Another below par seawatch

Heysham Obs
Not quite right this morning with no hefty squalls, just some layered high-ish cloud which eventually cleared. A better day, however, than yesterdays disaster when I got absolutely soaked retrieving moth traps early morning and then, when we wanted some heavy showers, not a drop of rain fell for the  rest of the day

Sea 0550-0740
Arctic Skua - light and dark morph lifted off the sea and headed quite leisurely into the Bay at 0610
Great Skua (Bonxie) - one wheeled in very quickly at very long range (any other skua spp would have remained exactly that) at 0622
Gannet - 7 out
Canada Goose - rarest birds of the morning - 5 flew north at about 0720
Dunlin - 85 out
Whimbrel - 2 north
Swallow - just one north!
So nearly two hours without addition to the patchwork challenge (I still need Fulmar, Common Scoter, Manx Shearwater, Common Tern and any identified auks!!)

That's me for 10 days or so - my first holiday at migration time for a bit - hopefully others will find some stuff of interest as the sea looks promising e.g. Thursday early am

Monday 11th May

Heysham Obs
Just 11 Wheatear on Ocean Edge with a couple of brief and blank looks at the sea

House Sparrow hits a new 10k square

Heysham Obs
A female House Sparrow joined the select list of species to have graced SD36V this morning - this square is 99% sea/intertidal.  The rest was a bit dire but perhaps missed some early morning stuff

North wall 0640-0910
Swallow - 100 NE
House Martin - 6 NE
Sand Martin - 1 NE
Wheatear - probably 5 'in-off'
House Sparrow - female grounded briefly at the end of the mound
Arctic Skua - dark morph in, very distantly, at about 0655
Sandwich Tern - two on posts
Gannet - adult u-turned then blogged for a bit
Much reduced numbers of Turnstone

Ocean Edge foreshore
Wheatear - 11 - looked different birds from yesterday - very flighty like new arrivals and soon disappeared
White Wagtail - 1

Mammal
Grey Seal harbour mouth

Quiet day

Heysham obs
Early golden rod pug in the moth trap topped the bill!    Next best 9 wheatear ocean edge foreshore with two whimbrel on red nab. No obvious seabird records but morning tide unfavourable

Nice sunny morning dribs and drabs

Heysham Obs
The hint that there might be some Dotterel around (located at Cockersands in the afternoon) was provided by quite a noticeable day for Whimbrel movement for here.  A decent drop of Wheatear on to Ocean Edge, but grounded migrants otherwise seemed a bit sparse, especially given good coverage with mist nets

Nice ringing recovery of a Goldcrest.  Ringed in Essex on 9/10/13 as a 1CY female, caught Heysham NR on 8/4/15 and, as suspected by the tail, obviously an adult probably on its way to completing its second long-distance migration (303km).  The vast majority of captures are of birds in their first autumn or first spring migrations

Middleton NR
Mute Swan 2+2+6 - pair on Tim Butler still sitting
2 shelduck
6 gadwall
1 Tufted Duck
4 mallard
1 heron
3 poss 4 singing Grasshopper Warbler

Thanks Janet
Ocean Edge/Red Nab/outfalls
24 wheatear (mostly females)

White Wagtail - 3
Little egret - 3
Turnstone -190

Vis mig
Swallow - 190 north - mainly over Middleton 0900-1000
House Martin - 21 (as above)
Sand Martin - 2 north
Wheatear - 2 in-off north wall
Whimbrel - 17+14+7+4 north, at least 3 off-passage
Arctic Tern - flock of 6 north
Sandwich Tern - 20 blogging early on soon melted away
Jackdaw - three purposefully north
Carrion Crow - big cluster on Heysham NR may have included migrants
Grounded
See above for Wheatear
Garden Warbler - one ringed Middleton
Sedge Warbler - single figures of migrants
Whinchat - female moved rapidly inland Middleton
Blackcap - 2 unringed birds Heysham NR
Willow Warbler - conspicuous by absence with only one ringed

Mammal
Harbour Porpoise off harbour (probably the same three days ago)

Gadwall take the mickey

Heysham Obs
Two Gadwall in their wisdom decided that it would be a good idea to fly into the Bay hugging the sea heading straight for me.  Two blackish ducks looking too small to be Eider (4+ miles) - surely Common Scoter at last - flashes of white but definitely 'all dark' (2+ miles) - mmmm! then the reality as they swung laterally and headed inland.  Never seen Gadwall from here on a seawatch before, but they are an everyday occurrence on the Middleton part of the Patchwork challenge.  The rest of the seawatch highlights were also 'been there, done it' for this year, even the often annually tricky Brent Geese

North harbour wall 0850-1000ish
Arctic Skua - dark morph seen heading 'in' far offshore before it seemed to land on the sea (0900)
Dark-bellied Brent Goose - two headed in close inshore at 0936hrs
Swallow - 18 in
Gadwall - see above - two males?
Sand Martin - 1 in
Meadow Pipit - I NE (very late)
Med Gull - 2CY on outfalls
Dunlin - 150 out
an earlier seawatch recorded at least one Sandwich Tern but no details yet and there may be more from Phil, who watched for a further hour from 1000.

Ocean Edge/Red Nab
Interestingly (or not!), there were no Curlew on the wind and rain-swept mudflats yesterday morning, yet in more gentle conditions today there were 17 scattered around off Red Nab
Oystercatcher - 490 Red Nab just before high tide
Common Gull - 188 (two adult)
Black-headed Gull - 86 (more than yesterday)
Little Egret - 3 around
Dunlin - 68 roosting on Red Nab two hours before high tide
Whimbrel - 3 as above
Wheatear - 11
White Wagtail - 3

Heysham Skeer
Knot - a murmuration of about 900 or so at 0500hrs as reported by a local fisherman

Moth
Brown House Moth the only capture summing up recent mothing times!

Sporadic quality over the sea

Heysham Obs
Pretty wild and wet today with poor visibility a lot of the time.  Seabirds amounted to 6 terns of two species and three skuas of two species, one Little Gull and NOTHING else.

So Pomarine Skua is now on my 2015 Patchwork Challenge list for here, but not Common Scoter, Guillemot, Razorbill or Fulmar!

Coastal observations 0600-1345hrs, when wind swung WNW 
Pomarine Skua - light morph adult picked up very early to the south as a 'dark wheeler' in the shipping lane at c1317, then continued to wheel quickly NE at yellow buoy range.  A nice full-tailed bird
Arctic Skua - two dark morph in the very murky weather headed south along the tideline from Ocean Edge past Middleton at 1220hrs, 3 dark morph late afternoon
Little Gull - adult slowly 'in'
Med Gull - 2CY seen twice on outfalls
Arctic Tern  - 3 in early on, then two off seaward end of Heysham two outfall briefly
Sandwich Tern - one off the seaward end of Heysham one outfall briefly
Knot - flocks of 600 and 400 south - didn't land in the area
Kittiwake - adult behind freight ferry late pm
Dunlin - up to 2,500 pre-tide on mudflats south of Ocean Edge, c200 south
Swallow - Just a couple early on, then a gang of 19 in-off just prior to the first lot of rain
White Wagtail - at least 6 birds Ocean Edge with up to 10 Pied Wagtail for the whole morning -what are the latter doing - mixture of male and female?

Hirundines get going but terns still stutter

Heysham Obs
Easterly then SE plus rain to begin with - switch to SW near gale midday, then clearing up - stuff probably missed pre-0725.  Offshore visibility poor early morning with 'Gannet range' not discernable

Sea 0725-0900 then short spells at lunchtime as wind went SW plus Ocean Edge check
Swallow - 283 NE (220 of these 0730-0800)
House Martin - 1 NE
Sand Martin - 5 NE
Swift - 1 NE (IOY)
Arctic Tern - 30+2+5 NE
Sandwich Tern - 10
Whimbrel - 1
Wheatear - 4 north wall, 14 Ocean Edge
White Wagtail - 3 Ocean Edge (with c8 Pied of unknown status)
Meadow Pipit - 2 very late migrants NE
Kittiwake - 10 on sea
Med Gull - same 2CY outfalls
Common Gull - 182 outfalls
Black-headed Gull - much reduced - 28 outfalls
Knot - c1750 flew south along the tideline towards the Lune Estuary at 0919hrs as seen from OE
Dunlin - c250 out
Eider - c120 on sea
Bar-tailed Godwit - 10 in

one probable dark morph arctic skua in but unfortunately optics steamed up!
Turnstone not counted today

Tern watch

If only there were terns to watch! Where are they all?  They are very late arriving this year.

North Harbour Wall 0600-1020 then an hour or so over high tide (thanks to pete and Ian)
Most pre 0700
Gannet - c20
Fulmar - 1
Common tern - 1 in
Red-throated diver - 2 out
Kittiwake - 5 out
Great-crested Grebe - 1 in
Little Egret - 1 in
Distant waders, probably Dunlin - 150 + 50 + 150 out
Ringed Plover - 16 out

Grounded:
Wheatear - 10, nine on oe
Chiffchaff - 1 north wall
White wagtail - 2

Wooden jetty
Turnstone 149+

Moths
One Hebrew character, one powdered Quaker, one double striped pug

Butterflies
9 brimstone, 6 peacock , 3 speckled wood, 6 orange tip on reserve circuit (thanks Malcolm)

Migrants in the rain

Heysham Obs
Worth a bit of a search when the rain stops judging by stuff visible from the car.  Record Whinchat count for the Obs and all males! = 8

Yesterdays rather oddly plumaged male Pied Flycatcher (thanks Dan)

Ocean Edge/Red Nab/outfalls
Whinchat - 4 males
Wheatear - 14, including two very large birds
Meadow Pipit - 1
White Wagtail - 1
Med Gull - yesterdays 2Cy or identical bird
Gadwall - pair on Red Nab - unexpected!
Common Gull - c180
Black-headed Gull - c210

North wall
Wheatear - 4
Whinchat - one male (heliport)
Arctic Tern - 4+10+6 in 0735-0740, nothing after that as tide came in
Sandwich Tern - all heading in this morning, no bloggers - 22 in 0730-0745, just one thereafter until 0900

South harbour area
Purple Sandpiper - at least one
Wheatear - 5
Sedge Warbler - 1!

Middleton NR
Whinchat - male near the bottle dump, male west of the western marsh

Recycling centre road
Whinchat - male in the horse paddock within the recording area
Wheatear - 1