No Twite

Heysham

North Harbour Wall
Early visit this morning saw only 23 finches, comprising mostly Linnets and a few Goldfinch. No Twite identified.  The early morning light makes positive separation of Twite/Linnet surprisingly hard.  No attempt made at catching owing to the usual human disturbance in the area on a fine Sunday with a late morning high tide!

(A small flock of 19 Twite present at Askham in Furness this morning included 2 birds ringed at Heysham last winter plus 2 returning birds ringed at that site previously)

ajd

Overdue year tick? Not quite!

Heysham Obs
There were no records of Purple Sandpiper during the first half of the year and the future looked bleak.  However today's WeBS count produced one on the heliport seawall.  One of the phone calls indicated that one had been seen on the wooden jetty on 28th September, but not since, by an observer who doesn't 'do' the internet and wasn't aware of the lack of records.  Suspect a passage bird followed by hopefully a future winter resident - wintering birds seem to regularly first turn up in early November following a few scattered earlier autumn records

WeBs count included:
Purple Sandpiper - one on heliport seawall
Ringed Plover - excellent count of 47 heliport seawall
Knot - 650 on heliport seawall
Cormorant - 56 wooden jetty
Med Gull - one adult fisher's roof

Has anyone seen the Czech-ringed veteran Med this autumn? - very little effort spent on north wall in absence of seawatching conditions - this will change in the next few weeks as passerine distractions dwindle away

Ten small finches seen in flight north wall feeder area

Moths
Amazingly good with a late Figure of Eight, Feathered Thorn, Red-line Quaker and Angle Shades.  So much for thinking the year has ended apart from the odd Winter moth, Mottled Umber and perhaps Chestnut/Dark Chestnut

Bits and bobs

Heysham Obs
A little bit of ringing during a calm slot early morning.  No vis mig of note


Office area
Chiffchaff - one ringed
Goldcrest - one ringed


North harbour wall
Twite - 16 - 3 with white rings and one with older red/blue split ring, 12 unringed
Linnet - 2
Goldfinch -3


The Cetti's Warbler caught at Middleton on 28/9/14,  bearing a ring from elsewhere, was caught as a juvenile at Wintersett Reservoir, Wakefield on 22nd July 2014 - a dispersal of about 100km to the NW.

The Middleton c.r. Grey Wagtail was still at Connah's Quay yesterday 

Nice timing

Heysham Obs
An intended early start to clear the backlog of paper work meant we were in place for a rather unexpected load of vis mig ahead of the weather front.   Plan B was 1.5 hours of vis and coastal coverage.  This weather front, when it arrived, ensured that conditions were just right for getting on with the work.


Vis mig by the office (but see below) 0740-0910
Fieldfare - 2601 mainly S then W
Redwing - 90 with above
Starling - 284 SW
Chaffinch - 30 SW
Goldfinch - 13 SW
Blackbird - 3 high-flyers SW
Mistle Thrush - 3
Greenfinch - ? = possibly all bloggers
Twite - 1 S
Redpoll sp - 1 S
Meadow Pipit - 2 SE
alba Wagtail - 2 SE
Collared Dove - 1 south (scarce these days)
Woodpigeon - just 2 south
Cormorant - 1 S


Grounded by office
Goldcrest - 4
Chiffchaff 1


NHW mound area
Linnet - 9
Twite - 14
Goldfinch - 4
Song Thrush - 1
Meadow Pipit - 2
No sign of Stonechat or any Rock Pipit


Red Nab
Included 750 of the vis mig Fieldfare heading high out to sea to west
Little Egret - 3
Med Gull - ad

Tree rat influx, in-off Twite and a Stonechat

Heysham Obs

Hey NR circuit
Grey Squirrel - 5 - record count!
Goldcrest - 4
Chiffchaff - 3 (at least one unringed)
Blackbird - 30
Water Rail - 2
Coal Tit - 1
Redwing - 6
Treecreeper - 2 NE corner

North harbour wall
Stonechat - female sandworks
Twite - 5 with Linnet early on then 3+8 in-off.  Later 14 on seed
Linnet - 21
Song Thrush - back in the gorse (4th winter in this 'extreme' location!)
Meadow Pipit - 2
Rock Pipit - 1
Med Gull - adult

South harbour area
Checked - zilch

Moth
Mottled Umber

Butterfly
Red Admiral

Still plenty of wasps with 10/minute entering/leaving nest in NE corner

Near misses!

Heysham Obs
Definitely a day for nearby sites with our humble share being a few Chiffchaff, one of which had enough fat to open a chip shop whilst at least one other was obviously a new arrival, and Blackcap..............plus the usual mainstay of early November - a shedload of Blackbirds.  Woodcock new for the autumn


Middleton NR dawn to 1030 (wrong choice?)
Assumed vis mig stuff would be to the fore this morning - instead greeted by a series of shower clouds which managed to avoid us.
Blackcap - 2 ringed
Water Rail - at least 5
Reed Bunting - just 5
Goldcrest - just two unringed birds and two retraps with LTT flock
Blackbird - c15
Redwing - c200 over first thing noisily heading SSW
Fieldfare - c40 over first thing with the above
Whooper Swan - 5 south, possibly the top birds of a larger flock obscured by bank
Woodpigeon - 15 S
Meadow Pipit - 2 SE
Chaffinch - just 3 S
Redpoll spp - 6 SE (2 Lesser ringed)
Starling - one flock of 50 S
Jackdaw - 45+6
Mistle Thrush - 4 SE
Little Egret - one model boat pond
Mute Swan - the 7 juvs flew out to the shore then turned round and flew back on to model boat pond


Heysham NR 1100hrs onwards
Woodcock - one flushed from under dense willows along the office mist net ride
Chiffchaff - 4-5
Blackbird - 55-60
Redwing - 16 grounded
Song Thrush - 5 grounded
Siskin - 1
Chaffinch - 10 grounded on east side
Goldcrest - just 3
Blackcap - one male
Greenfinch - 20+ unringed birds caught at feeder
Water Rail - one in NW section of marsh


Insects
Migrant Hawker - one Middleton
Common Darter - 2 Middleton, one HNR
Red Admiral - one HNR
Honey Bee or similar - one nectaring from gorse
Wasps - still plenty

Awaydays

Heysham Obs
Unfortunately no birders able to strut their stuff this last two days with at least a bit of vis mig certainly missed.  Back to normal tomorrow

Grey Wagtail
Sightings at Seaforth, Appleton (Warrington) and near Sunderland Point were followed by one that is in at least temporary residence at Connah's Quay Nature Reserve where it has been observed on and off from 6th October to at least 28th October, the 'on' bits during periods of high spring tides.  It was ringed at Middleton Nature Reserve in early September

Back to the Fieldfare duck

Heysham Obs
A dribble of mainly finch vis mig in winds which were crucially in the west (albeit south/west) this morning


Vis by the office 0830-0930
Meadow Pipit - 3
alba Wagtail - 3
Chaffinch - 85 SW
Blackbird - 4 S
Song Thrush - 3 S
Redwing - 3 S
Starling - 1+25+32+18 S
Grey Wagtail - 1 - possibly just blogging
Carrion Crow - 2+3 S
Goldfinch - 24 S
Sparrowhawk - 1+1 high to S
Kestrel - one high and purposefully S
Mistle Thrush - 2 together SW
Greenfinch - just 2 S
Cormorant - one S
Jackdaw - 3 S


Grounded - not a lot
Blackbird - c25
Redwing - one? (ringed)
Chiffchaff - one heard and presumably the same ringed
Goldcrest - one ringed
Robin - unringed bird caught


Moth
Black Rustic rather late

Fieldfare duck broken in spectacular fashion

Heysham Obs
Bearing in mind the very early morning was not covered, we did pretty well this morning for vis mig.  Prior to that nearby nocturnal work indicated that Redwing and Fieldfare were moving for a significant part of the night.  A very small amount of ringing included the first Siskin of the year.  Thanks to Sean and Andy for nocturnal stuff/ early am vis data


Vis mig by the office 0730-1100 (NO thrushes after 1018hrs)
Fieldfare - 6055 SW (largest flocks 650 and 640) - day total included another flock of 150 mid-afternoon = 6205
Starling - 2308 SW plus 560 casually noted SW later
Redwing - 1538 SW
Chaffinch - 314 SW
Goldfinch - 100 SW
Lapwing - 3+7+38 high to SE
Woodpigeon - 34 S
Greenfinch - 21 SW
Carrion Crow - 15 SW
Linnet - 11 SE
Song Thrush -10 S
Siskin - 7 (at least) S
Rook - flock of 7 S
Mistle Thrush - 5 SW (1,1,2,1)
Bullfinch - 4 singletons south
Meadow Pipit - 4 SE (& one later!)
Blackbird - just 3 S
Tree Sparrow - 3 singletons S
alba Wagtail - 2 SE
Lesser Redpoll - 2 SE
Skylark - just one SE
Reed Bunting - 1 SE
Surprising absentees - Jackdaw, Pink-feet, any raptors (and more Skylark)


Grounded
Blackcap - female ringed
Goldcrest - c30 reserve
Blackbird - just 30 grounded reserve (mainly NE corner)
Treecreeper - 1
Chiffchaff - zero




Nocturnal stuff WED/THU night
Pink-footed Goose - 5 skeins
Greylag - one skein of presumably local origin, but, if so, why?
Whooper Swan  - 6


Nocturnal stuff  THU/FRI night
Whooper Swan - 5
Snipe over
lots of Redwing/Fieldfare
Tawny Owl - 3 Middleton Towers area on southern boundary of the recording area


Red Admiral
2 south & one unidentified dark butterfly glimpsed

Small fall by the office

Heysham Obs
The return of the warm and murky really justified a first light arrival, not wasting time en route spending a £30 gift voucher on a months supply of Shreddies and tins of tuna.  Arrival at the office saw a significant Long-tailed Tit flock gathering together an entourage of Goldcrest and a belated mist netting session (carried out by John) produced about 40 new birds.


Grounded
Chiffchaff - minimum of 4, probably 6
Goldcrest - c20
Treecreeper - fifth of the year to be ringed
Blackcap - 1 male
Song Thrush - 15
Blackbird - surprisingly unremarkable - c15


Vis mig for an hour 0800-0900 (varying degrees of southbound)
Brambling - 1
Chaffinch - 74
Goldfinch - 16
Greenfinch - at least 23
Redwing - 50+1+2
Song Thrush - 5
Woodpigeon - flock of 6
Linnet - ditto
Cormorant - one high to south prob a migrant


Moths
Green-brindled Crescent very late for here, also 3 x Red-line Quaker and a Feathered Thorn