plus 13 casually noted afterwards) - mainly SE
Swallow - 180 (& 16 casually noted afterwards), mainly NORTH!
House Martin - 6 SE
Siskin - 5 SE
Grey Wagtail - 18 (& 2 casually noted afterwards) SE
alba Wagtail - just 9 SE
Chaffinch - 25 S/SW
Goldfinch - 37 S/SW
Pink-footed Goose - 21 (f) south & flock heard heading south to the west
Jackdaw - 15 (f) SW
Tree Sparrow - 2 grounded briefly before heading south
Kestrel - one high to SW
Coal Tit - excitable flock of 6 S

Grounded
Rock Pipit - 1CY on north harbour wall eating beetle larva (does this help racial id?!)
Wheatear - 2 north harbour wall
Linnet - 17 north harbour wall
Meadow Pipit - 3 north harbour wall
Robin - one on the mound
alba Wagtail - 8 north harbour wall
Chiffchaff - 3 by the office (one giving 'swee' calls, the other two normal collybita)
Lesser Whitethroat - 2 by the office (at least one unringed - very vocal)
Blackcap - at least two by office

Inshore
Med Gull - 1CY patrolling the north wall, another 1CY outfalls, 3rd CY Red Nab just finishing moult into adult winter, 2 2CY and at least 2 adult outfalls area
Shelduck - 54 of O Edge
Knot - 9 off O Edge
Bar-tailed Godwit - one off O Edge

Two notable absentees this autumn have been Black-tailed Godwit and Mistle Thrush

Nooks and crannies reveal a Med flock!

*** Leach's Petrel close inshore along the north harbour wall at about 1550hrs - the first ever seen at Heysham after 24 hours of north-westerlies!

Heysham Obs
Went through the motions of checking corners of the harbour etc. and there was predictably little evidence of any displacement (a few more days of WSW gales needed for this to happen).  However six gulls on the mudflats between Heysham one outfall and the wooden jetty were all Meds!

South harbour/outfalls 0930-1030
Med Gull - 3 adult, 2 2CY and one 1CY on the mudflats bwteeen Heysham one outfall and the wooden jetty, close inshore.  None darvic-ringed, but one of the adults was probably the Czech bird (wrong angle to see above tarsus metal ring)
Kittiwake - two 1CY around the harbour/outfalls
Wheatear - one by the wheel, four on the north wall
Meadow Pipit - 3 SE
Grey Wagtail - one SE

Moths
Green-brindled Crescent new for the year and very autumnal!

Marginal wind direction persists for long enough....

So near...........or eyesight not good enough/looking in the wrong direction...........this was taken from the Walney Obs Blog this morning:  "The pick of the day’s sightings was a Sooty Shearwater that flew out of Morecambe Bay at 0855hrs". In good conditions you can see seagulls sat on the pier hide at Walney and easily read Barrow Town Hall clock  (never seen a Sooty from anywhere along the eastern Irish sea coastline other than north Cornwall (and from the Stranraer-Larne ferry))

Heysham Obs
Unfortunately could not get on site until 0700hrs with four Leach's Petrel on the first scan.  Reasonable selection but a bit tedious during the last two hours of the morning session dropping tide with effort wrongly focused on birds coming out of the bay rather than looking towards the outer bay for those cutting across.  When this happened (c0920hrs), two seen straight away.  The afternoon Leach's Petrels were a real bonus for the multiple observers with most forecasts going for the wind turning NW just after midday

North harbour wall 0700-1000 & IOM ferry lunchtime & short mid-afternoon visit
Leach's Petrel - 10 first session, one distantly lunchtime, one 1405 - all 'out', then four others until the wind went NW at about 1630hrs [total 16]
Arctic Skua - 2 juvs (plus small skua spp, almost certainly this species) early morning, then juv out at 1630hrs
Bonxie - 1 out 0710hrs, another out at 1735hrs
Black Tern - one around ferry in harbour mouth, then flew behind wooden jetty
Common Tern - one adult around ferry
Gannet - 4 early am, two 2CY behind ferry, ad & juv later in afternoon
Razorbill - one mid-afternoon
Fulmar - 1
Kittiwake - 4 (3 juvs) & c15 around harbour/behind ferry
Arctic Tern - 3 juvs early am & 5 juvs outfalls/around ferry
Sandwich Tern - 2 juvs early am, adult around ferry, one mid-afternoon
Guillemot - one on sea, two on sea at lunchtime
Shag - mobile 1CY in the harbour
Med Gull - 1CY & two adults patrolling the seawall, two further adults on Red Nab
Little Gull - adult stage 2 outfall mid-pm
Pink-footed Goose - flocks of 19+45+50 SW mid afternoon (first of autumn)

** What was almost certainly a juvenile Long-tailed Skua was seen by a very experienced observer late yesterday evening, but too far out and not all the features were clinched to his high standards of documentation

"Lovely day isnt it" until a late afternoon trickle

Heysham Obs
The classic 'red rag' from a well-meaning member of the public as a mid/late-morning visit to the north harbour wall coincided with a most emphatic clearance of the sky of anything resembling a cloud.  Not a chance of any seabirds this far into the bay unless some squalls arrive which did happen to a minor extent on the dropping late afternoon tide:

North harbour wall
15:00-18:00 dropping tide with 3 x minor showers produced
Black Tern   1 out slowly past line of yellow buoys 15:56-15:57 age indeterminate
Bonxie          1 floating out on sea, lifted and flew out several hundred metres before landing on sea again and lost to view 17:30
Fulmar           1 out
Kittiwake       juv in then perhaps the same out on the same 'line'
Auk sp          1 in then followed by 1 prob Guillemot out soon followed by 1 prob Guillemot in, may have all been the same bird
Arctic Tern    juv out c1615hrs
Unfortunately I didn't have the stamina to see if there was a Leach's on the last part of the outgoing tide but definitely better than staying at home and watching Freeview for 3 hours! (Tom Wilmer)

Ocean edge side
Leach's Petrel - one 'drifting' distantly east at about 1600hrs - this bird definitely did not venture north of the wooden jetty (observer unknown)

Miscellaneous inshore
Wheatear - a good autumnal total of 11 between 1/2 moon bay and the harbour mouth and a further four on Ocean Edge
Pied/White Wagtail - c22 - at least 6 showing chars. of White Ocean Edge and a further 15 on the north side of the harbour (7 white)
Linnet - 12 north wall, 17 Ocean Edge
Meadow Pipit - 6 SE in 20 minutes north wall, 8 grounded Ocean Edge
Med Gull - 2 adults Red Nab

Moths
Two Black Rustic the first for the year

Very Wet & windy

Heysham

No Reports so far.

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