Little change during the morning session

Heysham Obs
No obvious evidence of vis mig passerines etc in the morning (see Elsewhere).  Morning coverage by Alan, John and Mike Baron

Office area
Wood Pigeon -  6 together on grass by Hut
Moorhen - 1 by Hut

N Harbour Wall
Twite -  c70, scurrying about and impossible to count accurately.  c10 unringed
Linnet - 1+
Goldeneye - 3 offshore
Eider - 53+ offshore
Moths
None, following the first Clouded Drab of the year the previous night

Elsewhere
Given the weather and temperatures, a very unexpected mass arrival of Sand Martins with at least 20 involved in sightings at Crag Foot and Pine Lake, probably 40

Purp cooperation for a change

Heysham Obs
Thanks to Tom, Jenny & Chris, John for coverage today

Purple Sandpiper - 2 on the outfalls fence 1300-1330hrs, then presumably the same alongside the north harbour wall c1400:

Thanks Chris (one of two birds)

Twite - c65 seen in flight north wall area

First Meadow Pipit of the year!

Heysham Obs
North Harbour Wall 0725-0925
Kittiwake - 78 (3 flocks) in (and then up!)
Gannet - 2 in, 2 different ones out
Red-throated Diver - 1 in
Peregrine 1 SW along sea wall terrorising the Twite
Twite - c75, a definite increase with c15 unringed birds out of a sample of c50 checked and one ringed at Machrihanish, the first for a bit

Outfalls
Little Gull - ad winter Stage 2 outfall on incoming tide early afternoon

Vis
Meadow Pipit 1 NE (over the sea)
Pied Wagtail 2 NE

Early Red-throated Diver flock

Heysham Obs
North harbour wall seawatching c0830-1000
Red-throated Diver - flock of 22 flew 'out' very high
Gannet - 9 out and 2 in
Kittiwake - 218 in, 62 out
Little Gull - 2 distant adults out
Twite - 24 on the seed

Middleton model boat pond
Goldeneye (one female), pair of Teal, 3 Tufted Duck
Male Lapwing has returned on to territory on the spit

Kittiwake passage kickstarts in dramatic fashion

Heysham Obs
North harbour wall
Kittiwake - 1028 in, 254 out 0830-1010, 1030-1115, mostly during the first session.  The last flock (of 35) came in towards Heysham and then spiralled up and flew NE inland, very high - shades of some of the Arctic tern flocks
Eider - 168 offshore
Little Gull - 2CY out
Common Scoter - flock of 9 out
very low-flying large grey aircraft - one 'in' c1000hrs (what was it doing???)
Grey Seal - one blogging

Twite - 27 with 4/13 examined unringed
Linnet - one with above

Little Grebe sets its territory out at Middleton (thanks Janet)

Heysham Obs

Just a few moths today comprising a late Chestnut (not common here anyway & certainly not in March), Common Quaker opening its account and a Hebrew Character

Elsewhere

The 'hot' news is the reappearance of the Great Grey Shrike at Dalton Crags - definitely not there Saturday in a careful search anticipating its presence, but appeared yesterday - the bad news is that the weather is not very good for seeing it in the next few days!

Deserted!

Heysham Obs

What a struggle to find something worth publishing today despite a modicum of coverage of coastal sites on both sides of the harbour, plus a trip to top up the feeders

No Twite (no food left.....but rectified), no Meds (gone on recent year's form), no Purple Sandpipers (or Turnstone, yet tide well in - odd?), just 66 Wigeon left on Red Nab, no obvious early vis mig trickle, nothing offshore diver-wise, no moths

Best was two unringed Long-tailed Tits on the HNR feeder, unless you appreciate 18,000 Knot!

Lingering Gadwall & Jack Snipe reappearance

Heysham Obs

Middleton NR
14 Tufted Duck, 1 Goldeneye, 1 Little Grebe, 2 Mallard, 4 Mute Swan and a pair of Gadwall (Tim Butler pond) also 3 Snipe and 1 Jack Snipe.

Heysham NR
On the reserve the only thing of note was that I flushed a Woodcock, very top corner of the reserve close to the railway bridge

John Mason

..........and another scarce moth

Heysham Obs
This time the jumbo-sized early-season 'micro', diurnea fagella.  Definitely under 10 records for here, but MapMate may not include all of them with micro recording being a bit haphazard in the early years

Birds I'm aware of included the Czech-ringed Med Gull (should be off for the summer in the next two days, on previous form) and 9 (ringed) Twite at the feeder. 

Other birds from the North Harbour Wall:
Great-crested Grebe - 2
Red-breasted Merganser - 2
Eider - 136 in the Kent Channel (62 males at least), 7 in the low tide channel
Black-headed Gull - 73 in the low tide channel (mostly adults), 35 in the harbour (no adults), 10 behind the ferry (mixture)
Herring Gull - 29 on the roof of one of the buildings
Lesser Black-backed Gull - 4 pairs on the above building plus at least 22 birds on the Centrica building.
Turnstone - only 1 seen
Bar-tailed Godwit - 19 south of the wooden jetty
Grey Plover - 1 over
Rock Pipit - 1
Pied Wagtail - 1 at the sand plant  and 1 due north (vis).
Robin - 1 at the feeding station.

Other
170 Pink-footed Geese heading towards the Lune from the by-pass area at 0715hrs

Northbound Grey Wagtail

Moorhen have struggled at bit on HNR in the last few years, perhaps a product of foxes regularly accessing the main wetland area.  The increase in water level, coupled with rotational reed clearance has led to at least three adults being seen recently - here are two of them.  Thanks Janet  

Heysham Obs
A very short morning visit saw an adult Med Gull on  the north wall in resplendent summer plumage and a Grey Wagtail heading purposefully north over HNR at 1000hrs

Unringed Blue (2) and Great Tit were caught in a very short ringing session, indicating 'new' birds are starting to pass through.  The Greenfinches, however, were behaving like a "resident" net-shy gang, perhaps surprising for early March, when there is usually quite a bit of 'through-put'