Lingering fronts suppress the vis mig flood

Heysham Obs
Considering this was 'the' big chance for birds to be on the move after a spell of inclement wind/low cloud, the early part of the morning was a major disappointment with heavy cloud to the west, north and east seemingly blocking a lot of potential vis mig and also not producing much in terms of grounded birds.  Late morning, the cloud lifted and the birds really piled through between 1030 and at least midday when coverage ceased

Vis mig first light-1200; rather intermittent and disjointed coverage for about an hour mid-morning 
Lesser Redpoll - 2
Greenfinch - at least 49, but difficult to separate from grounded birds
Chaffinch - 336, but grossly underrecorded during the early morning
Grey Wagtail - 2
alba Wagtail - 87
Goldfinch - 17
Reed Bunting - 4 (14 ringed at Middleton)
Skylark - 19 & one 'lot' heard
Meadow Pipit - 106, mostly in the last 1.5hrs
Siskin - 11 and three flocks heard but not seen
Crossbill - 5 (flock)
Bullfinch - 2
Carrion Crow - 3
Fieldfare - 8 at 1050hrs, 27 at 1155hrs (NO Redwing!)
Dove - one very high to south.  In retrospect, not happy with the original posting as Collared and the rather tapered appearance of the tail brings the possibility of Turtle Dove into the equation (very high silhouette was the only view available)
Linnet - just 2!
Brambling - a flock of 6 "with" the second lot of Fieldfare contained at least two (& probably all) Brambling
Swallow - 1

Grounded (no activity at HNR other than around the office/obs tower area)
Goldcrest - 6 ringed at Middleton, 4 ringed at HNR - many fewer than expected
Chiffchaff - one 'brownish' individual ringed which was giving the strident 'swee' call, at least two others giving normal collybita calls.  One ringed Middleton
Treecreeper - one ringed
Blackcap - one ringed
unstreaked Acro - dont get too excited - this was almost certainly a juv Reed Warbler - it was seen to fly into a mist net, then promptly escape giving 'Reed Warbler calls' and exhibiting a noticeable gingery hue to the plumage.  Flew into the 'tank farm'.
SongThrush - at least 5

Middleton & Heysham NR ringing
In addition to the Goldcrests and Chiffchaff mentioned above, the following were also ringed at Middleton: Reed Bunting - 14,  Long-tailed Tit - 10,  Wren - 2, Robin - 1, Great Tit - 3, Blue Tit - 3.   Heysham NR ringing produced 50ish new birds with most of them after 0930hrs with Chaffinch (18) and Greenfinch (19) making up the majority.  Other birds included Dunnock (1), Blackcap (1), Chiffchaff (2), Goldcrest (4), Goldfinch (2), Song Thrush (1) with the rest being Blue and Great Tits

Outfalls
Adult Little Gull (thanks Jeff)

Moths
Rusty Dot Pearl and an Epirrata highlighted a small catch

Event wash-out

Heysham Obs
Shame about the weather front this morning - started raining at dawn and didnt stop until lunchtime.  Visitors persevered in soaking conditions for rather limited fare

Redwing - 2 at dawn
Chiffchaff - at least one reserve
Goldcrest - at least 2 reserve
Little Gull - adult and adult-type Red Nab
Wheatear - one north harbour wall
Linnet/Twite - c20 north harbour wall but very flighty

Moths
Two Parsnip Moth the best of a routine small catch

Knot a lot

Yes, a lot of Knot and a lot of other waders in a mixed mass of at least 10,000 seen distantly on Middleton Sands.  I'll leave Garry to sort them out on Sunday's WeBS count!

Ocean Edge
500 Dunlin flew to Ocean Edge to escape 3 huge dogs frolicking along the water's edge at Middleton Sands. In amongst the Dunlin was a lone Sanderling.
3 Little Egrets appeared late afternoon in the saltmarsh channels.
An adult Mediterranean Gull flew over.
At 15:05hrs a flock of 70 Pink-footed Geese flew south.

Outfalls
Little Gull - adult seaward end Heysham One & 'adult type' (probably 2CY minus dark tips to primaries as per underwing tone) inner end of Heysham 2 late afternoon
Mediterranean Gull - 2 adults and 1 x 1CY

Goldcrest
One in the bush by "Gate 38" - first record of Goldcrest for SD35Z?!

More seawatching mediocrity but a decent midday ferry haul

Heysham Obs
Persistence just about paid off........
North harbour wall 0800-1130hrs; Red nab x 2 brief visits
Leach's Petrel - 3 out at by 1100hrs (0815,0900,1100)
Arctic Tern - 3 x juvenile, 2-3 tern spp, probably Arctic, out
Gannet - one out and possibly the same one behind the ferry.
Common Scoter - one in then out again.
Wigeon - 4 out, 7 Red Nab
Kittiwake - 26-30 behind IOM ferry, 15+ 1CY
Little Gull - probably the same wide-ranging adult
Med Gull - 2 adults and at least one 1CY - one of adults the Czech-ringed bird
Kingfisher - one along the inner north harbour wall
Twite/Linnet - mixed flock of 21 but very mobile (at least 9 Linnet)
Ringed Plover - 17 on heliport, 16 Ocean Edge beach

Grounded
Goldcrest - one by office, 2 NE corner of reserve
Chiffchaff - one by office and a brownish individual with a shrill call in the NE corner
Siskin - one off-passage by office
Song Thrush - 2 possible migrants the only remote evidence of any thrush passage here

Moths
Included Feathered Thorn (new for the year) and another Large Wainscot

Unexpected Leach's followed by more predictable afternoon bird in deteriorating weather

Heysham Obs
A routine coastal check after examining the moth trap, therefore no sense of expectant urgency, actually produced a Leach's Petrel on the first sweep at 0915hrs!  A subsequent 45 mins & two later sweeps along the wave troughs produced nothing else

Offshore
Leach's Petrel - one slowly 'out' 0915-0920 about yellow buoy range.  Presumably this bird seen coming out of the bay as observed from Rossall Point a little later. As the weather deteriorated="improved" during the afternoon, another was watched for 10 minutes at 1600hrs (thanks Mike, Sue and Andy)

Inshore/behind IOM ferry
Little Gull - adult
Med Gull - adult and 2 x 1CY
Kittiwake - 1CY

Grounded
3 Meadow Pipit, 6 Linnet and 8 Twite (one red/white right leg cr)

Moths
A "two-nighter" produced a good haul, but was unfortunately exotic-migrant-free.  Brick and two Large Wainscot the best on offer

If its a blank, its usually a Saturday!

Heysham Obs
Apologies for the lack of coverage today, one of those things and in tradition with the poor coverage (or poor notable-bird finding rate) north Lancs seems to experience on a Saturday, despite it being the weekend

Not even the moth trap was checked, despite Palpita vitrealis in a nearby Morecambe trap.  What will tomorrows 'double-catch' bring after a night of mild south-westerly drizzle and the nationally-publicised migrant influx still presumably hovering around, at least in part?

John just had time to top up the north harbour wall feeding station where there were 6 Linnet. 

The IOM ferry golden touch!

Heysham Obs
After a very routine operation covering the tide cycle on the south side, preceded by a wander around the mound area, a break between counts allowed the incoming IOM ferry to be perused..........

IOM ferry arrival from north harbour wall
Sabine's Gull - juvenile behind the ferry c1215hrs, then lost behind the outer section of the wooden jetty and distracted by:
Brent Goose - almost certainly dark-bellied - two flew 'in' quite close inshore, but fumbled around before finding them in the scope & whilst the bellies looked dark, the angle of observation was a bit 'tail-on'.  Then then lifted the scope off the window & noticed:
Shag - juvenile on the sea below the north wall, then flew up the bay towards the stone jetty as the ferry entered the harbour
Then tried to relocate the Sabs & couldnt find it - presumably it had flown back out along the boat channel line
Kittiwake - 2 1CY behind the ferry
Med Gull - see below
Vis mig by the office 0715-0730
Chaffinch - 14 SW
Greenfinch - 5 SW
alba Wagtail - 2 SE

Vis mig etc north harbour wall 0745-0815
Meadow Pipit - 41 SE
alba Wagtail - 12 SE
Wheatear - 2 together
Med Gull - 4 adults & 3 1CY (later seen following the ferry into port) - one of the adults was the Czech-ringed bird
Little Gull - adult dip-feeding in the harbour mouth

Ocean Edge/Red Nab etc
Little Stint - at least one juvenile with 1,500+ Dunlin

Insects
At least 3 Red Admiral and two Small Tortoiseshell around the office.  Brick was a notable record in the moth trap

Mersey winds arrive too early

Heysham Obs
As suspected, the best winds for us were during the night and the day dawned with winds which were just too far round to the north-west at WWNW (despite assertions on all forecasts that it was "west").  Seawatching therefore a waste of time unless you are into Shelduck passage.  However, its supposed to go more west or even WSW prior to the afternoon frontal system...........but there is no tide.  After the front, firmly in the north-west

Outfalls/Red Nab
Little Gull - adult
Med Gull -Ad
a Dunlin was grovelling around the edge of a puddle on Ocean Edge grassland trying to look rare at a distance

Harbour mouth area late morning/IOM ferry
Med Gull - 1 x ad (large bird, not the one on Red Nab earlier), 3 x 1CY
Little Gull - 1CY far offshore
possible Leach's petrel glimpsed twice far offshore (or black wing-shaped flotsam)
Kittiwake - ad-type and 2 x 1CY behind IOM ferry
Pink-footed Goose - c36+6 SW over the sea, c42 SW over the harbour
Cormorant - 63 on wooden jetty (Shag have been very scarce this autumn so far & none recently)
'Comic' Tern - thought to be an adult Arctic seen offshore about 0945hrs

Butterflies
2 x Red Admiral & 1 x Speckled Wood seen in sheltered bits of HN reserve

Mammals
Grey Squirrel along Moneyclose Lane

One of an excellent sequence taken by Janet on Middleton NR

The "preparation" day for tomorrow's seabirds?

Heysham Obs
A possibility of some Leach's action tomorrow, although I would have preferred the  cold front currently going through a little bit later on in the night.  We'll see & post any stuff pretty sharpish.  I'm just not sure where they all are at the moment with little evidence of any numbers anywhere on this side so far this autumn - have a lot of them already sneaked south post-Katia, pre-this latest lot?  No doubt the north-westerly on Friday will give the answer in the Mersey mouth if tomorrow up here does not work out

Token gesturing today with little confidence in a first (proper) day of wind producing anything

Outfalls/Red Nab
Med Gull - adult & 1CY
Little Gull - adult

Reserve
Chiffchaff - 2

Moths
No exotic migrants in the Heysham trap but the catch included a surprising revival of Black Rustic (5), which seemed to have tailed off for the autumn, and a Large Wainscot

Autumnal unpredictability

Heysham Obs
I didnt set my most productive moth trap last night (courtesy of Val at Millhouses) as 'it was too windy from the west as opposed to anything with south in it'.  Cue one of the best migrant moth nights ever in Lancashire (Ni Moth, Scarce Bordered Straw, Bordered Straw, Vestal from two traps I have heard about!). 

Similarly, a glance out of the window at dawn, notably the swaying branches on the oak tree, seemed to suggest extra sleep was in order as the only obvious consideration was "you dont get seabirds on the first day of an autumnal blow"!  An hour later, whilst checking the home moth trap (best migrant 'yet another' Rusty Dot Pearl), it was immediately apparent that there was a lot of "surprising" vis mig happening.  A phone call to Jean Roberts.........but she was already in position on Caton Morr at the start of a 2,000+ Meadow Pipit movement in a F4 gusting 5 westerly cross-wind.  I decided to do a sample vis mig, followed by a sample seawatch at Heysham:

Vis mig 0900-0930
Chaffinch - 57 SW
Meadow Pipit - 14 SE
alba Wagtail - 9 SE
Goldfinch - 5 SE
Siskin - 10+c13 SE
Reed Bunting - one calling from bushes
Greenfinch - 9 SW

Grounded
Chiffchaff - at least two
Wheatear - one Ocean Edge beach

North harbour wall 0935-1005
Eider - flock of 15 offshore
Razorbill - 2 out - quite close inshore
Meadow Pipit - 32 SE
alba Wagtail - 8 SE
Linnet - 5 SE & 6 on the mound

Ocean Edge/Red Nab/Outfalls most of the rest of the day
Curlew Sandpiper - one with a flock of 550 Dunlin, most of which were out of range as regards detailed check & CS was picked up in flight with the nearest group
Med Gull - 3 different adults at various times, including one which followed a freight ferry to the green buoy before flying back offshore.  At least one mobile 1CY
Little Gull - just the one seems to be left - the adult