Distant low tide fare

Heysham obs
An effort was made in the afternoon to search distant sandbanks and channels for the in transit pom skua seen off flookburgh in the morning. It was quite hard work as a lot of stuff  was at extreme range. However it opened up new possibilities if the conditions were right. Nine geese flew on to a hitherto unnoticed skeer far into distant Cumbria. Initially assumed to be low-flying pink feet until the landing where a later switch to 60x just about made two of them out as Brent geese but the rest of the flock appeared to be 'down a slope out of sight'.  They were absolutely miles away and definitely in Cumbria. Is this a regular routine visible from Heysham ?

The bluebottle seems to have disappeared from the Heysham NR kitchen, no sign of the Purple Sandpiper at high tide, just the one Ad Med Gull of note (Fishers roof at high tide) and similarly a single Twite with about a dozen each of Goldfinch and Linnet on the seed.  No moths in the trap.

A ground-breaking ringing recovery of a juvenile Goldfinch ringed at Middleton on 31/8/14 caught today by John in his garden at the Beaumont end of Lancaster, 7ish km to the north-east - the first of several I suspect!

North harbour wall and far offshore at low tide
Brent goose - at least two and probably all nine geese on distant skeer were this species
Red-throated diver - one flew out
Eider - 113
Great crested grebe - one in harbour and 8 offshore
Med gull - just the one adult
Shag - 1cY on rocks just below north wall Roundhead

Bridlington timewaster

Heysham obs
Got it wrong today -  went east before visiting the blyths pipit enticed by a clear early morning run through Harrogate etc - should have turned right at Skipton roundabout and waited for news.

An alarming dearth of interesting stuff from north lancs so far this year and that includes Heysham with no reports from today. Some prolonged westerlies on the horizon might stir things up a bit at the back end of next week

10k square mode

Heysham Obs
Happy New Year everyone and hope you have all recovered from this horrible chesty cold or whatever it is.  This knocked thoughts of the M62/A64 via Pugneys getting xxxx wet through on the head and opted for a bit of coverage of the January 10km square survey we have been doing for about 10 years now. 


The Patchwork Challenge didn't happen last year - partly my computer skills and partly the computer not liking some of the methodology, so it all became rather too time-consuming.  Will make a real effort this year.  The other NY Res. - not swearing at inconsiderate drivers - lasted about half a day.


The cutting edge fieldcraft today unfortunately failed, but at least produced a species which has been very thin on the ground so far this winter.  This was to sit in the car waiting for the midday IOM ferry as the only possible mobile food source today which might attract the Knott End Glaucous and drag it within viewing range.  The problem was it probably could not even see the ferry


North wall SD36V
Twite - 2 (single white colour rings on both)
Linnet - 7
Goldfinch - 14
Med Gull - Czech-ringed adult
Shag - 1CY along inner harbour by sandworks wall
Robin - 2
Dunnock - 1
Pied Wagtail - 1
Starling - 14
Feral Pigeon - 6
Magpie - 2
Wren - 1


IOM ferry
Kittiwake - one adult
Large gulls - c75


Heliport area
Meadow Pipit - at least 2, prob 3


Insects
Bluebottle - one NR kitchen - a notable new years day record
No moths












    

Nothing new in lengthy coverage

Heysham Obs
Thanks to Malcolm and John respectively for todays efforts

Middleton/coastal south of harbour
Had a long walk today, nothing exciting. Main ponds on MNR are all  frozen,
except for  SE corner of boating pond.
MNR
9 mute (2 adult)
11 moorhen
13 mallard
2 tufted
61 teal (on Tim Butler ice)
1 reed bunting
1 bull finch

Cold snap seems to have concentrated shore birds, all shelduck (102) and lapwing
(69) were roosting on mud in front of OE salt marsh. 113 wigeon either side of
No 1 outflow.
Also on OE, 1 grey plover and c30 linnet.

2 little egret on Red Nab.

Hundreds of BHGs on outflows. No sign of shag in harbour.

North wall
Med Gull - adult
Twite - up to 6 on feeder lunchtime with 5 retraps, 3 from 29/1/14, including a pair ringed together and caught next to each other today, and two older birds
Linnet - perhaps surprisingly at this stage of the year, 5/7 caught were unringed
Goldfinch - just four unringed birds caught and many retraps  

Cold and frosty finches

Heysham Obs
Just a few odds and ends on the north harbour wall this morning and afternoon.  In the morning, 26 finches were caught and included 10 unringed Goldfinch, 2 unringed Linnet and three Twite comprising one ringed in autumn 2011, the other two in autumn 2012.  The afternoon saw 13 Twite on the seed

Half a whistle stop

Heysham Obs
Czech-ringed med Gull north wall
Twite - minimum 9 north wall but flighty - didn't seem to be any food left

I wont be at Heysham at all for the rest of this year, so blog entries very welcome.  Thanks.

Whistle stop

Heysham obs
Ad Czech-ringed med gull north wall - the only one around at the moment?
Twite - 11 on seed plus c35 other finches

Chiffchaff, Jack Snipe and Shag top the bill

Heysham Obs

 

Did a full circuit today. Some interesting, if not spectacular, sightings:

MNR

11 mute. I new adult causing particularly un-festive ructions.

10 moorhen (all but 1 in field adjacent to Tim Butler)

6 mallard

2 tufted

60+ teal counted on water (Tim Butler pond)

1 meadow pipit

1 chiffchaff (seen only)

I grey wagtail ringed. Hard to pick colours, as every time I got close a blackbird moved the wagtail on. Pretty sure right leg was red over white. There was something on left leg, whatever it was, it was pale.  This wintering bird was ringed on 20th September and seen on 16th November

 

OE Salt Marsh 1 hour before high tide.

4 RB Merganser

23 linnet

1 reed bunting

5 common snipe

2 jack snipe

 

The only thing along South Wall, apart from mountainous waves and BHGs was a single Pink Foot struggling in waves. It seemed to be waterlogged.

 

1CY shag by waterfall in harbour (almost eye level at times!).

 

Malcolm Downham

Nothing new in the wind

Heysham obs
Purple sandpiper - heliport seawall
Med gull - ad fishers roof
Shag - 1cy with four cormorant by waterfall in hour
Twite - at least three north wall with c40 finches

Finches but no Twite

North Harbour Wall

Adult Med Gull
30 Finches at feeding station.
20 Goldfinch
10 Linnets
also a Robin.
36 Ringed Plover on helipad at high tide

JM