Coastal vis would have been better in hindsight

15-20 SE wind with almost unbroken cloud cover, then becomming sunny from 0930hrs.Not alot of evidence of night migrants and it became apparent that vis watching may have been more productive from a more coastal location rather than the Nature Reserve office area.

Nature Reserve office vis 0730-0930hrs

Cormorant     - 1
Woodpigeon     - 14   one flock
Collared Dove    - 3    together
Grey Wagtail     - 2
alba Wagtail     - 28   largest group 9
Meadow Pipit     - 32
Starling     - 14
Songthrush     - 2  high E then grounded
Chaffinch     - 41
Siskin     - 19   largest flock 10
Linnet     - 2                                               All SE or ESE

Nature Reserve

Starling      - 317  SE very early on presumably from a roost site
Chiffchaff      - The only evidence of any was 1 singing briefly
Jay      - 1 flew from tank farm to Moneyclose lane then later at Red Nab bushes
Moorhen   - 1 in flight from observation tower, past reserve office then past the classroom!
Blackbird      - One concentration of 10
Songthrush      - 3 new-in, flighty birds
Coal Tit      - 4
Blue Tit      - An irruptive-type flock of 13

Red Nab Bushes

Goldcrest      - 2
Bullfinch      - 2
Long-tailed Tit      - 15

Red Nab/Ocean Edge

Skylark      - 7 + 2 south
alba Wagtail      - 3 south
Linnet      - flock 12
Peregrine      - 1
Teal      - 1
Shelduck      - 118
Bar-tailed Godwit      - 120
Knot      - 360
Grey Plover      - 2

Outfalls

Little Gull        - 1 ad

North Harbour Wall   1045-1200hrs

Pink-footed Goose    - 6 south
Skylark     -  41 south   largest groups of 10 and 9
alba Wagtail     - 4 south
Meadow Pipit     - 27 grounded
Wheatear     - 1
Linnet     - 4
Shag     - juv/1stw  roosting on wooden jetty
Med Gull     - ad patrolling sea wall
 
Other/misc

Dogfish     A superb specimen being put back to sea by a fisherman

                                                                                                            Tom Wilmer
  
               

   

whistlestop, then wader delight

Heysham Obs
Any coverage the next two days, especially vis for a couple of hours or so would be very very good.  Thanks (away)

Little Gull Ad Red Nab along with 280 Knot just about it for today

In Pete's absence I (Sean) saw the following from the South Harbour wall over the high tide today (from 0815 to 1445hrs.  Due to it being the highest tide for a while (9.7m) it seemed to flush birds from other roosting places around the Bay, hence larger than usual numbers of Dunlin and a few other surprises, including Black-tailed Godwit and Sanderling.

Sights of the day though must be reserved to a Great Spotted Woodpecker in off the sea and stopping briefly on the Mound on the North Harbour Wall before going south and a Peregrine chasing Dunlin towards the north in the Bay, but then having lost them after bombing down it switched its attention to a Guillemot, knocked it out of the air, but dropped it into the sea!!  Not sure if the same guillemot turned up later in the Harbour or a different one.......

South Harbour Wall
Shag (1 first winter)
Cormorant 60+
Pink-footed Goose 8
Eider 2
Peregrine (north over sea chasing Dunlin, then almost caught a guillemot!!)
Kestrel (out to east over sea flying south)
Oystercatcher 5284
Black-tailed Godwit 1
Grey Plover 11
Dunlin 390
Sanderling 4 
Knot 997
Turnstone 120+
Curlew 152
Redshank 40+
Med Gull 2 (1 adults & 1 1st winter)
Common Gull 2
Common Guillemot 2 (1 in Harbour, 1 north out in bay) 
Great Spotted Woodpecker 1 (unusual record and very strange seeing in off sea)
Meadow Pipit 70+
Rock Pipit 1 (on jetty)
Skylark 20+
Wheatear 1 (on jetty)
Lesser Redpoll 1
Linnet 10+
Pied Wagtail 17+
Goldfinch 12
Greenfinch 4

Wrong kind of rain stopping at dawn

Heysham Obs
It was followed by a quite blustery westerly which calmed down for a short, clear period, before turning more to the south and increasing.  Not the best direction after rain.  Where was this rain on the met office charts?  Water Rail the star of the morning.  Bizarre!

Grounded
Chiffchaff - 3 (2 caught and ringed)
Blackcap - one ringed
Wheatear - 4 Half moon bay (off-passage from at least yesterday) and one on the NHW mound
Meadow Pipit - 24 on the mound
Rock Pipit - one on the mound
Linnet - 16 on the mound
Blackbird - at least 17 migrants by office
Song Thrush - biggest numbers of the autumn so far with at least 22 migrants around office/reserve/flying inland

Vis mig
0700-0900 by office
Chaffinch - 51 SW
Grey Wagtail - 2 together SE at 0710hrs
Greenfinch - 36 SW
alba Wagtail - 23 SE
Water Rail - one flew past the office and over the classroom!!!!Reed Bunting - 3 S
Linnet - 6 SE
Goldfinch - 35 S
Bullfinch - 1+1+2 high to S
Meadow Pipit - 22 SE
0910-1010 north harbour wall
Meadow Pipit - 44 SE
alba Wagtail - 16 SE
Linnet - 2 SE

Inshore
Little Gull - adult winter roosting at Red Nab
Med Gull - 1CY harbour mouth but no sign of adults, despite two outgoing boats
No sign of any Shag on wooden jetty

Elsewhere
Yellow-browed Warbler trapped and ringed on Walney in main Obs garden

First Yellow-browed of the autumn (anticipating next week's weather!)

Heysham Obs
This morning started like that iconic piece of football philosophy 'You dont know what you are doing' and a cessation of drizzle and lull in the SSE wind led to two mist nets being set only for the wind to veer south and really get up well beyond the forecast. Nets down, what to do next?  The easiest thing was to sit there and see what flew over.  Indeed, I feel really sorry for the met office as we have obviously got the weather forecasted for SW Scotland, whilst two days ago received the weather=rain not supposed to stray north of the Midlands (see Gary Woodburns site for a colourful rendition of the self-same rain far to the north on the east coast).  Tricky times.

Then it improved!   After a bit of early vis, it soon became apparant that there was a bit of grounded stuff with multiple Goldcrest for the first time this year and an assortment of Chiffchaff calls which seemed to indicate 4-5 birds.  At 0850, from the isolated bush at the start of the top path came a familiar call which you know isnt a Coal Tit when you really hear it!  It didnt show other than a brief silhouette, but managed three diagnostic calls.  Then better view of the white underparts and two wingbars and glimpse of the supercilium along the top path at about 0950hrs.  Then it appeared to join a passing Long-tailed Tit flock and had to return to make another phone call.

Yellow-browed Warbler - one by office, then along top path
Chiffchaff - 4-5, two giving collybita calls, one giving a strident monosyllabic 'swee' and (probably) two giving a slightly dysyllabic 'sweeoo'.
Goldcrest - at least 8 - welcome back!
Treecreeper - 1 ( corner bushes)

Vis mig 0700-0850ish, then a bit intermittent!
Quite a bit of 'cross bay' vis which presumably didnt like the wind strength along the route south of the power station
alba Wagtail - 83 SE
Meadow Pipit - 67 SE
Chaffinch - 64 SW
Greenfinch - at least 34 SW
Carrion Crow - 2+5 S
Goldfinch - 10 S
Heron - one south
Cormorant -  2 high to SE
1020-1040hrs
Greenfinch - 47 SW
alba Wagtail - 6 SE
Song Thrush - 1 S (the only evidence of migrant thrushes this am)
Linnet - 4 SE
Chaffinch - 15 SW
Meadow Pipit - 7 SE
Reed Bunting - 1 S

Two species of bunting but still not the one we want!

Heysham Obs
This was a good routine Obs. coverage of an open 'flyover' morning with quite a change in the vis mig during the final hour with Skylark & Siskin taking over from the usual early morning fare.  Come-uppance with the only Grey Wagtail after saying what a good site we had - a Rossall/Knott-End and everywhere else-like 'bounce' out of a slightly billowing net!

Vis mig 0700-1030hrs
Yellowhammer - one from the north-east, then grounded = fem/imm, then headed ESE
Meadow Pipit - just 12 SE
Chaffinch - 334 S/SW
Grey Wagtail - one early, then one right at the end of the period - S
Goldfinch - 69 S
Linnet - 25 S
Woodpigeon - 14 S with a smaller bird with them - looked like Stock Dove but the views could not absolutely rule out feral pigeon - on a line quite a way to the east over the golf course
alba Wagtail - 65 SE (plus c40 out of PS roost very first thing, which may of course have included prospective migrants)
Greenfinch - the first day of really obvious passage, as opposed to low-level blogging, albeit with the ringing data showing quite a turnover - 52 S/SW
Dunnock - 1+1+2+1 flew off high to south
Reed Bunting - 6 S, all but one in first 30 mins.
Carrion Crow - 5+1+3+6+3 south
Bullfinch - 1+2 south
Brambling - just 2 SW, very first thing
Starling - one S! (c400 out of roost heading east first thing)
Siskin - 35+ SE, all but one in last 1.5hrs
Skylark - 51 SE - all in last hour
Coal Tit - 5 south, two caught & ringed

Pink-footed Goose - c110 S over the sea at 1245hrs

Grounded
Chiffchaff - a 'brown' bird caught & ringed which gave  quite subdued disyllabic call on release.  The only warbler/crest seen this morning but 'collybita-calling' Chiffchaff  by the dipping pond mid-pm
Redwing - 2
Blackbird - 3 definite migrants
Song Thrush 1+ migrants

Ringing
Just two nets operational by the office until 1030hrs - Dunnock (1), Greenfinch (13), Chaffinch (9), Coal Tit (2), Blue Tit (4), Great Tit (1), Chiffchaff (1).  No retraps!

Golf weather

Heysham Obs
After the clearance of the incessant morning rain:
Reserve circuit mid-pm
Chiffchaff - 2
Long-tailed Tit - 33 in two flocks with no groupies other than Blue Tits
Song Thrush - one probable migrant
Blackbird - two possible migrant
Water Rail - at least two noisy birds in the marsh

Middleton similarly
Water Rail - at least one
Meadow Pipit - two south
Stonechat - female

Moths
Spruce Carpet - a different one from yesterday - not a common species here (yet?)

Butterflies
3 Speckled Wood & Red Admiral reserve

This will do on a morning with little expectation

Heysham Obs
A bit laid back about this morning being other than going through the motions and even stopped for 'cheap' petrol along Caton Road, then noticed more than a touch of east in the 'southerly' wind as Heysham was being approached.  Highlight, following a few musical 'teu' calls from overflying Reed Bunting, was a harder 'teuk' at 0750hrs.   Surely time to retain my place on the 'serial Lap Bunt on call' blacklist, but the trill was a softer rippling and the "middle of the wings" were 'white'!

Vis mig from the office 0700-1000, intermittent from about 0900
Chaffinch - 329 SW (no Brambling today)
Meadow Pipit - 39 SE
Alba Wagtail - 34 S
Reed Bunting - 8 S
Skylark - 4 SE
Goldfinch - 44 S
Carrion Crow - 29 S, including flock of 9
Sparrowhawk - one high to the south
Pink-footed Goose - 130 S (very early on)
Linnet - 13 S
Tree Sparrow - 2 SE
Black-headed Gull - flock of 5 purposefully S
Starling - 27 S
Collared Dove 1+1 S
Snow Bunting - probably a male S at 0750hrs
Siskin - 7 S
Greenfinch - about 20 appearde to be 'vis' birds
Grey Wagtail - one found in mist net & obviously slipped through the vis scrutuny!, 2 south along the seawall
House Sparrow - one S

Grounded
Chiffchaff - just one by the office
Goldcrest - ditto
Rock Pipit - 3 half-moon bay

Inshore
The only reports was of the 1CY Med Gull along the north wall and two Little Egret Ocean Edge

Elsewhere
Seriously different vis mig scenarios at all five local sites this morning with Chaffinch passage being the only reasonably comparable denominator!   Over 1000 Meadow Pipit over Crag Bank, just the other side of Morecambe, which did not go over Heysham or along the western side of the Lune. Yellow hammer SW over the Lune vis mig site at Heaton.  Black Tern on the pager for Leighton Moss along with Great White Egret

Tawny Owl surprise

Heysham Obs
A racket from Long-tailed Tits by the entrance gate was followed by a Tawny Owl hoot!  Investigation revealed a large brown bird hiding in a bush.  Rather scarce on here to put it mildly.

Office/reserve
Tawny Owl - one by gate
Treecreeper - one with above LTT flock
Goldcrest - one by gate

Inshore late afternoon
Good!
Shag - two 1CY on wooden jetty
Little Stint - juvenile with large number of Dunlin
Little Egret - one Red Nab
Wigeon - 4 Red Nab
Little Gull - ad winter on outfalls
Rock Pipit - one or two mobile birds around mound area
Med Gull - adult on sand off Ocean Edge
Wheatear - at least one Ocean Edge
Robin - at least two boxed out on the shore at Red Nab - being chased around

Lots and lots of Chaffinches and a mystery goose flock

Heysham Obs
Just two hours this morning & it was quite eventful overhead but predictably dire as regards any grounded leftovers/new arrivals after a clear starry half-moony night

Office 0700-0900, on and off to 0945
Chaffinch - 341 SW, mainly high flocks of up to 8 birds
Brambling - all calls from a flock of 10 (largest finch flock of morning) were this species & two others flew over - all SW
Goldfinch - 62 SW
Woodpigeon - flock of 8 S
Redwing - flock of 5 in from NE, then landed briefly on tank farm
Starling - 42+11+2 SW
alba Wagtail - 26 S
Meadow Pipit - just 7 SE
Grey Wagtail - none
Linnet - 1 S
Geese - c60 very high to the north-west and the only calls I could hear fitted Barnacle but couldnt get any detail at all on the birds.  Anyone get to grips with them (c0750hrs)?
Chiffchaff - one caught whilst setting the nets seemed to be the only early morning grounded migrant!  Gave typical collybita call on release
Pink-footed Goose - 75 low to the east over the dog-walk track at 0800hrs (not the high flock!)

Middleton NR evening (thanks Malcolm)
Tufted Duck (9), Teal (2) & 8 Greylag low to the south

Vis supplement 0950ish to 1030
More cross-bay stuff in clearer conditions:
Skylark - 5 SE
Swallow - 1 S
Meadow Pipit - 22SE
Chaffinch - 38 SW
Goldfinch - 7 SW
an unringed Chiffchaff by the Obs T pond

Mammals
Stoat crossed the power station approach road at 08:30 at SD 405599. Observed by rabbit (Ian Taylor)

Occluded frontal admin weather

Heysham Obs
A couple of forays from the office today produced

Little Gull - adult Red Nab at high tide
Meadow Pipit - 8 struggling south in 15 minutes (0930-0945) along OE foreshore
Swallow - 2 as above
Chiffchaff - one by office giving disyllabic call
Wheatear - one OE foreshore
Grey Plover - 8 on edge of Red Nab
No sign of any Shag on wooden jetty at high tide or indeed any Med Gulls along the north wall (not unusual in wet weather)
Teal - 4 on Middleton IE
alba Wagtail - 38 heading over Middleton towards power station roost in evening