Twite marking time

Heysham Obs
North harbour wall
Twite - 6 still around the food (3 unringed)
Linnet - 2 with above
Wheatear - 1
Little Gull - 2 distant adults the only things seen on 30 min seawatch 1000-1030hrs

Ocean Edge/outfalls
Common Gull - 220+ but nothing of interest seen with them
Wheatear - 2

Blogging distant Bonxie and inshore seagulls

Heysham Obs
North harbour wall
Bonxie - one distantly blogging, then sat on the sea
Kittiwake - flock of 7

more later

Ocean Edge
Influx of Common Gulls & 2 Meds on to the shore:
Common Gull - at least 224 (5 adults)
Med Gull - 2 unringed 2CY
Black-headed Gull - 88

Elsewhere
Very short window of ringing/vis weather at Higher Thrushgill saw 12 'new' Lesser Redpoll caught (one bearing a ring from elsewhere) and a flurry of birds heading north-east ahead of the approaching cloud:  16 Brambling (leaving just 2-3 in the plantation), 11 Chaffinch, 4 Linnet, 8 Siskin, 37 Meadow Pipit, 5 Redpoll, 3 alba Wagtail,  2 Fieldfare, 4 Goldfinch (0715-0745), then it completely died-off as the cloud reached overhead with just the occasional Meadow Pipit in strengthening wind.  Two singing Willow Warbler Ashleys Farm plus the solitary House Martin

A few more seabirds

Heysham Obs
The following were seen by Mark Prestwood early morning
Arctic Skua - 2
Kittiwake - 35
Common Scoter - 1
Red-throated Diver 1

Vis
Meadow Pipit 5
On the ground
Twite 6, Linnet 1, Meadow Pipit 3, Pied Wagtail 2


Elsewhere
Probable Iceland Gull immature flew south over the upper Hindburn with 5 LBBG mid-morning.  c10 Brambling, 4 Fieldfare, but no sign of any Mealy Redpoll Thrushgill (17 'new' Lesser Redpoll ringed & about same number of retraps).  Family party of Crossbills seen again (2 juvs being fed) and at least another 10 individuals around.

Superb summer plumaged male Snow Bunting heads north

Grounded Meadow Pipits have been a regular feature on the 'mound' in recent days (thanks Janet)

Heysham Obs
Nice morning's birding, Jean!

North harbour wall
Red-throated Diver - 6 out
Bonxie - one in at 0910
Arctic Skua - two dark morphs in at 0920
Gannet - 4 in, 9 out
Common Scoter - one in
Fulmar - one out
Kittiwake - 3 in
Snow Bunting - full summer plumaged male flew low to the north at 0950hrs just as the sky cleared, almost certainly lifted off the Twite feeding area
Linnet - 4 north
Wheatear - one
Meadow Pipit - 6 north
Twite - 13

Elsewhere
'Fall' of 5 Chiffchaffs Thrushgill, but no sign of yesterdays pale redpoll which was probably a very pale Mealy, but unfortunately avoided capture/scrutiny.  Big clear-out of migrant finches here in the afternoon (52 Lesser Redpoll, 1 Mealy Redpoll and 4 Lesser Redpoll with other people's rings on were caught yesterday in an old 18 foot Bridport net which was just about sheltered enough!)

Early morning bits on the sea

Heysham Obs
North harbour wall 0735-0835
Little Gull - gang of 5 adults blogging, then gradually moved towards the windfarm
Pochard - 2 males 'in' - very unusual here!
Pintail - pair 'out'
Red-breasted Merganser - flock of 5 out
Red-throated Diver - 2+4 out, last group very high, one 'in'
Linnet - 3
Meadow Pipit - 2 grounded

14.30
Twite - 6 (1 unringed)
Linnet - 3 with  twite.

Ocean Edge/outfalls 0840-0855
Common Gull - 43
Black-headed Gull - 75
Meadow Pipit - 16 grounded
Wheatear - just one

Middleton NR
Little Ringed Plover - male on newly scarified area model boat pond, then flew towards sewage wotks

Mammal
Grey Seal off north harbour wall

Skua kick-start

Heysham Obs
Traffic problems led to a short belated spell of seawatching after 0915hrs

North harbour wall intermittent 0915-1330hrs
Twite - at least 15
Bonxie - one rose from the sea and flew NW into the murk at 0925hrs
Gannet - 5 out, one in
Sandwich Tern - one out
also an almost certain Ad Little Gull glimpsed at long range & 3+ probables even further out!
Wheatear - one mound

Ocean Edge area
Wheatear - just one
Common Gull - 41, mostly 2CY

Routine murk

Heysham Obs
North harbour wall (one hour of vis)
Offshore visibility virtually nil
Twite - 15
Wheatear - 1
Meadow pipit - 27
Goldfinch - 7
Redpoll spp - 3
alba Wagtail - 5
Grey Wagtail - 1

Ocean Edge/Red Nab/outfalls
Wheatear - 12
Med Gull - 2CY with Common and Black-headed Gulls
Common Gull - c35
Black-headed Gull - c60

Heysham NR 0730-0930
Willow Warbler - one ringed
Chiffchaff - at least 2 migrants
Meadow Pipit - 91 NE
Linnet - 5 NE
alba Wagtail - 4 NE
Collared Dove - 2 NE
Goldfinch - 5 NE
Redpoll spp - 1 NE & 2 (& 3 Siskin) off-passage in alders

Moth
Diurnea fagella new for the year

Early Willow Warbler and 14-0 to the south side

Heysham Obs
In the days when we had a couple of mist net rides at Red Nab (now too disturbed) there were some days when migrants were pouring in there, but very few indeed on the main nature reserve until an hour or two later (and in much smaller numbers as the birds dispersed).  On other occasions, the north wall and heliport areas produced the goods with very little at the "south end".   A belated check of Ocean Edge produced 14 Wheatears and 47 grounded Meadow Pipits and, just to check whether the late morning drizzle had produced any on the north side, the heliport/north wall was re-checked.  Zero. 

North wall 0745-0930
Red-throated Diver - different ones in and out
Red-breasted Merganser - flock of 6 out
Purple Sandpiper - 2 on seawall
Twite - 15 (6 unringed)
Meadow Pipit - 66
alba Wagtail - 5
Redpoll spp - 12
Linnet - 3 plus 4 on the seed
No Sandwich terns or Wheatears

Heysham NR 0800-0930
Meadow Pipit - 42
Redpoll spp - 16 (ALL as the nets were being set, far too late!)
Willow Warbler - one ringed
Redwing - one
Song Thrush - probable migrant flew high inland
Goldcrest - 3 (2 ringed)
Ringing a bit of a disaster as the batteries gave up on the Meadow Pipit tape after 20 minutes and I arrived too late after a misunderstanding!

Ocean Edge foreshore (1230hrs)
Wheatear - 14
Meadow Pipit - 47
Pied Wagtail - 5

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