Bonxie heralds stormy conditions

Heysham Obs
What a contrast to yesterday!  The sea was covered 1115-1150hrs, then about an hour late afternoon.  In the meantime a fairly hairy walk around the reserve/harbour/outfalls/dog track circuit with the wind changing direction half way round and increasing to F8-9....as did the waves & spray!  

Bonxie - one blogging offshore at 1130hrs, then floated into bay
Pintail - 4+c20 out
Shelduck - three out
Kittiwake - 2 in lunchtime, 20+1+47 in later, 2 x 1CY outfalls, 1 x ad by waterfall in harbour
Little Gull - ad outfalls
Twite - ONE windblown bird at the feeder!
Med Gull - adult Red Nab pre-tide, 1CY harbour area

In situ

Heysham Obs
Three hours this morning didnt produce a great deal of movement as reflected in the small amount of new birds from brief ringing activities plus lack of vis.

North wall/mound
Nothing other than Twite & one Linnet (per John Mason)
Twite - c32 but only 4 out of 22 caught were unringed birds

Ocean Edge saltmarsh/beach
Twite - 47
Linnet - 17+
Little Egret - one

Heysham N reserve 0730-0945
Chiffchaff - collybita-type caught & ringed with zero fat score
Blackbird - perhaps 50-60 on reserve plus another 20-30 along the dog track
Redwing - c10, mainly tank farm
Chaffinch - 32 SW
Siskin - 13+16 S
Goldfinch - 5 S

Middleton NR
Wren - at least 11 (no Cetti's Warblers in pretty thorough search in good conditions)
Grey Wagtail - 1
Water Rail - 2+
Teal - 3

Moths
Red-line Quaker & Angle Shades

Decent coverage

Heysham Obs
North wall area most of the day (thanks Sean)
Med Gull - 3 adults & 1CY
Twite - 41
Rock Pipit - 2
Siskin - 11+9 S
Chaffinch - 1 S
Sparrowhawk - one heading north over the sands!
Stock Dove - 3 in from the north, then inland east
R.B. Merganser - 7 offshore

Ocean Edge/Red Nab
Rock Pipit 4, plus another 'in-off'
Twite - 43
Linnet - 27 with above; all on beach by the saltmarsh
Little Egret - 1
Wigeon - 42
Med Gull - adult

Reserve area (NE corner only checked in late afternoon)/dog track/railway line
Chiffchaff - 2 along railway line - one a Scandinavian-like bird, the other typical collybita, but no calls heard, collybita in NE corner of reserve late pm (above bird?)
Blackbird - 35-40 reserve, 20 dog track area, 20+ railway line
Redwing - 20 railway line, 5 reserve
SongThrush - 2 reserve
Water Rail - 1-2 reserve
Woodcock - one NE corner on reserve
Siskin - one by office

Should always properly check 'interesting' weather!

Heysham Obs
A "fair-weather" walk round the reserve late afternoon produced an unprecedented number of flushed Woodcock!  Also quite a few thrushes and a nice Blackcap.....and an interesting sharp 'tac' call from the reedbed bushes (not Cettis or a Wren) which wouldnt reveal itself

North harbour wall
Med Gull - adult & 1CY
Linnet - 7 (2 with rings)
Goldfinch - 1 (unringed)
Twite - 29 (at least 13 ringed, at least 7 unringed)

Heysham N Reserve
Woodcock - 8 flushes during an afternoon walk, which only marginally detoured from the main track, involving an absolute minimum of 6 birds - highest day count for here
Blackcap - male
Redwing - 1
Blackbird - c35
SongThrush - c8

Twittering

0.05% of the Knot around the heliport this morning.  Thanks Janet

Heysham Obs
North wall dawn-1000hrs
Twite - 56-60 (41 caught; 20 new (all 1CYs) & 10 from previous winter periods & 11 from this autumn)
Linnet - 2 (one ringed)
Skylark - one grounded
Meadow Pipit - 2 grounded
Med Gull - 1CY & 2 adults around anglers

Middleton IE
No obvious movement overhead
Woodcock - one - first of autumn
Snipe (2), 2 Mute Swan, 7 Coot, 12 Moorhen, 10 Mallard, 5 Tufted Duck, 1 Goldeneye, 3 Teal, 4 Little Grebe

Insects
A female Migrant Hawker Middleton IE may, I think, be the latest record from here

Heavenly migration dribble

Heysham Obs
Vis mig by the office 0730-0900
Chaffinch - c67 SW, mostly very high
Brambling - at least 2 SW
Greenfinch - at least 17 SW
Goldfinch - 6 S
Carrion Crow - 16 S in dribs & drabs - max 6 together
Pink-footed Goose - 46 SE
Whooper Swan - 7 SE really high!
Jackdaw - one flock of 30 S
Skylark - 5 SE

Grounded
Arrived too late the monitor thrushes:
Song Thrush - 3 inland, one south
Redwing - - 2 inland
Blackbird - VERY few <10
Goldcrest - c5 around office area but the only one seen was ringed

North wall
Twite - 44 (20+ unringed)
Linnet - 2
Meadow Pipit - 6 at 0715hrs, including 3 which flew in-off
Shag - 1CY wooden jetty
Med Gull - 1CY patrolling

Ocean Edge
Little Gull - adult sat on sea

A few scans offshore, whilst completing the WeBS, for the likes of divers produced a complete blank

Lapland Bunting - a lesson in proper coverage

Heysham Obs
Two thirds of the way through the WeBS count, I realised that there was a heady combination of no anglers and a lot of Twite at the feeder........and the rain was holding off in the outer bay.  So a quick change of plan.  This involved setting a 'whoosh' net and one of us walking round the back of the mound and sandworks........BUT it didnt involve checking the southern edge of the weedy bank next to the Twite feeder!!

A single catch was possible before the rain and these were being ringed when the remainder of the flock appeared, was slightly spooked by a released bird and 'pulled' another bird off the abovementioned south slope which flew north on its own towards the heliport giving diagnostic dry rattles.  It must have got up from no far away than 30 metres, but there is no way of viewing this bank from the usual parking area.  I think we had better check this bank in future!  The bird had unfortunately not pitched in on the heliport grass.

North wall/mound area
Lapland Bunting - one grounded (all morning?) on the southern slope of the south bank at the sand compound but was only noticed when spooked by Twite and flying north, calling, at about 1115hrs (John Mason, Pete Marsh)
Twite - c35 (16 caught, 12 of these unringed)
Jack Snipe - one heliport
Meadow Pipit - one heliport
Goldfinch - just the one mound area
Med Gull - single adult and 1CY (surely this will winter now?)
Kittiwake - adult behind the IOM ferry
Guillemot - one half-moon bay at HT (thanks Pete)
Shag - presumed 1CY on the wooden jetty but only the head visible behind a structure!

South side
Little Gull - adult outfalls

Heysham N Reserve
Phyllosc spp - on very briefly in the office buddleia

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