The last of the flat calm mornings for a bit?

Heysham Obs
Excellent ringing conditions this morning but bits and bobs rather than masses of birds.  For example, the 'ticking Robinometer', a good indication of any action on past form, was registering zilch at Heysham NR office at dawn - the bushes were silent

Ringing
80 new birds included a smattering of warbler species: 2 Sedge, 4 Chiffchaff, 4 Lesser Whitethroat, 3 Whitethroat, 8 Willow and 2 Blackcap.  Also ringed were 2 Grey Wagtail, 30 Greenfinch (over 300 in a month!) and 5 Robins, all of these appearing mid-morning when some dark clouds materialised

Vis Mig
Swallow - 54 SE
Tree Sparrow - 2 SE
Grey Wagtail - c7 SE
Meadow Pipit - just 4 SE (no Tree Pipit)
Carrion Crow - 4 east

Moths
A pretty decent catch included Toadflax Pug, Frosted Orange, Copper Underwing, a late Bordered Beauty and 17 Treble Bar

The north-westerly fails to slacken

Heysham Obs
I used to look forward to fresh-strong north-westerlies whilst pioneering Ramore Head in the early 1970s with Dave Melville and Liz & Steve Harris, but they are absolutely useless for Morecambe Bay.

Heysham Office
A short ringing session before the wind reached twice the forecasted strength included a Whitethroat and Willow Warbler

Outfalls/Red Nab/Ocean Edge
Med Gull - 5 juv/1st W, 4 adult and single 2CY
Little Gull - 2CY and ad
Good numbers of waders reported - all rather distantly along the tideline to the south, including Bar-tailed Godwit

Moths
Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing highlighted a surprisngly good catch

Another Medfest

Heysham Obs
Decent coverage of the outfalls area by Mark and John saw a decent count of Med Gulls

Outfalls/Red Nab early incoming tide
Med Gull - 7 adult (including German-ringed AHTJ), 7 juv/1st W, 1 2CY, 1 3CY
Little Gull - adult and 2CY
Sandwich Tern - 1

Half Moon Bay
Wheatears - 2

Moths
Not a lot with nothing more exciting than Garden Rose Tortrix!

Seagull day

Heysham Obs
Ocean Edge/Red Nab/Outfalls/cursory glance at the sea
Med Gull - at least 9 possibly 10 juv/1st W, 4 adult and 2 3CY.  Note how scarce 2CY Meds have been this autumn - we are well aware of the pitfalls of misageing due to misreading the moult!
Little Gull - 2CY and Ad
Kittiwake - 2 in the region of the incoming IOM ferry
Gannet - 2 out at 1100hrs
No terns

Early afternoon - Just after high water
Heliport
Wheatear - 2
Kittiwake - 1 juvenile
Half Moon Bay
Wheatear - 2

Moths
Highlighted by a brown-tailed female Yellow-tail!  Also V Pug, Acleris emargana, Rhomboid Tortrix

Too dismissive of this morning?

Heysham Obs
North-westerly winds mean lie-ins, checking moth traps and getting on with "paperwork".  However, this early morning was initially not windy, possessed a heavy cloud & shower or two and should have been 'given the works', especially with all the big grey warblers, which turn up in light north-westerlies, dotted all over the northern isles

Ocean Edge/outfalls area
Sandwich Tern - 3
Med Gull - 3 juv/1CY and at least 2 adult-types
Wheatear - 2
Little Gull - ad & 2CY

Half Moon Bay - Early evening
Wheatears - 4
Moths
Tawny-speckled Pug (or 3/4 of one - missing a hindwing) was the third of the autumn - a minor revival for what is now a scarce moth.  Also the first Grey Chi of the autumn.  A pristine Clay was unexpected (and double-checked!) and there was another Agriphila geniculea

Nice morning of routine migrants

Heysham Obs
North harbour wall
Black Redstart - seen first thing but not sure about later on
Wheatear - 6
Shag - one reported on pager!

Heysham & Middleton ringing
Steadyish with 78 new birds and the following 'new' migrants:  Blackcap (4), Lesser Whitethroat (4), Willow Warbler (13), Whitethroat (7), Tree Pipit (1), Chiffchaff (2), Sedge Warbler (just one).  Robin (2) and Dunnock (3) were at least 'dispersing'.  'New' finches included Greenfinch (11) and Goldfinch (10)
There was obviously a small fall of Willow Warbler as these have been in short supply over the last few days

Vis mig
Swallow 200 from 0915hrs - 1015hrs over Middleton Ind Est
House Martin 25 in the same time period
Tree Pipit - 2 (in addition to one caught)
Grey Wagtail - just 2 heard plus one over Middleton IE
Pied Wagtail - 1 over Middleton plus 12 grounded at Ocean Edge and at least 7 on the North Harbour Wall
Sand Martin - one south NHW between 0900 and 0945

Outfalls/Ocean Edge/Red Nab
Sandwich Tern - 21 (split between Red Nab and the gull flock south of OE)
Med Gull - 3 juv/1CY Red Nab and 4 distant ad/3CY in the above gull flock
Little Gull - ad & 2CY
Grey Plover - 375 in with mixed flock of 310 Knot and 240 Bar-tailed Godwit but birds mobile
Wheatear - 2 at Red Nab plus 5 along the North Harbour Wall
Linnet flock of 50 at Ocean Edge may be part of the 70 seen on Middleton IE

Black Redstart and a Wall

Heysham Obs
North harbour wall

Thanks for these Janet

A 1st S male Black Redstart along the north harbour wall near the Centrica storage yard from 0930ish. 

Also seen in the early afternoon and showed well in the region of the Twite feeder.  Prior to this it was singing from the top of the nearby 'tank' favoured by the winter Twite flock. It then reappeared late afternoon (see pics)

Its presence inspired a wander around the back of the old sandworks and, whilst admiring the wealth of pioneering vegetation, which will surely include some sand-dune specialists in the near future if it is left, a Wall Brown flitted past - the first that I am aware of in the Heysham area this year and a major rarity in the mainly maritime SD36!

Wheatear - one

Ocean Edge/Red Nab after the tide
Gulls too far offshore in heat haze
Sandwich Tern - 8
Wheatear - 2

Heysham NR office area
A ringing session in rather too sunny conditions saw 30 'new' Greenfinch (where do they all come from!) and only one retrap, 2 Whitethroat (& at least 3 others around), one Lesser Whitethroat, one Coal Tit and a handful of Goldfinch and Blue Tit

Grey Wagtail - 2 SE
No other obvious vis this morning

Vis mig trickle but few grounded birds

Heysham Obs
Decent number of Tree Pipit by our standards this morning but little else other than an individual of our 'rarest common wader', Golden Plover, overhead

Heliport
Wheatear - 1 by Helipad late morning.

Middleton NR 0600-0930
Tree Pipit - 7, mainly SE, but one on NE to SW heading
Golden Plover - one south
House Martin - flock of 7 south
Swallow - 35 SE after 40-50 lifted out of roost in the western marsh reedbed
Grey Wagtail - 2 SE
Reed Bunting - 3 lifted off and headed SE soon after dawn, 2 further singletons SE
Chaffinch - 3+2+2 high to south
Hardly anything grounded with unringed summer migrants in the CES nets comprising one Sedge Warbler, 2 Chiffchaff and 2 Blackcap, but it was a bit too sunny for catching birds at this site (plenty of cloud, but in the wrong place!)

Most of the Sedge Warblers have left Middleton although you sometimes get small arrivals of presumed Scottish migrants in early September (and there are still plenty at Leighton Moss).  Thanks Janet

Ocean Edge/outfalls at low tide
Med Gull - juvenile

HNR CES
Summer migrants ringed comprised 2 Blackcap and a Chiffchaff

Half Moon Bay 8pm
Wheatear 1

Moths
A few decent bits and bobs including Rhomboid Tortrix and a couple of V-Pugs

Should have been here earlier?

Heysham Obs
Nice weather synopsis this morning with a light easterly wind and cloud cover.  Simultaneous arrival by two observers at 0900hrs led to a bit of coverage and a scattering of migrants

Heysham NR office & area
Two nets were erected and kept under constant observation in case the cat materialised.  This involved setting up a temporary ringing station.  A decent variety with 6 species of warbler caught, but no great numbers.  Ringing: 4 Whitethroat, single Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff, Lesser Whitethroat, Sedge Warbler, Chaffinch, Dunnock, Robin, 13 Greenfinch, 2 Blue Tit.  Retraps included two Blackcap.  No sign of cat or alarm-calling suggesting it was around

There were quite a few 'ticking' Robins around and the one trapped was 'migrant weight' at 15.5grms

A Reed Warbler was seen by the dipping pond

Red Nab/Ocean Edge at low tide
Med Gull - 2 x adult and one x juv
Little Gull - adult

Evening (6:30 - 7:30pm)
Three sites checked for Wheatears:
Heliport = 3
Half Moon Bay foreshore = 9
Heysham Head foreshore = 0 (lots of visitors about)
One adult male. rest female/juvenile (MD)

Moths
A bit more exciting with an Old Lady, the first autumnal Treble Bars, Canary-shouldered Thorn and Tawny-speckled Pug

Hobby whizzes through

Heysham Obs
A fair-weather session at Middleton seemed to hold the possibility of a little bit of vis mig and maybe an opportunity to ring some Tree Pipits.  In the event, there were no Tree Pipits, Grey Wagtails or any of the conventional 'clear sky & getting near end of August' vis other than a few Swallows and two Meadow Pipit.  Instead, the 'vis' was unexpectedly highlighted by Tree Sparrow and Hobby.  There were also more grounded warbler species that might reasonably have been expected, so it wasnt a bad morning

Middleton NR 0545-1100hrs
Vis
Hobby - one had a dart at a flock of Linnet/Goldfinch before heading SE.  Not possible to age it on the views obtained
Tree Sparrow - 2 followed by 3 headed SE
Meadow Pipit - 2 together SE
Swallow - no more than 10 SE
Chaffinch - flock of 3 SSE
Grounded birds
Ringing produced the following new unringed birds: 6 Blackcap, 6 Whitethroat, 1 Lesser Whitethroat, 2 Sedge Warbler and 2 each of Willow Warbler & Chiffchaff.  A few tits and finches were also caught, including another juvenile Bullfinch.  Getting on for 50 new birds, with retraps surprisingly including 3 Sedge Warblers which were thought to have long gone.

Its been a pretty decent year for warbler species at the Obs as shown by the ringing totals which are well above-average for here (in the case of Blackcap and Chiffchaff ...'for this early in (their later) autumn passage').  Havent got the exact figures to hand: Whitethroat (c130), Lesser Whitethroat (c45), Grasshopper Warbler (c44), Willow Warbler (c175), Blackcap (c70), Sedge Warbler (c160), Chiffchaff (c40), Reed Warbler (c20)

There was also a mixed flock of Linnet (c60), Goldfinch (c45) plus a few Greenfinch and Chaffinch 

Moths
An unexpectedly sizeable catch of mostly rubbish but including Agriphila latistria at one of its few known sites, the first Angle Shades of the autumn and a high total for here of 12 Sallow