Heysham one outfall soup kitchen pulls in the terns

Plenty of singing birds today (thank Janet)

Heysham Obs
Everyone's 'eggs were in the seawatching basket' this morning, when the much reduced wind did not get up as anticipated until after 0800hrs and landbird coverage might have been a better option for some of us, plus early morning mist nets.  Even more difficult than yesterday to count the terns and the figure of c500 could have been an underestimate by at least 200, based on perceived numbers on the outfalls which 'melted away' instead of flying north-east over the sea.  In this respect, one gang of 17 Arctic Terns flew inland over Ocean Edge during a brief visit; no chance of logging these from the north harbour wall

North harbour wall 0615 onwards
Arctic Tern - c500 during the morning stint with many flying inland and overland to the south of the harbour, therefore very difficult to keep tabs, especially as many were lingering on Heysham One outfalls which seemed to be churning out a lot of invertebrate soup! A further influx early afternoon involving about 200 birds and 110 were still on the outfalls when observers left mid-afternoon
Marsh Harrier - ad male-'type' (in the absence of close views and feather scrutiny) flew rather laboriously low over the sea NE at 0706hrs (just east of Clarke's wharf sandbank)
Med Gull - 2CY with 'blackish' head - surprisingly the first for a few days - didnt linger
Black Tern - one lingering on the outfalls and area for at least 2 hours and almost certainly another with a further influx of Arctic terns early afternoon
Common Tern - one-two Heysham one outfall
Common Scoter - 8+16 distantly
Gannet - one on/over horizon!
Whinchat - male by centrica
Swallow - c50 NE
House Martin - 1 NE
Sandwich Tern - just one offshore and 2-3 on a buoy
Greenfinch - one overhead was rather unexpected this late
Red-throated Diver - one in
Willow Warbler - one singing by Gate 38 in SD35Z!

Heysham Nature reserve
Wheatear - 2 by office & one north wall & 2 Ocean Edge
Garden Warbler - singing male by obs tower pond 0800hrs

Red nab
Dunlin - 670
Whimbrel - 12 (also 9 flying NE north harbour wall)

Arctic Tern feeding station

Heysham Obs
Same weather, different behaviour by Arctic Terns this morning and a bit of a nightmare to count!  However, the plus side was excellent views had by all, as birds often fed very close to the north harbour wall, even in the harbour entrance.  Apologies if anyone turning up for an 'event' felt neglected (as per 0700-0900 LDBWS site advert) - there were so many birders around, it wasnt possible to be certain what 'category' people were in!  There was also very little 'instruction' required as it was a choice between very close Arctic Terns, even closer Swallows and not a lot else.

North harbour wall
Arctic Tern - at least 990 passed through, with counting stopped for over an hour whilst a "pool" of up to 500 birds fed in the channel between Heysham one outfalls and Heysham Head, with some backtracking.  Many of these birds headed overland above Heysham Barrows/Head, confirmed by Tony from a birdless JBP where the highlight was Mike Harding in a camper van!
Arctic Skua - l/im in at 0850hrs, dm out 0945
Gannet - 4
Sandwich Tern - c13 only
Common Scoter - c60 distant birds in at least two groups
auk spp - one
Red-throated Diver - one in, one out
Swift - 1 in - first of year for here
Swallow - minimum of 234 in by 0930hrs
House Martin - 4 out
Whimbrel - 1
Mute Swan - 3 in
Linnet - 3 in
alba Wagtail - 1 in

Red Nab
Dunlin - 790 - all in summer pluamge & a very high count for there
Ringed Plover - 22
Whimbrel - 14
Curlew - 7
Oystercatcher - c270

Spectacular!

Heysham Obs

Heysham north harbour wall to 0545-1130hrs
Arctic Tern - 3,133, including 120 which flew inland over the 'wheel' and headed NE and another two flocks behaved similarly later in the movement
Little Tern - 1 in with the first big lot (302) of Arctics at 0620hrs
Common Tern - one blogging
Arctic Skua - 1 dm 0555hrs, one dm late morning and 2 distant probables (one lm) - probably the four seen off Rossall
Gannet - 5
Sandwich Tern - very few, just 15 seen
Common Scoter - 9, but little observation early on of the usual distant line
Red-throated Diver - just 1
Whimbrel - 13
Swallow - just 18 north

Heysham N Reserve area
Pheasant - 'the' male flew down the road ahead of the car at 30mph

Mammals
Grey Seal early morning, 2 Harbour Porpoises near high tide

Moths
Shuttle-shaped Dart (2) new for the year

Arctic Tern passage in full swing....and a 'large dragonfly'!

A very early 4-spotted Chaser at Middleton this morning (thanks Janet)

Heysham Obs
At lunchtime, Janet indicated that she had just photographed a large dragonfly at Middleton!  "Unfortunately" this turned out to be by far the earliest ever record of 4-spotted Chaser for this area, not the hoped for Hairy Hawker or 'ridiculous' Vagrant Emperor long-shot.  Pic later.  Good coverage this morning by Pete Cook, John & Nick from 0600 to about 0945hrs.  Decent numbers of Arctic Tern with many on a close-inshore line, but others a long way out and some may have been missed along this line.  An accompaniment of four Arctic Skua was par for the course

North harbour wall 0600-0945 & three short sessions pre-1330hrs
Marsh Harrier - what was probably an imm male flew high to the north-east 'over' the sea at c1100hrs, gradually getting closer to this side.  Almost missed due to height!
Arctic Tern - 543 'in' (not 453 as per pager!), largest flock 64
Arctic Skua - one early on, one about 0800hrs and two together about 0830 (the latter were, on timing, not those seen off JBP) - all dark morph heading 'in'
Sandwich Tern - c12 in/blogging
Common Scoter - 10+4+16 out
Gannet - 3 in
Swallow - at least 104 in, many missed as they flew through the inner wooden jetty gap and then through the harbour!
Linnet - 6 in
alba Wagtail - 4 in

Ocean Edge foreshore
Dunlin - 360
Grey Plover - 38 with 7 in full summer plumage
Whimbrel - just one
Mallard - pair Red Nab

Middleton NR
4-spotted Chaser photographed at lunchtime.  Azure damselfly and Blue-tailed damselfly both seen singly during mist-net ride maintenance

Elsewhere
No terns visible from JBP pre-0930 but two different (on timing) dark morph Arctic Skua passing through together (up the Kent estuary).  After seawatching had ceased at Heysham, there was a trickle of Arctic Tern (c30) and an influx of Arctic Skua with a further 7 individuals (3 light morph) giving a total of 9 for the morning

Terns and blue seas

Selection of breeding or prospective breeding birds at Middleton NR the last three days (thanks Janet)

Heysham Obs
So the Ocean Edge advertisement is accurate!  The sea was bluer than I've ever seen it off here this morning with presumably not a scrap of turbulence and sediment in flat-calm conditions on a gentle neap tide and low feeder-river levels.  Rather like overhead vis mig, the blue didnt help when trying to pick out birds flying past, the large Arctic Tern flock was nearly missed!  Was anything missed earlier in the morning?  Sometimes it appears that Walney and Heysham are on different planets, even in clear conditions when in theory you can see "anything that flies into the bay past Walney".  They had 42 Red-throats, including a flock of 13 flying into the bay and no Arctic Terns in just about the same hour as us (0715-0815).  On the seaward side, a double-figure count of Manx S.

North harbour wall & Ocean Edge 0730-0900
Arctic Tern - flock of 64 in, then gaining height at 0735 (what was missed prior to this?)
Sandwich Tern - 'dribble' in, totalling 39 individuals, largest group 5
Sand Martin - one NE, the only hirundine seen!
alba Wagtail - 3 north
Linnet - 2 north
Dunlin - 27 Red Nab
Turnstone - 138 wooden jetty
Purple Sandpiper - one wooden jetty

Moth
Scalloped Hazel new for the year

Seemingly mortified migration bar one highlight

Heysham Obs
No early morning coverage today - the enthusiasm has waned in these blocking north-easterlies.  Having said that, it was calm enough for some stuff to have slipped through and as a possible indication of this, the seawatch included what was probably the start of a reasonable hirundine passage

Sea 0715-0815
Long-tailed Duck - Male in partial summer plumage flew in, then landed on sea towards SJ
Common Scoter - 9+5 out, very distant
Gannet - one out, even more distant
Turnstone - 104 on outer section of wooden jetty
Purple Sandpiper - one as above
Swallow - 31 north, including loose 'flock' of 26 & 15 in next hour or so
House Martin - one north
Linnet - 2 north over the sea
NO terns seen during the first hour, but 3 Sandwich tern blogging during the next hour

A few seabirds when the north-easterly kicked in

Heysham Obs
An early morning run round & token seawatch didnt take long to convince that this calm morning was pretty well rock bottom as regards any obvious migration.  However, coinciding with the north-easterly kicking in, the sea livened up a bit for Mike Baron after a patient birdless hour

Sea 0655-0730
Sandwich Tern - 1 in
Common Scoter - 5 out
Turnstone - c185 outer section wooden jetty
Purple Sandpiper - 1, possibly 2 as above
alba Wagtail - 2 north

0825-0930 (after nothing from 0725-0825) (thanks Mike)
2 Kittiwakes (adult & 2cy) in

1 Arctic Tern in
16 Sandwich Terns - 1 in, rest out
1 Red-throated Diver (flew round in large circles)
1 unidentified Skua - distant, very dark bird which tangled with a large gull and then dropped on to sea nr wind farm
1 unidentified auk (prob Razorbill)
6 Swallows north

Mammal1 Grey Seal nr wooden jetty

Ocean Edge 0735-0755
Wheatear - 1
shoreline devoid of any migrant waders

Moths
A worn Brindled Pug (see comments for two days ago) and the first of the migratory Diamond-back Moth for the year highlighted a small catch

Common Scoter head the meagre haul

Heysham Obs
Sea intermittently 0600-0830
Common Scoter - 23+9+18 out
Gannet - 3 together out and across
Sandwich Tern - 21
Arctic tern - flock of 16 'in' distantly 0615hrs
Kittiwake - 2CY on sea, then 'out'
Mute Swan - 3 in, one out
Whimbrel - 2
Meadow Pipit - 2 north
alba Wagtail - 1 north
Swallow - 8 north
Purple Sandpiper - one
Turnstone - c250

Miscellany
Greylag - two blogging at Middleton (also over HNR yesterday)
Dunlin - 320 Ocean Edge foreshore
Common Sandpiper - one by Heysham 2 outfall

Moths
A really good candidate for Ruddy Highflyer on wingshape, resting position and what markings are visible on this melanistic specimen.  The only known regular Lancashire site for this species. Flame Carpet also new for the year

Seemingly 'nothing'

Heysham Obs
Earlyish morning observers report nothing flying overhead, just 7 Sandwich Terns on a short seawatch and c4 birds in the mist nets, including 2 Lesser Whitethroat and one Common Whitethroat

Anyone visiting Middleton NR in the next few days, watch out for large dragonflies - the ultimate long-shot [c/f Vagrant Emperor influx into at least southern Europe - unfortunately the winds are not ideal].  Filling the daily post with this sort of waffle is hopefully infrequent, but the weather synopsis over the next 3-4 days looks rather poor for numbers, as opposed to a few, of grounded migrant passerines, but 'might' produce a few Arctic Terns.

Any assistance covering the sea gratefully received as the tide cycle starts to creep round to the favourable early morning 'incoming' [the usual observer, Jean Roberts, is not available this week]

Moths
Fairly impressive, with Brindled Pug possibly new for this site, as the previous records (last 2001) look like they need a "review" date-wise, and Common Pug extremely early.  Dark-barred Twin-spot carpet and Brown Silver Line kicked off their seasons

Threadbare patchwork

Heysham Obs
Office area dawn onwards to about 0830hrs
Tree Pipit - 3 north
Redpoll - one north
Meadow Pipit - 7 north
Linnet - 5 north
Goldfinch - 16 north
House Martin - one north
nothing grounded due to the 'blocking' cold front which arrived too early in the night, with just single Willow Warbler and Whitethroat ringed, ironically in "perfect" conditions c/f yesterday

Sea 0715-0730
Sandwich Tern - 3

Middleton NR
Grasshopper Warbler - at least 4 singing males
Reed Warbler - 2 singing males western marsh

Moth trap
Highlighted by single Golden-rod and Oak-tree Pugs, now "easy" to identify thanks to Brian Hancocks superb articles! [Link from the Lancs Moth site]