Brambling and Brent surprises

Heysham Obs

Red nab area
Two Brent geese, then took flight heading for lune estuary (thanks Malcolm). Race uncertain

HNR office area
Big influx of finches with c40 on the seed including a female Brambling.  Too windy for any ringing.

South Harbour
Med Gull - ad behind ferry
No sign of any Guillemot
Great-crested Grebe - one harbour mouth

Wednesday 20th
Four unringed Greenfinch caught but hardly any finches around in the cold still weather yet again - odd (see tomorrow!)

Watch this space on a Firecrest ringed last September being found in a car grille at Elgin on 7/1/16!!!
Presumably this was the Firecrest ringed last September, but where did it meet its end? - investigations under way. Update: identity correct, initial location either Elgin or further north!

A nice quiet day

Heysham Obs
Nothing particularly wintry about today at Heysham and this was reflected in numerous birds, such as Great Tits, in full song

Middleton NR
The male Mute Swan on the Tim Butler pond had a completely illegible metal ring with no characters at all showing!  Whether this is the age of the bird or something about the water quality in said pond (the word chemical is often mentioned when referring to Middleton history) is a matter of speculation

Chiffchaff - one collybita, calling regularly, with LTT flock near TBP
Bullfinch - 2
Teal - 21
Mute Swan - 6 ad and two 2CY
Tufted Duck - 4 (MBP only checked of usual haunts)
Moorhen - 13 TBP area!!
Mallard - 6

Harbour
Med Gull - adult behind ferry

Office area
A low-key ringing session - the feeders are probably getting 'diluted' now as cold weather plus imminent 'garden birdwatch' means more dangling things from more gardens with more choice for basically the same number of birds.  Just 11 new birds (6 Greenfinch, 3 Chaffinch, one Goldfinch and (surprisingly) one Robin)

Moth
Dotted Border in the trap 

Mixed finches

Heysham NH Wall

Mid morning visit to the feeding area saw the following:

Mixed flock of Linnet/Goldfinches difficult to count owing to much coming and going.  Around 50 birds approximately 50% of each species.

Starling - 11
Robin - 1
Dunnock - 1

ajd

Sunday 17th January

Heysham Obs

North wall and intertidal
Bar-tailed Godwit - 159
Med Gull - ad

Heysham village
Blackcap - male still present in garden

Ringing severely curtailed by wind this morning

John Mason/Malcolm Downham

Greenfinch Influx

Heysham Obs
Ringing by office
Unprecedented (for January) influx of unringed Greenfinch (40+ so far)
New birds ringed today 17 Greenfinch,4 Goldfinch, 2 Bullfinch, 2 Chaffinch and 1 Blue Tit.
Nets taken down just before snow arrived.

Another Chiffchaff

Heysham Obs

Thursday 14th
North Harbour Wall
Czech ringed adult Med Gull
18 Goldfinch and 1 Linnet on feeding area.

Friday 15th (thanks to Janet and Malcolm for coverage)
Middleton NR
Chiffchaff - a bright 'green and yellow' bird in the NE corner of the Tim Butler pond this morning
Cetti's Warbler - no sight nor sound in good conditions and extensive search
Snipe - 3

Red Nab
Little Egret - 2

Heysham village
Blackcap - male still present

Wednesday 13th

Heysham Obs
Male Blackcap on a fat ball in a Heysham garden

Chiffchaff in the tank farm next to the pond mid morning

Greenfinch - quite a few un-ringed birds about - 11/12 caught were un-ringed and were plenty of others around as the weather worsened and the net was taken down

No coastal coverage today

A few kittiwakes

Heysham obs
A short seawatch saw 5 plus 1 kittiwakes heading into the bay and that was about it for the day

Good coverage nothing showstopping

Heysham Obs
Ringing by office
22 new birds, including 14 Greenfinch, 2 Bullfinch, 2 Robin, one Coal Tit

Middleton NR
8 mute (3 pairs and 2 juv), 2 coot, 6 moorhen, 8 mallard, 7 tufted, 37 teal, 5 water rail, 28 linnet, 6 bullfinch, 1 raven (high to north) and a gang of 7 continental Blackbird

Ocean Edge saltmarsh
8 2CY mute,  2 mallard,  4 common snipe, 1 jack snipe, 70 bar tailed godwit (over to SE), 3 reed bunting, 7 linnet, 7 greenfinch

Red Nab
19 Wigeon

Mammal
1 grey squirrel OE

Thanks to Malcolm and John

Somewhere over the rainbow

The view from the harbour
I think any rare birds were somewhere over this rainbow as only common ones appeared in view during a 1.5hr seawatch today:
Kittiwake - 4+6+14 seen heading into the Bay
Great-crested Grebe - 2 in the harbour and one flying past
Knot - 1340 flew past heading out of the Bay
Oystercatcher - 200 flew past heading out of the Bay
Other than that it was just the usual gulls and 3 Starlings.

Ocean Edge
Red-breasted Merganser - 1 male
Oystercatcher - 600 on the grass, most sheltering behind the low bund
JR