Nothing new in the nooks and crannies

Heysham Obs
The coastal area was walked/scanned at high tide and drew a blank other than long-stayers:

Shag - 1CY wooden jetty (hard to see!)
Little Gull - ad stage 2 outfall - the only bird on it
Twite - 23 mound, including 3 x red/white, one blue/yellow and two blue/white from previous winter periods, but only 2 which had been ringed this autumn, rest unringed
Linnet - 4 unringed birds mound
Med Gull - adult on fisher's roof

No obvious sign of any Waxwings in windy conditions

Moths
A migrant in the form of Silver Y!  Also Blastobasis lacticolella, Light-brown Apple Moth and 2 Red-line Quaker

Elsewhere
Waxwing Sedgewick 0800 at least this morning (in LDBWS area)

Same Waxwings reappear?

Heysham Obs
It was all about S.A.D. on the radio this morning, but you have to try and be optimistic.  Birders have a bit of a double-whammy with this, especially if early November consists of high pressure out in the mid-atlantic and a useless northern depression route - no late Siberian autumn on the horizon (but absolutely no complaints about October here!).  It was really hard to combat the 'its all over end of season' blues this morning - the pass needed updating at Ocean Edge as it was the end of their main season, a power walk round the mound resulted in the first birdless soaking of the day, a seawatch produced some waves and the moth trap contained a xxxx WINTER moth - the earliest record here!   Oh, and the north harbour wall/wooden jetty was apparently named and shamed as being on the twitcher programme (see posting on LDBWS - what was the 'target'?). Positives:

Little Gull - adult stage  outfall
Twite - 15 north harbour wall
Med Gull - adult roosting on Ocean Edge saltmarsh

Even more positive was a visitation from a nice Scottish couple who informed that there were 'about a dozen' Waxwings in a tree in the primary school grounds near the bypass roundabout at about 1415hrs.  Unfortunately, it was chuck-out time as I arrived and no sign amongst the lollipops and amazingly young-looking mothers
Moths
Winter Moth (1), Epirrata (1), Red-line Quaker (1)

Well-oxygenated coastal coverage

Heysham Obs
......and well wet

From a dry heated car
Little Gull - adult stage 2 outfall
Shag - 1CY harbour entrance (NB seen in 3 x 10km squares this morning!!!!)
Twite - 10 north harbour wall (one ringed 2008, one ringed last spring, 2 ringed this autumn & remainder all appeared to be unringed

Lured outside by siren-like Grey Phal possibilities (very wet and windy coverage of south harbour and outfalls seawall)
Little Gull - adult stage 2 outfall
Shag - 1CY in the harbour
Rock Pipit - one inner end of wooden jetty

Office area
Chaffinch - 2 battled their way south quite high up
Chiffchaff - collybita-like calls from the willows just to north of office

30 minute seawatch mid-morning produced zilch, not even dross like southbound flocks of Pintail and Shelduck, which are a feature of bad late autumn seawatches

Moths
Blastobasis lacticolella is seemingly a good November record plus 3 x Red-line Quaker

Waxwings and Pallas's leaf mines

Heysham Obs
Took the whole morning off to cover the last decent migration morning for some time.  Indeed, arrived at what I thought was 0700hrs and it was 0600hrs, so it even covered the late nocturnal thrush movement!   The morning was a strange evolution of slightly different weather conditions producing slightly diferent birds e.g there was a "Skylark half-hour" mid-morning as there were clear conditions over the bay.  This window closed after about 30 minutes with the onset of a SE wind and cloud spilling in - this produced another dose of Redwings and then a flock of 12 Waxwing at 1115hrs.  The latter appeared from the south and coincided with an extremely noisy family, which erupted from a people carrier, reaching the south end of the dog track.........where there are some rowans.  They landed in the trees along Moneyclose Lane and dropped, presumably on to roadside berries there.  Not able to follow-up due to ringing and they were not seen again as afr as I am aware.  A dog-walker reported four birds with crests eating red barries near the health centre yesterday on the nearby new estate - this was checked out this afternoon & plenty of berries but no Waxwing.  The other very temporary excitement involved a phyllosc-shaped leaf with white and yellow stripes residing in a mist net!!!  Nice selection for the 'winter' atlas!!:

Office area pre-dawn to lunchtime
Chiffchaff - two - both collybita-types, one ringed
Blackcap - 1CY male ringed
Waxwing - 12 at 1115hrs - see above
Brambling - at least 5 grounded at various times
Redwing - c60 grounded first thing, then quickly inland, another arrival of c30 1115hrs -1130hrs
Blackbird - c100 early hours, then gradually melted away inland
Song Thrush - 20 or so first thing, all three ringed were very olive-coloured continental birds
Goldcrest - no evidence of any definite new arrivals round the office
Robin - one lightweight unringed bird the only migrant evidence

Vis mig
Long-tailed Tit - just the one irruptive flock this morning - 27 high to south
Waxwing - see above
Redwing - in addition to above, 14 flew hight to SW, the only birds not grounded/heading inland
Mistle Thrush - conspicuous by its complete absence as it has been on many days this autumn
Fieldfare - as above - just 2 seen at 1115hrs
Chaffinch - 73 SW +/- being temporarily grounded
Brambling - 17 SW +/- temporarily grounded
Meadow Pipit - 9 SE
Reed Bunting - 2 SE, 1 grounded briefly
Bullfinch - 2 high to S
Siskin - at least 33 S
Goldfinch - 9 S
alba Wagatil - 6 SE
Grey Wagtail - 2 around
Twite - one S
Linnet - 2 SE
Skylark - 29 SE, all 1030-1100hrs!!
Carrion Crow - 7 S

North wall
Twite - 12 on the seed mid-pm, including at least 8 unringed, 2 from previous years and one from this autumn
Linnet - one as above

Ringing
Mostly thrushes (7 Blackbird, 3 Redwing, 3 Song Thrush) plus 1 Robin, 4 Greenfinch, 1 Blackcap, 1 Chiffchaff, 2 Long-tailed Tit (both singletons), 3 Blue Tit, 2 Chaffinch

Moths
Single Epirrata spp, Large Wainscot and Red-line Quaker

Just three hours to pull something out of the bag

More to come, I think.

Heysham Obs
The best grounded migrant conditions of the autumn...in theory.  Rain ceasing at dawn, then poor visibility & a few breaks in the cloud.  However, it was all a bit of a rush, with work to complete under the guise of nice calm conditions in 'October' in north Cumbria with the other observer deskbound from mid-morning.  A separate team was involved in catching and ringing a decent arrival of 'new' Twite

Grounded
Blackbird - At least 80 on the reserve and the best area wasn't checked - 46 moved south past the office 'bush to bush' between 0800 and 0900hrs
Song Thrush - 18 as above
Redwing - just 5 by office
Goldcrest - small arrival of at least 17
Brambling - 5
Dunnock - lightweight unringed bird caught
Fieldfare - two tank farm, the only ones encountered - it seems to be an aerial exclusion zone around here for this species!
Robin - 7 'ticking' birds along the dog walk track (cf 4 singing birds).
Knot - estimated 25-30,000 off Red Nab
Little Egret - 2 Red Nab

Vis mig  0700-1040
Redwing - 53 SW
Fieldfare 7
Chaffinch - 45 SW
Brambling - 9 SW early on
Pink-footed Goose - skeins of 29, c162 and 410 south S
Grey Wagtail - 1 S (possibly blogging)
Woodpigeon - flocks of 23 plus 6 SE
Long-tailed Tit - 24 spiralled up then re-landed at Red Nab, another "large" flock headed that way, 6 were caught, ringed & released together (the only acceptable protocol with these irruptive flocks) and headed off high to SE and a further 9 were seen by the dog walk track
Linnet - 2 S
Greenfinch - 3 S
Goldfinch 8 SE
Meadow Pipit - 8 SE
Siskin 11
Bullfinch 1 SE

Middleton
8 Teal, 7 Mallard, 6 Tufted Duck, 1 Little Grebe, 2 Snipe

North harbour wall
As I understand, ringing as follows: Twite 17 new & 8 retraps, including two from previous years, 2 Linnet, 2 Meadow Pipit and the resident Robin!

No indication that any other migrants or otherwise were around

Moths
Local mega in the form of December Moth, a just about annual scarce species in the form of Brick, then the dross in the form of Mottled Umber and a late Common Marbled Carpet

Elsewhere
The following were on the website/pager/mobile messages:   Waxwing - 6 at Leck, Lapland Bunting - Dalton Crags,  possible candidate for AG Plover at Glasson which needs checking out asap

Best Brambling early morning for ages!

Heysham Obs
First light to 0910hrs by office
Brambling - 72 SW
Chaffinch - 220 SW
Chaffinch and Brambling flocks not separated - 280 SW (the high ones!)
Song Thrush - 3 inland
Redwing - 9 first thing, then 2+9+6 SW
Siskin - 7 SW
Linnet - 4 SW
Twite - one SW
Woodpigeon - 13+8+5 S
Greenfinch - c15 S
Goldfinch - 17 SW
Meadow Pipit - 2 S
Blackbird - only 8 inland
Starling - just one on the SW (non roost-exit) flightline
Bullfinch - 2+1 high to south
Long-tailed Tit - unringed flock south after landing briefly
Reed Bunting - 1 S

Grounded
see above re-thrushes
Goldcrest - 3 by office

North harbour wall
Merlin - female, landed on wooden jetty, then headed south
Twite - max of 33 with about 50% unringed

A useless southerly gale

Heysham Obs
..............apart from the Millhouses (nr Wray) moth trap (107 moths, including 16 Sprawler, Northern Winter Moth and Autumn Green Carpet!), none in the Heysham trap

NHW Mound area
Meadow Pipit - flock of 6 grounded
Linnet - 1
Twite - 22 (3 x red/white, 1 x dark blue/white (both these are Heysham previous winter periods), 5 or so unringed, rest either not seen well or recently ringed)
Grey Plover - one close inshore a bit unexpected

South side
Kittiwake - adult behind IOM ferry up until buoy 7, then turned
Med Gull - 1CY Heysham one outfall, adult Red Nab

Elsewhere
Negative vis mig count at Ashley's with 3 x Collared Dove (rare here), 4 x Chaffinch, 200 Starling and NO thrushes 0755-0855!!

Short coastal visit

Heysham Obs
A short Twite-ringing session on the north wall produced 6 Twite (three retraps, two from previous years), 9 Goldfinch and 4 Linnet.  About 15 Twite were seen in total a chunk of them appear to have cleared off during the course of Tuesdays wet and windy weather (and, I'm afraid to say, a report of a dog roaming around over the high tide period)

8 Redwings were seen over the reserve at dawn
one Rock Pipit and a dawn Reed Bunting were the only other species of note along the north wall 

Routine coastal check

Heysham Obs
The wind had dropped by the time the tide started to come in and the only offshore interest was three auk spp (prob Razorbill) flying out together, although Tony had three small Kittiwake flocks at JBP in the afternoon (max 33)

North wall
Twite - 30ish but flushed by dog walker
Goldfinch - 8+
Rock Pipit - one along seawall
Skylark - 2 in-off
Linnet - one in-off, two grounded
Med Gull - two adult in harbour, plus 1CY patrolling

South side
Little Gull - ad on mudflats next to Red Nab
Med Gull - ad just off OE saltmarsh

Elsewhere
'Imm' Snow Bunting Far Arnside on the beach on Monday this week - thanks to visiting birders for this info.  Two Waxwings High Tatham 0820 with big Fieldfare movement (& c15 unidentified short-tailed birds accompanying early morning Fieldfare passage - the two recorded landed & called).  All the definite Starlings recorded were in separate flocks but this species could not be ruled out also admixed with the thrushes

Result!

Heysham Obs
The much-needed BTO Business Challenge Stonechat fell today courtesy of a wet bedraggling 'power walk' circuit: reserve-office-dog track-outfalls-harbour-reserve office.   Nothing else, despite stops at the really tasty-looking bushes around the dog walk pond and scanning the non-op for black things with red tails (SE wind too localised?)

Circuit
Stonechat - female nature park area
Lesser Redpoll - 2 nature park with 5 Goldfinch
Blackbird - only 5 seen!
Song Thrush - 3 migrants Red Nab was it!
Goldcrest - two by the obs tower pond the only ones
Med Gull - ad Red Nab, 1CY harbour area, later on north wall with two adults (one Czech-ringed & neither the red nab bird)
Sparrowhawk - 1CY male flew across the harbour, out to the end of the wooden jetty and then along the outfalls seawall (vis?)
Twite - 32, 12-14 unringed, 2+ from previous years, rest seemed to be from recent ringing efforts
No sign of any Shag, Arctic Tern or Little Gull (but see below)

Post-lunch drive-round
Med Gull - see above
Little Gull - adult Red Nab
Grey Wagtail - colour-ringed bird very briefly Ocean Edge floodwater (definitely ringed HNR)