Sprinkling of migrants

Heysham Obs
The pony and trap cleared the foreshore of waders again today - even the Grey Plover cleared off towards Fluke Hall

Inshore
Med Gull - 12
Grey Plover - 250, then flushed

Ringing Middleton
47 new birds (just one retrap), including 8 species of warbler
Two juv Med Gulls flew inland

Swallow roost
29 ringed, probably most of the roost!

The running sore of Potts corner

Heysham obs
Depressingly predictably the pony and trap ran the whole length of the tideline flushing all the waders along about a mile with only the grey plover and a handful of Dunlin returning. The birds try and persist through this because the area is so rich in food but numerous attempts to engage those who can influence access and behaviour have proved to be a complete waste of effort

A few odds and ends were ringed by the office notably sedge warbler and grey wagtail

12 med gulls (4 x juv) were seen on red nab, ocean edge saltmarsh or on the outfalls

Wader fest and stop-start ringing

Heysham Obs
A decent look at the tideline on the lowish high tide was a good move.  Perhaps predictably here juvenile Curlew Sandpipers could be initially 'identified' because they were loosely associating with the Redshank, not with the Dunlin 'mass'!

Ocean Edge tideline
Grey Plover - c205
Bar-tailed Godwit - a disappointing 35 (but they do not like being disturbed)
Knot - 220
Dunlin - 270
Curlew Sandpiper - 3 juv
Redshank - 77
Greenshank - one adult on the edge of the saltmarsh creek

Seagulls
Mostly displaced out of range therefore only 6 Meds could be found

Ringing
A very short session at Middleton included yet another Garden Warbler.  The HNR office ringing surprisingly included two Sedge Warbler along with ones and twos of Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff and Blackcap - plus the usual feeder fare, mainly unringed Green and Goldfinches

Garden Warblers

Middleton Nature Reserve

42 birds caught this morning:

4 Garden Warblers  - the highest day total to date...............plus another caught on the HNR CES

4 Whitethroat

2 Lesser Whitethroat

1 Sedge Warbler

3 Willow Warbler

4 Blackcaps

5 Chiffchaff

1 Cetti's Warbler (moulting adult. No longer headline news) 

1 Reed Bunting

1 Wren

1 Robin

2 Blue Tits

3 Great Tits

3 Bullfinch

1 Chaffinch

2 Dunnock

3 Goldfinch.

and a Grey Wagtail

Vis

4 Grey Wagtail

1 Tree Pipit

6 Meadow Pipits

25 Swallows

The 'outfalls from Ocean Edge foreshore' routine

Heysham Obs
Limited to long-range scans with my leg injury and that didn't make things very easy with an intermediate-toned-mantle on large gull sat on the rocks at the seaward end of Heysham One.  Not the bird photographed on the wooden jetty a few days ago - that was a deceptive Lesser Black-backed Gull, rear on straight into the sun - this was side-on in good light.

Outfalls/Red Nab
Med Gull - at least 14 including 4 2CY
Little Gull - moulting adult
Large Gull - possibly the bird photographed by Janice the other day - putative ad Yellow-legged Gull

Delayed fall

Heysham obs
It looked like there should have been a few migrants this morning but the CES time period at Middleton was very quiet.   A quick visit by one of the two ringers to the office saw at least 5 willow warblers calling there.  Then at about 1100hrs the most pronounced movement of warblers I have ever seen outside the early hours at Middleton.  First indication was visual with at least 5 willow warblers and a whitethroat in the hawthorn next to the ringing base. These quickly headed inland avoiding the three nets still in operation but the next net round more than doubled the morning's ringing total!

Ringing Middleton
Catch included high single figures of whitethroat and willow warbler, three sedge warbler, two lesser whitethroat and blackcap and a reed warbler.  The juvenile Cettis  warbler caught the other day was retrapped.

Outfalls/Red Nab
Good stuff Pete - one of the few mornings this wasn't otherwise covered.  Lifted from Birds to Blog, no need to re-word! "Got the timing right at Heysham yesterday and got there three hours before high tide to take up the challenge and find 15 Mediterranean Gull on Red Nab and Stage 2 outfall, they were seen as 9 adult, 2 1st summer, a 2nd summer, and 3 juvenile. A juvenile Black Tern was at the seaward end of Stage 2 outfall".  Also Ad winter Little Gull photographed

Middleton wetland fare (thanks Malcolm)
Mute Swan - 1 pair with 4 young on model boat pond, single bird on "no swimming" and pair on Tim Butler ponds.
Mallard - 1 female with 3 quite mature chicks (originally 7) on model boat pond. 1 male + 1 female type on "no swimming" pond.
Tufted - 1 male + 1 female type on model boat pond
Gadwall - 2 female type on "no swimming" pond
Little grebe - 1 in summer plumage on model boat pond
Coot - 5
Moorhen - 6
Water Rail - 2+

Osprey highlight

Heysham Obs
Not a lot going for it this morning with clear conditions, quite a bit of moon, sun on the mist nets and below par vis mig over here.  The reduced number of warblers still included un-ringed Garden, two Lesser Whitethroat and Reed at Middleton but the Willow Warblers really nosedived

Middleton Swallow roost
About 50 birds, 20 odd caught including juv S094327 from memory and more certainly an adult Z759034...........and a Sand Martin.  Four ringed-elsewhere Swallows out of only about 50-60 birds.  What's going on!  One of the previous ones was ringed as a nestling at Preesall Moss and the other was 'reverse migration' from the Fleetwood roost - the first of tonights might also be from there.  Water Rail squealing.

Coastal stuff
Common Scoter - two pairs by Heysham skeer, then flew out as the tide started to rise (thanks Malcolm)
Horrible heat haze checking from Ocean Edge, but at least 16 Meds - mainly on Red Nab (7+2CY, 5 Ad, 4 Juv).  No sign of any Black Tern mirages.

Heysham NR
Osprey - one high to the south at 0815, sent even higher by seagulls over the PS
Grey Wagtail - 4 S
Tree Pipit -2 S
"No" migrant warblers perceived but a probable Spot Fly seen in rapid flight through the area

Middleton NR
Just a trickle of warblers in the nets - no real evidence of an arrival with 90% on the first round

More migrant warblers

Heysham obs
South east wind and rain at dawn is a good recipe and the ringing effort at Middleton was pretty good until the weather went pear shaped- too hot and too sunny

Outfalls/red nab
Thanks to Matthew for letting us know the two juvenile black tern were still around -roosting on the wooden jetty this afternoon. Also at least 7 meds around

Middleton
Tree pipit -2-3 south
Grey wagtail - 0ne south (and another two south over ocean edge)
Meadow pipit - two together south
Newly ringed birds included: 15 willow warbler, 6 sedge warbler, 6 white throat, two lesser whitethroat, two blackcap one chiff chaff and a tree pipit

Toyota fare

Heysham Obs
The Peugeot 107-like hire car did good in the driving rain, allowing a prolonged scan of the outfalls on the incoming tide

Outfalls/Red Nab area
Black Tern - two juvs - they never came closer inshore than the seaward end of the outfalls and seemed to disappear about 1215hrs but conditions very challenging
Little Gull - odd-looking 2CY (moult) and an Ad
Sandwich Tern - ad
Med Gull - minimum of 15 with 5 x juv, 5 x ad and 5 x 2CY
Impossible to look south along the tideline

Varied reports

Heysham obs
Had better days with cylinder head gasket blow five minutes from checking heysham to stone jetty pre tide. No chance!

1) ad summer Sabine's gull located by pete crooks on the mudflats by the stone jetty unfortunately just before being flushed by incoming tide and the designated location for windsurfers and as such not seen in obs recording area

2) highly secondhand report of 3x black tern, possible white-winged black term, yellow legged gull and 'a' med gull from southport Rspb group. Presumably a few record shots kicking around?

3) a belated late afternoon visit saw 14 x med gull (6 2cy, 4 ad, 4juv), sandwich tern

Hopefully a bit more enlightened about SRSBP records tomorrow