Time for a Sandwich before Ospreys appear

Heysham Obs
Here is some of the stuff from a pretty good morning, ringing data will be added tomorrow

North Harbour Wall 0745-1030
The first Sandwich Terns of the year appeared - 17 in total.  Probably more but the sea fret made even the ones seen a bit blurred round the edges. 
0855 - ALL the gulls went into a mad panic and the culprit, an Osprey, was seen heading in the Morecambe direction.
This was the second Osprey of the morning as one had flown over the Nature Reserve 15 minutes earlier and had headed in the direction of the Lune (per Alan).

Vis:
Meadow Pipit - 108 (the vast majority flew over between 0900 - 0915)
alba Wagtail - 7
Linnet - 3
Goldfinch - 1
Greenfinch - 3

Grounded (mound area):
Wheatear - 6 (4 arrived between 0900 and 0915)

Other:
Purple Sandpiper - 1
Twite - 8
Mute Swan - 1 on the sea

The first Swallow for here seen by Janet on Middleton NR today


Elsewhere
150 Brambling (with many singing), Mealy Redpoll (an 'obvious' bird seen very well), 35 Lesser Redpoll, c18 Crossbill at Thrushgill plantation this morning, but only small numbers visible from public right of way. Visitors are requested to park in one of the laybys between Botton Mill and Lower Thrushgill, rather than drive through all the sheep and new-born lambs strewn across the 'open' road between Lower Thrushgill and Higher Thrushgill


Osprey over Arkholme at 1410hrs, perhaps the same bird an hour or so earlier at Lloyn Bridge

Wasted sleep

Heysham Obs
A classic early morning waste of time as a barrier of murk to the south blocked all migration bar a faint dribble of Meadow Pipit.  A few started to move as it gradually cleared.

Office vis
Meadow Pipit - 59 north in 3 hours (8 ringed)
alba Wagtail - 6 north
Goldfinch - 3 north

North wall
vis not worth writing down!
Shelduck - pair hovering offshore (eyeing up the rabbit burrows on the mound)
Twite - just 10
Linnet - 3
Purple Sandpiper - 2 

A cocktail of fresh north-easterly, brambles and superfine nets

Heysham Obs
Wind a bit fresher than forecasted and a horrible direction for ringing activities here.  Nets taken down at the first availability of someone to help me do so (thanks Jean).  Quite a few Meadow Pipits on the move but not a lot else in weather which was also clearer than forecasted

Heysham NR office area vis/grounded 0700-0830
Coal Tit - unringed bird headed off north
Dunnock - one unringed bird caught
Meadow Pipit - 279 north (about 20 minutes of coverage missed) [6 ringed!].
Redpoll spp - 1 north
Chaffinch - 4 north
Goldfinch - 8 north
alba Wagtail - 2 north
Goldcrest - one grounded

North wall early morning
Red-throated Diver - 7
Turnstone 84
Twite - 8 on seed

Meadow Pipit - 48 NE
Redpoll sp - 2
alba Wagtail - 6 NE
Linnet - 4 NE

Ozone-layer vis

Heysham Obs
A well-recorded day, which was more like late April than late March, with post-hibernation butterflies everywhere. An attempt was made to catch spring passage Meadow Pipits by the office and this sufficed to indicate just how many were up there in the bright blue sky and how difficult it was to count them in traditional vis mig fashion.   The use of a tape saw an absolute minimum of 300 grounded.  This comprised a running total of birds feeding in the short turf next to the office, before heading on their way.   Spring birds seem to respond to taped song rather differently to those in autumn.  They land in very spread-out fashion, have a bit of a feed, then head onwards.  There is no concentration around the tape, as happens with (mainly young) birds in autumn.....and they are harder to catch for ringing.  8 ringed out of c300 landfalling!

Vis mig north wall 0700-1040
Meadow Pipit - just 110 (see above)
alba Wagtail - 28
Skylark - 4
Reed Bunting - 1
Goldfinch - 7
Linnet - 6
Greenfinch - 1
Siskin - 3
Redpoll spp - 3
Sand Martin - 1
Rock Pipit - 1 (vis bird, not the resident)

Grounded
Dunnock - singing male on the mound!
House Sparrow - new species for both SD36V and 35Z (single on the mound first, then south wall)
Rock Pipit - resident apparent petrosus-type still here
Red-breasted Merg - 12 offshore
Great-crested Grebe - 5 offshore
Eider - 65 offshore
Purple Sandpiper - one wooden jetty (just 59 Turnstone seen pre-high tide)

Ringing by office
Meadow Pipit - c300 grounded, 8 ringed
Chiffchaff - 2 ringed
Lesser Redpoll - 3 ringed
Goldcrest - one heard

Middleton NR
Common Snipe - 8 flushed from small area

Mammals
One Grey Seal offshore

Insects
Small Tortoiseshell - at least 6 round the office area & 20+ Heysham Head.  Comma - one Heysham Head. Brimstone - one at each of Heysham head, Middleton and Heysham NR.  The moth trap was good, despite a clear night, with TWO more Twin-spot Quaker (the ones this year so far are the 2nd-4th records, with the only previous being in 2006), a Red Chestnut (rare here, with none apparently since 2002 and about 6 previous records) and another Shoulder Stripe

Six of the best

This looks like its had six of the best.  Rather tame and scrawny fox taken by Janet at Middleton late afternoon (thanks Janet)

Heysham Obs
An initiative which unfortunately only reached the planning stage may have cost us a nice addition to the ringing list if the birds had decided to emulate Adam and Eve.  The scenario at 0655hrs was a flock of 6 Waxwings sat in a hawthorn behind a double mist-net set at the feeding station.  The "initiative" which failed was to stick some apples on the branches, in case Waxwing return passage materialised.....................  After a bit of trilling, they headed off towards Heysham Head, dragging a single Redwing in their wake

North wall 0630-0800
Too clear with a trickle of vis:
Pied Wagtail - 12
Meadow Pipit - 13
Linnet - 3
Grey Wagtail - 1
Chaffinch - 1
Siskin - 1
Greenfinch - 2
Redpoll sp - 2
Woodpigeon - 2 flew "in-off"
Red-throated Diver - 2 in and 1 on

Feeder: 33 Twite
Low tide channel: 121 Eider, 8 Red-breasted Merganser, 4 Great-crested Grebe.


Office area 0645-0930
Meadow Pipit - 113 NE (most of these only seen due to tape/ringing)
Reed Bunting - 2 NE
Siskin - 2 "lots" heard only plus a singleton north
alba Wagtail - 11 NE
Goldfinch - 14 NE
Waxwing - flock of 6 NE at 0758hrs
Redwing - one grounded then NE with Waxwings
Wren - unringed bird trapped
Bullfinch - unringed female trapped - a real surprise
Chiffchaff - seemingly one local bird and 2-3 males passing through by office (one ringed)
Goldcrest - zero past the office early on but two calling in the NE corner (thanks Pete) and one appeared by the office mid-morning

Middleton NR
Jack Snipe - 2 in the afternoon (& 5 Snipe), 5 Tufted Duck, sitting Mute Swan

Moths
Shoulder Stripe a predictable new addition to the year list

Foggy vigil

North Harbour Wall

Standing on the edge of the harbour from the North Wall, the fog was so thick that the harbour couldn't be seen!  Yet it was clear as a bell at Trumacar Stores! The Nature Reserve, Ocean Edge and anywhere west of Middleton Road was shrouded in thick fog. However, standing on the North Wall between 0650 to 0850 I was unaware of the clear conditions just a short distance to the east.

Vis (!)
Pink-footed Goose - 55 going round in circles at the coast for half an hour before finally heading off N.
Meadow Pipit - 53 coming in from a north westerly and south westerly direction, landing briefly to grab a bite to eat on the mound and then heading off NE.
Pied Wagtail - 8 NE
Linnet  -4 NE
Goldfinch - 3 NE
Grey Wagtail - 1 NE
Siskin - c5 NE

Grounded
Meadow Pipit - 27 at Ocean Edge.
Wheatear - 1 on the mound.

Other:
Twite - 37
Rock Pipit - 1
Mistle Thrush - 1
Starling - 8
Carrion Crow - 1

A big thank you & farewell to Sean

Heysham Obs

A really nice migration morning would normally have seen me on site from first light with the mist nets up and covering the overhead Meadow Pipits and grounded Chiffchaffs and Goldcrests. Unfortunately in the middle of an equally productive redpoll study and couldn't be in two places at once, with no other ringers/vis miggers available today

Then Sean rang...............his last vigil on the south harbour wall rescued the vis mig monitoring from oblivion. Sean has been fantastic company this last two years as he has been conscientiously recording the flight paths of intertidal birds (and counting Meadow Pipits and offshore divers etc!) in relation to the proposed turbines. Thanks for your company, Sean, and hopefully we will see you again in the near future

So I was able to concentrate on the redpoll ringing without worrying about what was being missed overhead..............and the grounded stuff could be mopped up in the afternoon

South harbour wall
Guillemot - one floated in - at last it opens its 2011 account!
Turnstone - 198 - obviouskly the start of the spring passage
Purple Sandpiper - just the one
Meadow Pipit - minimum of 81 north (noise from boats hampering vis)
alba Wagtail - min of 10 north
Linnet - 2 north - first vis mig of spring
Rock Pipit - the wintering bird still in residence
Twite - 17
Pink-footed Goose - 110 north

Grounded
Goldcrest - at least 8, 7 more than in the whole of last spring!
Chiffchaff - absolute minimum of 6 birds in reserve area
Wheatear - 2 OE foreshore first thing
Goldfinch - 4 ringed at the feeder in the afternoon

Heysham Head
Rock Pipit
male Wheatear

Insects
Brimstone - one by office
Queen wasp spp - as above
Moths excelled themselves with a different Pale Pinion to yesterday and the long awaited first (for me & I dont think there have been any others, but havn't got the full MapMate database to hand) Twin-spot Quaker for the reserve. Common orthosias numbered 21.

Elsewhere
Mealy Redpoll ringed Thrushgill, but no sign (predictably, given the 'through put' of birds) of Sunday afternoon's Coues Arctic Redpoll

Early Thick Mist

Heysham

N Harbour Wall
Twite - 5 only seen on fresh food, all ringed, 21 later (flight only)
Purple Sandpiper - one on wooden jetty
Red-throated Diver - 2 in good late afternoon visibility - far offshore

Moths
The hut trap produced:
Hebrew Character - 1
Common Quaker - 3
Pale Pinion - 1 - second or third record of an increasing species

ajd

Meagre murk

Heysham Obs
Overcast and drizzly conditions did not produce the expected Wheatear but a singing Chiffchaff was making its way along Moneyclose Lane, providing a rather belated first

North harbour wall
Twite - no food, but 6 appeared as soon as some was put down (1 unringed)
Purple Sandpiper - one at the base of the seawall at the harbour mouth - flew over to wooden jetty

Ocean Edge
Meadow Pipit - one north!

Moneyclose Lane
Chiffchaff - singing male (on the move)

Moths
Most numerate catch so far this year of the most predictable fare: 4 Common Quaker, 6 Hebrew Character, 5 Clouded Drab, 3 March Moth

A one Wheatear day

Heysham Obs

Thanks for the Wheatear report via the Greater Manchester website!  One on the heliport.

March Moth, Clouded Drab and Hebrew Character in the trap