Below par for the conditions but seawatching a bit awkward

Heysham Obs
A day when it would have been useful to have the north harbour wall back for car-seawatching

Sea at various times
Little Gull - at least 8 adult and two 1CY
Kittiwake - Just the one 1CY!
Razorbill - perhaps the same 1CY off the harbour mouth
Guillemot - minimum 15, 4 in the inner harbour
Med Gull - at least one adult
Wigeon - 3 'out' on seawatch
Red-throated Diver - one out
Great crested Grebe - c5 out, 3 inshore

The wrong kind of very wet

Heysham Obs
Awful today with a rubbishy southerly gale and driving rain.  The highlights were a three figure Teal count from Middleton and the dizzy heights of 14 Mallard on there.  Yesterdays inshore Kittiwakes had completely vanished.  Some pics from Sandra and John yesterday off Ocean Edge:




Middleton/Ocean Edge (thanks Malcolm)
Teal - 116
Mallard - 14
Gadwall - 5
Tufted Duck - just 7 left
Snipe - 9
Little Egret - 3
leucistic Bar-tailed Godwit Ocean Edge

South harbour area
Med Gull - 2 adults
Guillemot - 4 (3 in, one just offshore)
Just a few Goldfinches seen in very brief visit to feeder

Winter seabird selection

Heysham Obs
Unfortunately the best site for sheltered seawatching at the moment, now most of the north wall is closed to cars, is from the harbour entrance, including by Gate 38.  However you sacrifice field of view and about 250m of distance for shelter and that caused a bit of a problem with the morning's highlight

Little Auk - what was presumed to be this species was seen twice with a 40 minute gap between sightings presumably related to being brought into the bay by the tide and flying and landing again with the process repeated.  Therefore it was seen flying 'out' twice but presumably floated in unseen on the rough sea.  The second view was relatively good with a Guillemot for direct comparison and comprised a small 'whirring' thing with fast 'flickering' of light and dark which "didn't seem to have an obvious bill" and was perhaps too small for even a Puffin.  Hopefully it can be completely nailed by someone in the next few days
Razorbill - First winter in the harbour mouth, then appeared to fly out
Guillemot - at least 25, including a gang of 11 close inshore and 3 in the harbour
Little Gull - flock of 5 adults and a single 1CY
Kittiwake - 47 offshore, two in the harbour and one on the outfalls, biggest flock 17
Red-throated Diver - 6 sightings on the incoming tide, minimum of 3 seen
Great-crested Grebe - 11 sightings on the incoming tide, at least 3 individuals
Med Gull - single adult

No finches seen

N Harbour Wall  09.30 - 11.30
The feeding site was half flooded this morning and partly washed out. A few finches flew up from the area on arrival. Some work on the site with pick and shovel has hopefully created some channels to divert the water. Fresh seed put down (in very strong wind) brought back a larger mixed flock of c50 Goldfinch/Linnet.  I was not able to identify any Twite owing to the conditions causing watering eyes and buffeting bins!
ajd

Wet watch from the wheel

Heysham Obs
A big black cloud which had been 'hovering' offshore decided to make a move as I was waiting for the incoming DFDS ferry.  Just missed the incoming Stena prior to that.  Decent number of birds in tow, including a lot of large gulls, but nothing startling

Harbour area, south side 0930-1015
Med Gull - 3 adults
Guillemot - 3 by the waterfall, at least one offshore
Little Gull - adult 'out'
Kittiwake - adult behind ferry
Goldfinch - 10 in the willowherb area

Friday 20th December

Heysham Obs
2 Ad Med Gulls around the harbour/outfalls, 2 Guillemot offshore

Just one or two finches north wall and no obvious food left at lunchtime (per Pete)

Winter Moth in the trap

Wild and woolly continuum

Heysham Obs
The trouble with this wild weather is that the wind direction is not staying consistently westerly and there are too many breaks to get a decent collection of waifs in the harbour and around the outfalls.  Some seawatching early on showed some promise and there may be long enough spells of a westerly element to produce some stuff in the next few days. 

Coastal sites 0845-0945, including 30 minutes seawatch from Red Nab area
Med Gull - 3 ads harbour & one later in afternoon on Heysham 2
Little Gull - 1CY battling against the wind about 500m out and getting nowhere!
Kittiwake - 1CY with Black-headed Gulls on water off outfalls, adult behind ferry
Guillemot - at least 10, possibly 15
Red-throated Diver - one 'out'
Goldfinch/Twite/Linnet - 49 around seed area - at least 7 Twite and at least 23 Goldfinch
Song Thrush - masochistic wintering bird still in sandworks on north wall
Meadow Pipit - one Red Nab area

More Jack Snipe but no Black Redstart

Ocean Edge

Low pressure and wind meant the tide was a lot higher than the 9.32 it was supposed to be.

The salt marsh was almost fully covered at 10.45, with almost an hour of the tide to run.

34 Snipe plus 2 Jack Snipe counted.

Middleton NR

A Little Egret, 40 teal, 3 little grebe, 3 snipe, one meadow pipit

No sign of Black Redstarts in very windy conditions.

Both Black Redstarts together!

Heysham Obs
This implies a pretty sizeable assumption that the male at Red Nab/Ocean Edge is also the same one frequenting the north harbour, which is perhaps a rather excessive circuit!

Ocean Edge foreshore/Red Nab (thanks Malcolm for locating this stuff)
Jack Snipe - 2 at high tide forced off saltmarsh
Snipe - 47 at high tide as above
Black Redstart - adult male and female between Red Nab and the far end of Ocean Edge western shoreline - seen on and off (especially the male) until at least 1415hrs when both observers left site

Heysham NR late afternoon circuit
Goldcrest - 2
Water Rail - one along stream by dipping pond
Chiffchaff - collybita type calling in NE corner of marsh

North Harbour Wall
Feeding area monitored continuously from 09.00 to 11.30.  Approx 17 'finches' (including one Twite) present at first then much coming and going with composition of flock changing until near the end of the period the following were present:

Twite - 9 including 3 Blue/Red and two White colours. Possibly these 'extra' birds displaced from Ocean Edge saltmarsh area by the rising tide.
Linnet - c18
Goldfinch - c18

Plus:
Mistle Thrush - 2
Dunnock - 2
Robin - 2
Starling - 9
Feral Pigeon - 2
Kestrel - 1

Large numbers of Oystercatcher and Knot flying round towards Middleton at 11.30, displaced from roost on the heliport by another thoughtless dog walker.

The other Black Redstart again!

Heysham Obs
The female type Black Redstart appeared again for a short time at Red Nab mid morning. 

Red Nab and area
Little Egret - 1
Black Redstart - female type
Meadow Pipit - 3

Middleton
Snipe 2, Moorhen 8, Tufted Duck 10, Pochard 1, Gadwall 6, Mallard 2, Teal 14+, Coot 2, Mute Swan 2+7

Ocean Edge saltmarsh
Snipe - 18

Dog-walker ignorance

Heysham Obs
Unfortunately one of the best high tide roosts for a bit on the heliport was largely cleared by a gentleman with a ginger and white dog and a large black dog.  When he saw me at the end of the seawall, the dogs were put back on the lead and he scurried away through a rather large hole in the fence.  Therefore he was obviously completely aware of what he was doing, yet obviously just didn't care unless someone was perceived to be about to have a go at him.  There are loads of dog walkers in this area and many of them (as per conversations) appreciate the spectacle provided by the heliport roost and avoid the site.  Why do a small minority have to be ignorant?

North wall etc
WeBS count but the best was the male Black Redstart for a very short time mid-morning before heading towards the edge of the harbour and lost from sight
Med Gull - 4 adults
Red-throated Diver - one 'in' (thanks Jeff)
Guillemot -at least 7 including two in the harbour
Twite - 6 but very little food left mid-morning (& 2 Linnet, 6 Goldfinch)
Golden Plover - a single on the heliport seawall was very unusual
Knot - 2,200 heliport but flushed out of the area
Oystercatcher - peak of 6,500 heliport but most flushed off

Red Nab and area
Wigeon - 81
Meadow Pipit - 1
No sign of this Black Redstart

Middleton model boat pond
The usual three Little Egret, male Pochard, c10 Tufted Duck