Yellow-browed Warbler

Heysham Obs
Ever been ashamed of finding (or "  " in this case) a decent bird?!  Even worse than being a mystery miscreant on mega-private land or finding something of national importance when you should have been at work 100 miles away (I think this happened to someone with a Norfolk Fan-tailed Warbler??) is letting one go through poor judgement from a mist net.  I forgot the furling stick whilst setting the 'top nets' & double-looped one end which meant, of course it was a bit difficult to lower the net for a top-shelf bird, which was exactly where it should have been right above a Yellow-browed Warbler tape!  However it was still well within reaching range but the recent fog had resulted in slightly chilled hands.........

Having escaped from mist net at 0930hrs, the Yellow-browed Warbler was relocated by Tom Wilmer below the Obs Tower and showed well for about 45 minutes before becoming elusive and allowing only one further glimpse.  One of the observers was a perfectly timed Jon Carter!

Quite an interesting morning with complete clarity at dawn and much reduced thrush and finch passage seemingly heralding a 'duff' morning.  Then low cloud rolled in from the north-east, seemed to 'drop' the Yellow-browed along with a sprinkling of 'orange' Robins, a few Goldcrest & the odd new Chiffchaff.  Coal Tits were prominent this morning but only in ones and twos and difficult to numerate

Vis mig
Cormorant - 2 SE
Redwing - c20 at dawn, 27 SW
Chaffinch - c40 SW
Redpoll agg - 2 S
Brambling - minimum of 5 SW
Siskin - 9 SW
alba Wagtail - 15 SE

Meadow Pipit - 21SE
Crow - 16 messing about and eventually landed on non-op land & started eating seabuckthorn berries!
Peregrine - 1 E 0830
Snipe - 2 S
Pink-footed Goose - 8 S
Goldfinch - 18 SE
Mistle Thrush - 6 SE
Coal Tit - at least 15-20 passing through (see ringing)
Skylark - 3 S
Grey Wagtail - 1 S & one blogging


Grounded
Yellow-browed Warbler - one below the Obs Tower from 0930 to about 1130hrs
Goldcrest - very few early morning ('none' left from yesterday?) but a small influx when the cloud rolled in, probably c20 in total (see ringing)
Treecreeper - yet another new bird caught
Song Thrush - c20 grounded birds
Blackbird - less than 20 obvious migrants reserve area
Chiffchaff - 3, including a bird ringed at Middleton on 21/9!
Greenfinch - slightly more prominent than yesterday but no more than 15 passing through
Linnet - 31 Ocean Edge
Rock Pipit - 1 petrosus-type OEdge

Ringing (almost all on reserve)
Redwing (6), Robin (7 - including three very grey/orange birds), Blue Tit (3), Coal Tit (8), Long-tailed Tit (17), Blackbird (2), Chaffinch (6), Greenfinch (5), Dunnock (1), Great Tit (1), Blackcap (1), Wren (2), Treecreeper (1), Goldcrest (8), Chiffchaff (1)

A west coast migration morning including the great Wren trickle and late morning Goldcrest influx

Heysham Obs
A good variety this morning but no 'scarce' or distant migrant bettering a Chiffchaff giving the Hannu Jannes "eastern abietinus" disyllable.  Again rather clearer than the cloudy BBC radar map but consistent with the BBC Heysham 24 hr forecast (different 'departments'?)

Vis mig 0715-about 1130hrs
A bit slower than of late:
alba Wagtail - 17 SE
Skylark - c15 SE
Reed Bunting - 2 SE
Redwing - 31 SW, c40 at dawn, 60+ at dawn Middleton
Chaffinch - 34 SW
Meadow Pipit - really late (post 1030hrs), then a flurry of about 25 SE with some grounded at Middleton
Goldfinch - 10 S
Song Thrush - not many this mornig with a maximum of about 10 landfalling on the reserve
Bullfinch - 5 high SW
Brambling - 2 grounded briefly, then SE early morning, one midday
Redpoll agg - one north
Jackdaw 1 S+63+2 NW
Rook - 4 NW with Jackdaw
Crow - 7 W
Blackbird 15-20 migrants of which 12 seen arriving
Coal Tit - 3 S & others passing quickly through the bushes in small groups (10-15)
Siskin - heard & 3 grounded by dog pond
Tree Sparrow - flock of 14 NW, followed by a singleton which was briefly grounded

Grounded (all BE properties)
Blackbird - c25
Song Thrush - c15
Chiffchaff - 3-4
Goldcrest - interesting as careful searching produced less than 10 early-mid morning, then an influx when the wind turned to a sea breeze from about 1100hrs (see ringing total) - at least 25, possibly 30 birds involved and mostly below the Obs Tower
Wren - 6 new birds ringed - a lot in the context of this year!
Robin - 3 ringed around the office and 2 at Middleton but no obvious influx of any more migrants
Treecreeper - another new one ringed
Blackcap - one Red Nab, one ringed on reserve, two ringed Middleton

Ringing
Meadow Pipit (2), Long-tailed Tit (9),  Robin (5), Great Tit (3), Reed Bunting (2), Blackcap (3), Wren (6), Chaffinch (9), Blackbird (4), Dunnock (2), Greenfinch (just one), Goldcrest (12), Coal Tit (2), Treecreeper (1), Chiffchaff (2), Blue Tit (4), Goldfinch (1), Redwing (18)

The good run continues

Today's Firecrest.  Thanks Reuben

Heysham Obs
Quite an 'open' morning, more so than yesterday - a bit fortunate to connect with a grounded 'scarce'!

Grounded NR/Middleton/Red Nab/dog track
Swallow - one S
Redwing - around 100 grounded in the NR office area first thing, many probably during the night
SongThrush - prominent first thing with at least 30 grounded around the NR office area, soon dispersed inland, 8 still Red Nab area midday
Fieldfare - 2 grounded briefly at Red Nab (first of autumn)
Blackbird - small numbers grounded - c25 around office area, 10 Red Nab area
Wheatear - 2 Ocean Edge
Firecrest - ringed this morning having been seen in the field just prior to entering the net set below the obs tower = 1CY female
Goldcrest - only seemed to be about 5 around reserve (3 ringed), one dog track and 4 Red Nab
Chiffchaff - 2-3 by office/below obs tower, one dog pond area, 3 Red Nab, one Middleton NR
Blackcap - 2 Red Nab
Reed Bunting - 7 caught at Middleton NR

Vis mig - this was hard - very hard! - not helped by having a mist net set deep into the vegetation below the Obs Tower.  Skylarks 'impossible' against the blue sky.  Combination of Tom Wilmer & Pete Marsh (Red Nab & NR respectively) with far more over the NR, moving NW to SE on the north side of the power stations than yesterday

Vis mig 0700-0930, after which intermittent
Tree Sparrow - 3+ (flock) south
Pink-footed Goose - 61 north
Swallow - 1 south
alba Wagtail - 61 SE
Siskin - c35 SE plus a couple of heard only registrations
Skylark - absolute minimum of 53 S but 12 of those registrations were of heard only (recorded as single)
Meadow Pipit - 164 SE
Grey Wagtail - 1 SE & one blogging
Chaffinch - 115 S/SW
Redwing - after initial departure of grounded birds, small numbers from the NE to SW totalling just 85 birds in dribs and drabs
Mistle Thrush - 7 SW, one E
Goldfinch - c25 S
Reed Bunting - 5 SE
Dunlin - flock of 9 S over NR (very unusual)
Carrion Crow - 5+2+5 S over NR with 220 southbound corvid spp, including flocks of 60+ & 50+ over Middleton NR, at least some of these being Carrion Crow
Coal Tit - flock of 23 SE over NR & at least 10 other birds in three groups

Ringing
Quite a decent ringing morning, despite the breeze and incessant sunlight.  Totals:  Redwing (23), Blackbird (3), Chaffinch (6), Greenfinch (10), Goldcrest (4), Firecrest (1), Chiffchaff (2), Reed Bunting (7), Blue Tit (9), Coal Tit (1), Great Tit (2), Robin (2 - both Middleton & no sign of any grounded migrants in the reserve/dog track/Red Nab area), Wren (1), Long-tailed Tit (3), Dunnock (1)

Miscellaneous

Treecreeper by dog pond

Linnet - 15 OE foreshore

Lapland Buntings at last!

Heysham Obs
Highlight this morning was two Lapland Buntings 'in-off' at 0950hrs on Ocean Edge foreshore along with lots of Meadow Pipit, alba (a lot of White on call) Wagtails and one or two Rock Pipits.  They remained for about 15 minutes before being flushed by dog walker (Tom Wilmer). 

A pile-driver type thing (apparently a 'pecker') made vis mig very difficult to record this morning, in conjunction with a clear sky and quite high birds.  Much better for Tom at Ocean Edge!
Main grounded theme of the morning was a smattering of orange-breasted Robins with two being caught in a mist net as it was being set pre-dawn and a further 6 unringed birds caught in a limited amount of ringing as dictated by the wind.  There were also 6 along Ocean Edge foreshore - at least 5 more than usual!

Specific grounded highlight was a calling Ring Ouzel on the edge of the tank farm first thing

Grounded
Goldcrest - 3
Blackcap - 2 (& one Red Nab)
Chiffchaff 1 (& one Red Nab)
Robin - 20+
Redwing - 5 (& 2 Red Nab)
SongThrush - 6 (& 3 Red Nab)
Blackbird - 10
Coal Tit - low single figures (2 ringed)
Jay - one Red Nab possibly not local
Ring Ouzel - one

Vis mig 0700-1000
There were two flightlines recorded this morning - over the reserve (with the same birds coming across the Bay over the north wall mound) and along Ocean Edge foreshore - the vast majority different birds coming in-off to the south of the power station.  Many of the latter birds, including the Laps, landed for a short time before moving on

Redpoll agg - one over Ocean Edge
alba Wagtail - 38 SE & 14 grounded Ocean Edge (4 White, 10 Pied)
Meadow Pipit - 92 SE over the mound/reserve, 105 SE over Ocean Edge (25 grounded)
Goldfinch - 6 S reserve, 20 Ocean Edge
Redwing - 29 first thing over the reserve, 12 over Ocean Edge, then the next birds were at least 60 arriving from the east at 1100hrs
Song Thrush - 5 S reserve, 2 S Ocean Edge
Siskin - 10+ S reserve, 6 S Ocean Edge
Bullfinch - 1 S reserve
Chaffinch - grossly underestimated over reserve with just 45 SW (see above re-racket), 27 Ocean Edge (not on main flightline)
Greylag - 3 S over golf course
Pink-footed Goose - 4 S Ocean Edge & 46 NE
Reed Bunting - 1 S reserve, one S Ocean Edge
Skylark - heard once over reserve, 5 SE Ocean Edge
Carrion Crow - 6 in-off, then east Ocean Edge
Coal Tit - 5+3 south over reserve
Lapland Bunting - 2 in-off at 0955hrs, then flushed & last seen 1010hrs (see elsewhere)
Rock Pipit - 2, one a dark petrosus-type
Grey Wagtail - 3 SE Ocean Edge
Greenfinch - impossible to work out on reserve, 3 S Ocean Edge
Cormorant - one high to south over the reserve
Yellowhammer - 1 SE, apparently taking off from below the Obs Tower (after probably being heard calling earlier) c1145hrs

Miscellaneous
Little Egret - 2 Ocean Edge
Linnet - 18 grounded on mound area, 24 Ocean Edge with no obvious movement

Insects
At least 6 Red Admiral flew purposefully south

Elsewhere
Great Grey Shrike Thrushgill in area with no public access this evening.  Lapland Buntings: 2 independently located on the west shore at Sunderland late morning perhaps the Heysham birds, 3 along the seawall between Pilling Lane Ends and Pilling Water.  Richard's Pipit SE along Silverdale shore along with other 'vis'. Two Lapland Buntings just outside the area near Kents Bank.  Garganey - two between Pilling Lane Ends & Pilling water

Nice easterly and cloud but no rain

Thanks for the coverage, Tom - big Redwing day tomorrow (see e.g. Pennine vis mig from today)? 

Variable 10-25 east wind with low almost blanket cloud cover.Murkey out to sea.Unfortunately no rain although if forecast was right, the rain last night was well to the east of us.Sods law.

Nature Reserve office vis 0730-1000hrs

All movement SE unless otherwise stated

Merlin  - male south followed half hour later by male(same?) east
Lapwing    - 42    one flock high
Snipe    - 1 east high
Swallow    - 9
Grey Wagtail    - 1
alba Wagtail    - 27
Skylark    - 27   all after 0930
Meadow Pipit    - 97
Starling    - 82
Song Thrush    - 1 east high
Chaffinch    - 46
Greenfinch    - 7
Goldfinch    - 25
Siskin    - 2
Linnet    - 3
Reed Bunting    - 3

Nature Reserve
Strong wind and very leafy trees for time of year hampering play

Starling     - 631  left a presumed roost site very early on
Chiffchaff     -  2 very vocal in area of office
Blackcap     - 1
Goldcrest     - just 1
Treecreeper     - 1 calling  (corner bushes)
Coal Tit     - 2
Songthrush     - 6  obvious migrants
Blackbird     - just 4 obvious migrants
Moorhen     - 2 between office and obs tower,later one of these in top of bramble

Ocean Edge/Red Nab 1015-1200

Wigeon                 16 south
Grey Wagtail          1 south
alba Wagtail           7 south, 4 grounded (Pied)
Skylark                  9 south
Meadow Pipit        14 south, 6 grounded
Rock Pipit              1 south
Swallow                 4 south
Linnet                     2 south

Red Nab bushes

Chiffchaff      - 2 very vocal birds quickly heading up Moneyclose lane with LTT
Goldcrest      - 1
Coal Tit      - 2
Chaffinch      -10 grounded
Siskin      - 1 grounded

Apologies for posting late last couple of nights,   Tom Wilmer

  

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!