Nothing yet

Should be a short post tomorrow

Dowdy ducks top the bill

Heysham
Middleton NR
Gadwall - pair
Teal - 9
Tufted Duck - 14
Goldeneye - 1
Fieldfare - 6
plus single/low double-figures of Mallard, Coot, Moorhen and Little Grebe setting up territories
North Harbour Wall
Twite food replenished. No birds seen on brief visit.

Moths
Dotted Border - 4
Hebrew Character - 1

From oak woodland to toilet trap

The nine Twite (thanks Janet)

Heysham Obs
Last night was a good moth night, but not quite if you operate a toilet trap where the window was just a little bit too parallel to the wind direction.  This was a shame - hopefully tonight might be better

Heysham hut trap - east-facing window & 160w blended
Dotted Border - 1

North harbour wall
Med Gull - 2 adults, one in fsp, the Czech bird in half sp
Twite - just 9
too murky offshore

Ocean Edge area
Murky
Lots of seagulls with significant increase in LBBG (45-50)
5 Woodpigeon feeding on OE football pitch rather unexpected

Middleton
Lots more seagulls round the sewage works
Tufted Duck (5), Little Grebe (4), Teal (2 on model boat pond)

Elsewhere moth trapping
Millhouses, nr Wray 125 MV trap - sheltered oak-laden valley
Tortricodes alternella (117), Ypsophola ustella (2), Small Brindled Beauty (10), Dotted Border (21), March Moth (32), Satellite (4), Chestnut (31), Yellow Horned (2), Hebrew Character (1), Clouded Drab (2), Spring Usher (9), Pale Brindled Beauty (8), Oak Beauty (2)

Ashley's farm, High Tatham 125 MV trap - exposed, but with old scattered oaks
Dark Chestnut (very late) (1), Small Brindled Beauty (1), March Moth (13), Spring Usher (2), Dotted Border (8), Hebrew Character (1), Oak Beauty (1), Pale Brindled Beauty (3), Chestnut (3)

Empty seas

Heysham Obs
Apart from the one-offs, its been pretty desperate out there on the sea this winter with even Red-throats like rocking horse dung.........and still no records of any auks.  This morning was particularly poor as there is usually the odd great-crest or Eider when the sandbanks are still showing - not a thing in two sweeps.

North harbour wall
Twite - 33, 3 unringed, all the rest Heysham ringed   
Red-breasted Merganser - long-staying female still in harbour

That morning after feeling

Heysham Obs
That reminder of a former life - the maritime stage of the Little Blue Heron twitch - the Clipper Point was making large waves as it departed the harbour just as I was making my way down the north wall.  The harbour then also revealed a survey type boat swanning around.  No Slav Grebe was a predictable result.

North harbour wall
Twite - 51
Linnet - 1

Office area
Definite small increase in thrushes in the murky weather with 3 SongThrush together being notable and a loose 'gang' of 5 Blackbird

Moths
None due to wind being a bit too SE/S overnight - should be one or two tomorrow morning with high night temps plus south-westerly

Slavonian Grebe & even more enthusiastic Sean

Heysham Obs
North & south Harbour Walls
Slavonian Grebe emerged from the harbour area at about 9am.  It disappeared after a boat came out.  Excellent views included the red iris! (thanks Sean)
Purple Sandpiper - 3 seen at high tide with 105 Turnstone
Med Gull - 2 adults, one with full black hood.
c40 Twite on the gasholder.
Song Thrush on the mound
Cormorant 42
Great Crested Grebe 5
Pink-footed Goose 100 (S to N) and 15 (N to S)
Wigeon 86
Eider 2
RB Merganser 6 (2 male and 4 females)
Peregrine 1 (bombed some Knot just when I was leaving - nice parting gift)
Bar-tailed Godwit 2,000
Knot 10-15,000+
Linnet - 2

Mammals
Grey Seal seen on the incoming tide.

Office area
Hut feeders filled on a late quick visit - Great Tit (4)  and Blackbirds (2) only seen.

Usual odds and ends

The Czech-ringed Med Gull along the north harbour wall today (thanks Janet)

Also 8 Twite around the feeder

No Purple Sands visible on wooden jetty in brief visit

Dunlin pitfall

Heysham Obs
North harbour wall area
A decent number of waders on the wooden jetty which will initiate a bit of tinkering with Friday's WeBS, as today is when you are supposed to do it!  Three longish bills were assumed to be Purple Sandpiper, although only two could be clearly seen.  No - out walked a Dunlin - an unusual record on here:
Turnstone - 122 & possibly 5-10 hidden
Purple Sandpiper - 2 visible
Dunlin - 1
Med Gull - adult in flight
No Twite: no food, but some put down

Miniscule Baywatch

Heysham Obs
Interesting to see that Morecambe Bay and the conservation of wildlife therein seems to be in safe hands, given the stunning revelation that our MP is a mate of David Hasselhoff.   He was invited to Morecambe and seemed to be very impressed with the teeming muddy expanse.  Pamela Anderson in panto this Christmas?

North harbour wall
As the title
 implies, a very short visit revealed zero on the sea but
Med Gull - Czech-ringed adult on the railings
Twite - 11 at a disturbed feeder

Middleton NR (thanks Malcolm)
Coot (12), Mute Swan (4), Moorhen (7), Teal (3), Tufted Duck (17), Mallard (8), Goldeneye (1), Little Grebe (2)

Peripheral goosewatch
More tricky this morning and spread on to fields which could not be seen from the recycling centre road (too dangerous to stop on the bypass).  About the same number as yesterday with nothing other than unringed/uncollared PFG in the 1,900 or so gone through.  A lot of flights at turbine blade height all through the area between the Overton road and the recycling road - all on the south/east side of the A683 bypass 

Pinkfoot monoculture

Heysham Obs
Very careful perusal of the flocks this morning revealed 4,650 as viewed from the new road to the recycling centre.  Ther were definitely others 'over the top' of the drumlin, but perhaps no more than 200-400.  Not even a neck-collared bird located with them & definitely no sign of yesterdays Barnacles

As already posted, a visit trying/failing to locate Little Owls at 1805hrs last night revealed that at least "a lot" of these geese remained in the fields after dark and the 'level' of the after-dark calls was very similar to that experienced this morning, suggesting similar numbers! (c/f implications with respect to adding a supplement to the turbine EIAs on both sides of the bypass - this is the first indication that geese have remained in situ after dark in this area, although it has been recorded several times around Pilling)

WeBS count
Nothing unexpected with the highlights
Jack Snipe - one flushed off OE saltmarsh
Med Gull - 2 ads roosting on Fisher's roof
Purple Sandpiper - (eventually) two showed on the wooden jetty