Sunday 17th August

Med Gull - c10 juv, at least one adult but conditions awful!

Absolutely nothing on the sea other than 6 Sandwich Terns at low tide just to the north of Heysham Head

1cy med fest 16th August

Heysham obs
Large numbers of Meds around today including 21 1cy and about 10 of older age classes.

Moths included agriphila geniculea

Bits and bobs of early autumnal migration

Heysham Obs


Middleton NR
Bird Fair or CES?  Had to be the CES as there isn't any more suitable weather during the 10 day period for the likes of Middleton on the horizon - no shelter from north-westerlies which are often spiced up over and above the forecasted strength as they come straight in off the sea.  Conditions were well-nigh perfect for mist-netting with no sun until after the CES period and no wind


Mainly due to being dragged around by tit flocks, a fair chunk of the warbler presence at Middleton seemed to end up in the mist nets.  This vast majority of the captures comprised three 'collections', including tits, in a single net on three separate occasions.  The nets were otherwise empty with virtually no resident warblers and implicitly very few 'acros'.  New-ringed birds at Middleton included the following:


Sedge Warbler - only two seen/heard/caught
Reed Warbler - conspicuous by absence - a juv ringed near the end of the session the only evidence
Garden Warbler - one ringed (do not breed here)
Blackcap - 7 ringed
Whitethroat - 6 ringed
Lesser Whitethroat - one ringed
Willow Warbler - 10 ringed
Chiffchaff - 4 ringed
Robin - one post-moult 1CY and one late brood speckled bird


Heysham NR
The Heysham Nature reserve CES produced the star bird of the morning - a Grasshopper Warbler in probably the driest habitat in the area and obviously a migrant


Also notable there was a newly fledged brood of Chiffchaff still in the '1J' stage and four presumed migrant post-juv-moult Robin


Outfalls/Red Nab
Wheatear - 4
Med Gull - 16, mainly 1CY
Little Gull - one adult


Vis mig
Meadow Pipit - one
Grey Wagtail - 3 very early on




Moths
Middleton actinic produced very little but included Brown China Mark and the Heysham NR trap saw a lot of Flounced Ructic and a couple of t.b.i.micros which night be of interest!

Gulls at high tide on the outfalls

Med Gull late afternoon on the outfalls
 

Outfalls minima

Heysham Obs


Outfalls
Med Gull - 7 juvs, 3 ad, 1 2CY, 2 3CY
Little Gull - one ad
Whimbrel - 1


Moth trap
Rusty Dot Pearl x 1

No distractions in a strong north-westerly

Heysham Obs
A cursory glance at the outfalls early on before the useless sunny north-westerly kicked in produced:

Common Tern - ad
Little Gull - at least one, prob two ads
Tern spp - briefly seen very distantly in the main channel, almost certainly juv Arctic but not sure (NOT yesterdays Little without a size c/p)
Med Gull - at least 8 casually noted

Moth trap
An invasion of Agriphila tristella but a bit more interesting was the first Grey Chi of the year.  Amazingly up to date with MapMate records and synches with Graham, our county 'hub', despite running into the thousands of records so far this year.  Don't leave it too late - too much to do all at once at the end of the year if you are an active moth-er, then Christmas intervenes and the wheels come off the documentation - been there done it in previous years.  This would be a shame during the current three year Macro Moth Atlas (2014= year one)

A windswept outfalls visit produces a Little Tern

Heysham Obs
A visit to the outfalls was in order today after a scan revealed a very distant Little Tern -a very rare bird in these parts in especially autumn and a lingerer on the outfalls unprecedented


Outfalls and harbour area 0900-1030
Little Tern - juv on Heysham one outfall throughout
Common Tern - At least one moulting adult and an imm (not juv) Heysham one outfall
Sandwich Tern - ad Heysham 2 outfall
Little Gull - just the one today - the non-obviously moulting ad
Med Gull - 30 - minimum of 19 1CY and minimum of 11 of other ages (2 x 3CY, 2 x 2CY, rest adult or 3CY)

Clouded Yellow at Middleton NR

Clouded Yellow in flight. MNR

Brimstone. MNR

Moth at MNR

Bits and bobs on the sea

Heysham Obs


Red Nab/outfalls at various times mainly incoming tide
Med Gull - 26 (19 1CY, 2 3CY, 5 adult, no 2CY)
Little Gull - 3CY and two adults, one as yesterday, the other with 'no obvious wing moult' at long range
Arctic Tern - juv am
Sandwich Tern - moulting ad pm


Sea 0830-1000
Great Skua - one out
Whimbrel - 4 out
Gannet - 3
Curlew - 650 out

Mist netting in the eye!

Heysham Obs
After a very wet morning in a lightish easterly,  from 1315hrs it was flat calm, high cloud and no sign of any incoming rain.  Put a mist net up for about an hour as there were quite a few warblers around.  The eye must have been very slow moving as we didn't get the westerly hooley on the south flank until about 1700hrs.  Bizarre!

Seawatching tomorrow am?

Outfalls/Red Nab area am
Black Tern - moulting adult flew in and landed on the rocks then sneaked off on the incoming tide whilst I was watching elsewhere
Little Gull - adult outfalls/Red Nab with about half the primary feathers moulted i.e. about 5 old primaries
Med Gull - 9 x 1CY, 2 x adult
Whimbrel - 1

Heysham NR
Whitethroat - low double figures and none seen appeared to be ringed
Lesser Whitethroat - at least two
Chiffchaff - new one ringed

Insects
Clouded Yellow this afternoon in the balmy weather in the "eye" - on fleabane NE corner of reserve

Ringing
11 birds in an hour, mainly unringed finches (2 Bullfinch)

Saturday 9th August

Heysham Obs
Scraping the barrel a bit for interest on a clear blustery day and top spot fell to Homeosoma sinuella, the second record for the reserve

11 juv and two adult Med Gulls around the outfalls after at or just after high tide - not the best time!

In contrast to yesterday, not a single warbler was heard during the 10 minutes or so topping up the feeder. 

Quality vis mig and record numbers of Common Whitethroat

Heysham Obs
Sacrificed the latter part of a very crowded music session at the Hill Inn for some early morning coverage of what looks like the last of these sorts of morning for a bit (but some possible sea-watching coming up or at least some weather which might spice up the variety on the outfalls).  THREE birds obviously on vis - see below!




Vis mig
Wood Sandpiper - one high to SE at 0615hrs
Flava Wagtail - one (not an adult male) fairly low to the SE at 0820hrs
Grey Wagtail - one high to SE




Grounded
Unremarkable in the relatively clear conditions apart from one species - Common Whitethroat where record numbers were present and 56 ringed between Middleton and Heysham in a very limited number of nets (4 x Midd, one line of  3 x Hey).   Other fare included five Lesser Whitethroat but very few Phylloscs or Acros.   Just over 100 birds ringed in total.