Pre-dawn coverage

Heysham Obs
Pretty lively pre-dawn this morning, including catching and ringing four Lesser Redpoll in the dark - hadn't had these on the 'night-migrant' radar.  Coverage guillotined at 0830 due to work - plenty of Redwing, a few Brambling and Fieldfare, no moths.

Pre-dawn by the office
Redwing - 162 grounded but only one caught - counted as they flew inland from the tank farm - odds and ends casually seen later but no time
Lesser Redpoll - a bit surreal.  Whilst sitting by the office in the dark listening to Redwing, at 0715hrs, I heard a redpoll calling.  Pure laziness had led me to switch on a Redpoll MP3 by the nets to save going back in daylight and four were sat in the net by 0720hrs!  Definitely vis mig droppers, not ex-local roost.  Also surprising was that only one was subsequently seen/ringed when daylight arrived
Fieldfare - 25 pre or just after dawn
Grey Wagtail - another call in the dark and then again just as it was getting light - surely a 'wintering' blogger?
Brambling - 6+3+4+1 south-west in about a 2 minute spell just as it there was enough light to see them
alba Wagtail - 5
Meadow Pipit - 4?+ (at least 2 of these in the dark!!)
Chaffinch - 27 SW
Song Thrush - 2 east at dawn
Chiffchaff - one calling at dawn
Goldcrest - not one heard or seen pre-0830 (or afterwards)
Goldfinch - 3
Raven - 1+1 high to south just as it was getting light
Woodpigeon - 6 SE

More rubbishy medium-high cloud

Heysham Obs
Almost relieved when I saw the rubbishy clear but cloudy weather at dawn today as had so much work to do!  A few early morning thrushes and a miniscule scattering of Goldcrest = the grounded stuff.  Overhead was more productive, especially Pink-feet

Vis mig until 0930, then very on and off (S-SE unless stated)
Lesser Redpoll - 5 (4 ringed)
Meadow Pipit - 17
Redwing - 124
Grey Wagtail - 2
Fieldfare - 3
Chaffinch - 16
Goldfinch - 6
Mistle Thrush - 1
Greenfinch - 8 (NONE on feeder!)
alba Wagtail - 5
Pink-footed Goose - 250N, 20S, 140N, 10S, 70N
Carrion Crow - 1
Bullfinch - 4+2+1
Woodpigeon - 3
Coal Tit - one irruptive flock of 5

Grounded
Highlight of the walk round was meeting another moth trapper, Justine, who had set an overnight actinic.  Absolutely dead bird-wise apart from 12 Blackbird, flock of 5 Song Thrush, one Chiffchaff and four Goldcrest

Moths
The actinic produced Dark Chestnut, Epirrita, 2 Large Wainscotand a Mottled Umber.  The hut produced a Silver Y, Light-brown Apple Moth, Red-line Quaker and Pink-barred Sallow

Butterfly
Speckled Wood in the eastern woodland
 

Still a bit too clear

Heysham Obs
Nice to meet photographer David Millward and coloured pencil artist Jo Goudie today who are heavily involved in the Machrihanish twite ringing.  Jo has re-vamped the Machrihanish website and it can be accessed at the moment via: colouredpencilart.co.uk/msbo

Bird-wise this morning was a little disappointing, although par for the course once the uniform medium-high cloud and clear visibility across the bay was evident.  This seemed to suppress vis without producing a vast amount of grounded stuff.  However, its usually day 2 after the big east coast fall, so tomorrow is hopefully 'game-on'

Vis mig until about 0930
Redwing - 122
Woodcock - one flew over the office and landed in the wood by the pylons just before dawn
Chaffinch - just 6
Meadow Pipit - 8
Blackbird - 12
Starling - 29 south
Lesser Redpoll - 6 (3 ringed)
Bullfinch - one high to south, at least one other 'grounded'
Fieldfare or Mistle Thrush - 6 high in the sky to the east, heading north
Greenfinch - low single-figures only
alba Wagtail - 1
Linnet - 2
Goldfinch - just 12
Rock Pipit - 1

North harbour wall
At least one Twite and a Rock Pipit

Grounded migrants
Redwing - c10
Song Thrush - 5
Blackbird - 25
Chiffchaff - 1
Goldcrest - at least 3
Brambling - one Heysham head

Moths
Much better: Large Wainscot, 2 Feathered Thorn, Feathered Ranunculus, Silver Y, Epirrita spp, 5 Red-line Quaker and a Pink-barred Sallow

The day before it all happens?

Heysham Obs
Coverage limited to intermittent vis mig and a few mist nets by the office (thanks John) due to work.  A Twite-ringing session took place on the north wall with the site inundated by Goldfinch.  Quite a 'finch' morning with the notable exception of Chaffinch which saw very few on vis mig.

Vis mig intermittently to 1100hrs
Redwing - 19
Lesser Redpoll - 11
Goldfinch - 13
Starling - 600 ex-roost
Chaffinch - 11
alba Wagtail - 2
Meadow Pipit - 29, including flock of 14, most mid-morning
Coal Tit - no obvious movement - just two unringed singletons
Mistle Thrush - 1


Grounded
Goldcrest - 3 new ones
Blackcap - one caught pre-dawn
Chiffchaff - one by office mid-morning
Very few thrushes grounded first thing (e.g. none ringed)


Late afternoon circuit of the reserve
Brambling - flock of 9 headed south
Redwing - dribs and drabs over, about 15 in total
Chiffchaff - one by dipping pond
Goldcrest - 2 in NE corner
Blackbird - c20 grounded

Ringing
New birds: Twite (7), Coal Tit (2) Greenfinch (11), Lesser Redpoll (9), Goldfinch (19), Dunnock (2), Goldcrest (3), Coal Tit (2), Chaffinch (1), Blackcap (1), Blue Tit (2)

Moths
No Saharan migrants - just Red-line Quaker, Pink-barred Sallow and Light-brown Apple Moth and a Silver Y seen in the field

Plane-spotting day

Heysham Obs
Too clear this morning and this led to boredom and messing about with an 'app' which revealed one of the 'northbound' planes was heading for Orlando and another, just to the west, for Mexico.  Very poor vis mig this morning and an almost unbelievable situation where NO Redwing were recorded, either pre-dawn or subsequently overhead!  Highlighted by a flock of Rook and Jackdaw and a few Lesser Redpoll.  A few new Coal Tits were caught this morning, but in dribs and drabs, not sizeable irruptive flocks

Vis mig on and off to 1000hrs (S/SE unless stated)
Bullfinch - 1 (and one unringed bird caught)
Mistle Thrush - 1
Lesser Redpoll - 12 (4 ringed)
Carrion Crow - 4+2+2+1 high to south
Meadow Pipit - 21 (including 11 in-off on north wall)
Rock Pipit - 3 in-off together on north wall
Chaffinch - only 8 recorded but the only bird caught was bearing someone else's ring! (Y868 sequence)
Woodpigeon - 4+6 high to SE
alba Wagtail - 7
Siskin - 1
Pink-footed Goose - flock of 15 north
Goldfinch - c15 SE
Jackdaw - flock of 58 eventually high to SE
Rook - 5 with above

Grounded
Meadow Pipit - 17 already grounded on north wall (plus the 11 in-off)
Rock Pipit - 2 on north wall (plus 3 in-off)
Song Thrush - at least 8 at or just after dawn
Blackbird - c10 at or just after dawn
Chiffchaff - one round office (caught and ringed)
Goldcrest - one mound, one sandworks, four new ones on reserve
Coal Tit - 12 unringed birds caught
Great-spotted Woodpecker - unringed bird caught
Blue Tit - one unringed bird caught
Great Tit - one unringed bird caught

Ringing
A bit slow, but 30-odd new birds eventually ringed, including 12 more Coal Tit

Moths
Feathered Ranunculus was late

Snapshot coverage

Heysham Obs
Dawn was not very promising with a niggling southerly and medium-height cloud spilling in from the west, prompting a decision to get on with a pressing workload.  Coverage of the reserve was limited to a few mist net rounds and associated snapshots of vis which seemed to increase mid-morning as the skies cleared to the north.  The outer circuit of the reserve was lapped late afternoon

Grounded Heysham NR only
Single-figures of Redwing, Song Thrush and Blackbird
Chiffchaff - 2 in north-east corner, one high in the canopy by the entrance gate, the latter with an interesting rather soft and 'feeble' call (but not tristis), but only offering silhouette views
Goldcrest - small influx with 8 ringed and about 6 in the NE corner
Robin - two unringed birds caught

Extra bits and pieces of vis mig from mist-net rounds 
Grey Wagtail - 1
Skylark - 2
Meadow Pipit - 12
Redwing - 25
alba Wagtail - 5
Lesser Redpoll - 2
Linnet - 3
Goldfinch - 27, including flocks of 11 & 7 high to SE
Siskin - heard once
Bullfinch - 1 high to south
Pink-footed Goose - 63 N
Greenfinch - at least11 high to S

Vis at Heysham Head 0740-0920
Grey Wagtail - 2
Skylark - 1 heard.
Meadow Pipit - 9
Redwing - 4
alba Wagtail - 4
Linnet - 4
Goldfinch - 16
Siskin - 1 heard
Pink-footed Goose - 475 N, 90 SE
Greenfinch 6
Chaffinch - 57
Brambling - 1
Numbers and species very similar to the Nature Reserve over the same time period.  Difficult to say whether they are the same birds, more likely just indicative of the rates per hour. Some birds arrived over Heysham Head from the east and then, on reaching the sea, circled trying to decide which way to go.  Some went along the coast, others went SE.  Other birds arrived from the NW and continued SE.  Some were just coming down the coast. 
No obvious grounded birds.

North Harbour Wall
Goldfinch 26 (mostly ringed), Twite 3 (1 unringed), Robin 2, Meadow Pipit 8 grounded, local Pied Wagtail family (mum, dad and the kid).

Ringing
15 new Greenfinch confirmed the impression that new birds were passing through today, 8 Goldcrest, just four Coal Tit with no obvious flocks on the move, 2 Goldfinch, 2 Robin (one quite orange-breasted & grey, the other very christmas cardy), 1 Song Thrush, 1 Blackbird

Moths
Epirrita spp and a Silver Y.  2 Silver Y and a Small Tortoiseshell on the yellow buddliea yesterday

Varied vis and mid-morning tits

Heysham Obs
This morning 'evolved' into quite a reasonable one after a poor start where useless uniform cloud cover at 'medium height' knocked any dawn thrush arrival on the head.  The rest of the morning saw gradual clearance to 'fine, sunny with light winds' by 1100hrs.  Interesting to note the different behaviour by two Coal Tit flocks where the birds were released together (after ringing) to try and retain the 'irruptive flock mode'.  The first was caught when the cloud cover was prominent, the second as the sky was virtually cloud-free.  The first lot just trundled into the nearest bushes and ambled their way south, the second lot circled up and within 10 seconds of release were at 'top of pylon height' and heading off noisily to the south-east.  Justification indeed for a strict protocol re-releasing these birds together instead of in dribs and drabs as they are ringed.

Vis mig dawn to about 1000hrs with a few bits thereafter
Meadow Pipit - 17 SE
Chaffinch - 182 SW
Lesser Redpoll - 4 SW
Brambling - 2 SW
alba Wagtail - 17 SE
Grey Wagtail - possibly the same off-passage bird seen twice
Starling - flock of 10 S
Mistle Thrush - 2 SW
Carrion Crow - 3+2+1 high to south
Goldfinch - 43 S
Redwing - 93 SW in dribs and drabs, no double-figure flocks!
Woodpigeon - 4+2 high to SE
Pink-footed Goose - 12+4 SE
Linnet - 3 SE
Skylark - 10 SE
Song Thrush - 2 SW
Greenfinch - at least 38 SW
Tree Sparrow - 4 together S
Siskin - flock of 25 SE
Jay - 2 S
Coal Tit - at least 16 migrants
Long-tailed Tit - 10 unringed birds were retained and released together along with two 'locals' caught at the same time - headed off to the south
What was probably a Snow Bunting was heard twice high to the west but it obviously isn't being claimed

Grounded
Hardly anything, so two Chiffchaff a little unexpected
Song Thrush - c10
Blackbird - much reduced on yesterday - 10-15
Chiffchaff - two newly arrived birds caught and ringed
Blackcap - one female ringed
Goldcrest - only two seen and both caught and ringed

Ringing
Expensive!  New-ringed stuff:  Goldfinch (45 plus a control), Long-tailed Tit (10), Coal Tit (16), Chiffchaff (2), Redwing (2), Song Thrush (1), Blackbird (1), Chaffinch (3), Bullfinch (1), Goldcrest (2), Greenfinch (10), Dunnock (1), Blue Tit (7), Blackcap (1), Linnet (2), Twite (5).  Goldfinch control was D057 sequence = pretty recent.

More south-easterly and a different package of migrants

Heysham Obs
Love this time of year if you have just a bit of time pre-work.  With or without scarcities, each morning has a different character, sometimes a negative 'clear out', unfortunately the latter usually 'perfect ringing/staring at empty motionless nets' weather.  This morning was dodgy for ringing as per forecast, but would have been quite manageable and productive on the evidence of the wander round.  As is often the case on Thursday, I was a lone observer (with limited time) and plumped for a bit of bush coverage/'mobile' vis migging as opposed to mist nets by the office

Vis mig 0800-0930 (first half hour concentrated, final hour whilst on the prowl)
Great-spotted Woodpecker - in the right place to see one coming 'in-off' and heading high to SE
Chaffinch - 78 SW
Meadow Pipit - 5 SE
Jay - flock of 5 high to south
Coal Tit - more 'cascading from the sky' birds - 2+17+27 heading south after dropping down once
Long-tailed Tit - 3 flocks, two of them 'fast moving' single species with unringed birds (6+8) - suggesting birds in transit which had not gathered an entourage
Siskin - heard once
Reed Bunting - 1 S
alba Wagtail - 16 SE
Goldfinch - 21 SW
Greenfinch - 45 SW
Redwing - 51 SW (largest flock 32)
Snipe - 4 together S
Linnet - 5 S
Starling - flock of 15 S

Grounded
The LTT flock below the obs tower (assuming the same) was accompanied by single Blue and Great Tit and just one Goldcrest.  No sign of yesterdays YBW but a lot of the habitat is out of bounds if it has 'settled' somewhere
Chiffchaff - 2 together NE corner (both unringed)
Song Thrush - notable increase with at least 25 grounded
Blackbird - at least 30 grounded
Redwing - a slightly late arrival so may have missed dawn birds heading inland but 'only' 10 located grounded this morning
Goldcrest - just 6 located - scattered around
Treecreeper - 2
Water Rail - first of the autumn in the marsh
In addition a tack call coming from the reedbed bushes could not be identified and the bird fell silent (sounded like Blackcap)

Moths
Mottled Umber was new for the year

Yellow-browed Warbler at last!

Heysham Obs
Arrival at Heysham NR saw a cessation of the driving rain, a few Redwing calls, a note of the east of south wind and a search of the sheltered areas below the observation tower, some of which are within the licensed nuclear zone and cannot be advertised as public access.  The Yellow-browed Warbler was at the base of a path which has had to be closed due to an unsafe boardwalk and imminent removal of the old Observation Tower.  Apologies for having to use the "no general access" phrase on the pager, but there is no way round it for this area until the observation tower is taken down and the access track down to the Power Station made safe.  YBW found during about the 101st hour of searching during the potential arrival period so far this autumn!

Grounded
Yellow-browed Warbler - a bright individual seen for about 15 seconds at c0830hrs with a small tit flock below the observation tower - it seemed to move towards the old quarry but may have crossed the road into a copse within the power station area as the flock could not be relocated after a quick dash back to the office.  No calls heard definitely ascertained to be this species but there were quite a few Coal Tit scattered around.  However the brightness of the plumage seemed to rule out Hume's.  No further sign by 1030hrs
Goldcrest - c10, including gang of 8
Redwing - perhaps 25 grounded
Blackbird - 25-30 around - definite arrival
Song Thrush - 5+ grounded
Chiffchaff - one NE corner

Heysham Head - St Peter's Churchyard and surrounding trees/scrub
Mega habitat - should be compulsory to check this area on east winds - like next week?  Totally sheltered
Crossbill - two south
Meadow Pipit - 3 south
Chaffinch - 13 south
Blackcap - male
Chiffchaff - ordinary-looking one
Goldcrest - 3
the lower three species with a LTT flock

Vis mig
Grey Wagtail - 1 but may have been off-passage
Lesser Redpoll - 1E
Reed Bunting - 1S
Brambling - at least one SW
Chaffinch - c30 SW
Meadow Pipit - 5 SE
alba Wagtail - 6 SE
Goldfinch - flock of 11 SW
plus grounded thrushes flying inland

Windy webs and disrupted waders

Heysham Obs
A completely different morning to many recently, indeed since the last time we tried to run a coastal event!  This time we didn't cancel and the people who didn't turn round and go home were treated to a wader spectacular in the car park at Potts's Corner!

Webs and other coastal birds
Little Gull - a 1CY on the outfalls, joining the long-staying adult
Med Gull - 5-6 1CY outfalls, 2CY and at least one ad north harbour wall
Kittiwake - 1CY outfalls
Ringed Plover - 21 Ocean Edge, 13 heliport
Turnstone - exactly 60 on Ocean Edge grass, c10 on heliport
Pintail - 19 'out'
Auk spp, probably Razorbill - 10 out (3+7)
Linnet - 17 on seed north wall
Goldfinch - 22 on seed
Twite - one Ocean Edge saltmarsh edge (none seen north wall)
Oystercatcher - 5,500 heliport