Two species we thought we had seen the last of this year

.......but otherwise a bit 'trickly' with the vis mig still in fits and starts, even meadow pipit and swallow.

Middleton
Grasshopper warbler - juv ringed
Warblers caught comprised low single figures of blackcap and chiffchaff plus a single garden warbler and a couple of goldcrest.    A couple of new reed bunting are hopefully the start of a decent passage for a species producing a decent recovery/control ratio.  Four grey wagtail were colour ringed.  Vis revealed unremarkable numbers of swallow, goldfinch, chaff inch, Alba wagtail and meadow pipit and maybe 2-3 extra grey wagtail.

Ocean edge and red nab high tide
Just a bit too high and 'non red nab' waders were distant dots down the tideline
Med gull - just adult (metal ring right leg below knee), 2cy and two 1cy
Common sandpiper - very late for here especially two together - on red nab
Turnstone - 105 (mostly wooden jetty)

Butterflies
The buddleias days are numbered by the office but they are going out with a bang with 10 small tortoiseshell, 2 painted lady, one red admiral and 2 small white

End of the road and a few decent birds

Couldn't make up this morning. A last check of the moth trap before building demolition saw........a broken bulb - happens about once a year!   No moths.

Ocean edge/red nab just after the neap high tide was rather good
Pintail: two f/imms with shelduck are the first coastal birds I have seen on the deck - usually flying past in small flocks in gales.
Little stint -two juvs with about 30 scattered Dunlin
Med gull -- at least 8 but many gills scattered out of range along the tideline to south
Rock Pipit - first of autumn
Black-tailed Godwit - 3 OE spartina area

Vis mig
0800-0845
Grey wagtail - 7 south
Chaffinch -5 south
Meadow pipit - 2 south
Alba wagtail - 3 south

Long-tailed tits lead the way in marginal ringing weather

Middleton NR dawn to 1000hrs
Again very little vis mig with one or two grey wagtail and single figures of meadow pipit and swallow

Ringing included: Long-tailed tit (8), chiffchaff (3) and singles of Grey Wagtail, Whitethroat, Willow Warbler, Sedge warbler and just the one Blackcap

Barred warbler leads the way

Typical of several Barred Warbler occurrences on the west coast. Apart from an early small flurry of Blackcap, there was very little evidence of grounded migrants.  Completely unexpected as nothing much doing with this species to the north of here, unlike the last Heysham record which followed Shetland 'crawling with them' in 1997. A long gap, even for the west coast, but our heavily vegetated recording area doesn't give a lot of chance to locate unless in a mist net and. as implied, they often don't turn up during obvious fall conditions.  Indeed, the pager messages suggest that this might be the only one in the country today!!

Pics later as no computers or internet in hey nature reserve ex-office which contains not a lot more than one plate, one fork, one tin of tuna and a kettle plus coffee

Ringing included:  Barred Warbler (1), Garden Warbler (1), Blackcap (9), Chiffchaff (3), Willow Warbler (2) and Grey Wagtail (3)

Middleton wetlands:  9 Tufted Duck, Gadwall and three Teal

Vis mig over Middleton
Not a lot today with only half a dozen Meadow Pipit and about double that number of Swallow plus a single House Martin, plus 5 Grey Wagtail (three of them ringed)

Cabbage moth a bit of a mega in the trap!

Thursday sightings

7-8 meds and the ad little gull outfalls Thursday . 16 meds seaward end Heysham one on friday

Another vis mig throwaway and unexpectedly large Goldcrest arrival

Heysham Obs
Unfortunately a bird calling three times with the 'front end Yellow Wag and the back end Richard's Pipit' (per Jean) did not land and all that could be done, after listening to recordings, was to inform patchworkers in some proper habitat along the direction of flight that a Citrine Wagtail seemed to be heading their way

Middleton NR
Vis mig interrupted by mist net rounds
Putative Citrine Wagtail - one SE 1000hrs
Grey Wagtail - 10 SE (6 ringed) - a more normal capture ratio, revealing that you need the loud continuous tape, not an MP3 with a gap, and the net set as low as possible - all birds in the bottom shelf)
Meadow Pipit - at least 25 SE
Swallow - at least 25 SE

Grounded
Goldcrest - at least 5 around the office at HNR on a brief visit and 'many more' in addition to those ringed at Middleton - a very sudden large influx for this time of year - more akin to an October fall of continental birds
Otherwise see ringing with phylloscs in very short supply this morning

Ringing at Middleton
Newly ringed birds out of a total of 50 odd included Grey Wagtail (6), Blackcap (7), Chiffchaff (2), Garden Warbler, Whitethroat, Lesser Whitethroat, Goldcrest (5)

Moths
The final moth night at Heysham toilet trap will be Sunday night with the trap being dismantled (ie the bulb removed and egg packing removed) by 0800hrs Monday.   Who wants to check it last as I can't make Monday morning?   Last night saw the first overdue Pinion-streaked Snout of the year 

Low key day

Middleton NR

A somewhat peaceful and leisurely morning at Middleton today. Peaceful if you don't include noise from the tannoy at the power station and various bangings and clangings at the wastewater treatment works.

Only 16 Swallows came out of the roost at 0605hrs

Vis:
Meadow Pipit 31
Grey Wagtail 2
Pied Wagtail 1
Goldfinch 4. Later a flock of 40 headed WSW.
Swallow 4

Ringing - all new birds and all this year's unless stated :
Chiffchaff 4
Blackcap 4
Lesser Whitethroat 2 (included 1 adult)
Whitethroat 1
Reed Warbler 1
Sedge Warbler 1
Grey Wagtail 1. This was colour ringed.
Meadow Pipit 10
Robin 1 plus a retrap
Great Tit 2 plus a retrap
Blue Tit 4
Long-tailed Tit 1
Dunnock 3

Outfalls/red nab 11ish
Med gull: 7 x 2CY (clustered on the outer edge of red nab as usual), 3x juv, 1x ad
Little gull  - adult winter seaward end Heysham one

Hopefully the start of a good week for landbird movement

Heysham Obs
Its that time of year and drizzle until dawn and an east of south wind was worthy of coverage even if it did carry on for half an hour too long, delaying the mist netting, which probably let a few Blackcaps through.   The wind allowed three mist nets (couldnt have said that at previously exposed Middleton until the last three years or so)  and there was obviously something going on to the west allowing vis mig to get going, although the murky conditions meant only a handful of Grey Wagtail compared to Fairhaven

Vis mig Middleton
Grey Wagtail - 10 SE (2 ringed)
Meadow Pipit - 12 SE
Swallow - 34 S
Reed Bunting - 1 SE
Teal - 1 high to east
House Martin - 10 S
alba Wagtail - 13 SE

Ringing
Newly-ringed birds included:  Blackcap (7), Chiffchaff (4), Grey Wagtail (2) and singles of Whitethroat, Lesser Whitethroat, Garden Warbler

Outfalls/Red Nab/Ocean Edge
Med Gull - at least 14 (3 juvs, 2 ad, 9 2CY)
far too many Black-headed Gulls to sift through - about 2,100
Greenshank - juvenile in OE saltmarsh channel

Ringing totals for August
 - pretty good considering the dearth of Swallows and Greenfinches:

Sparrowhawk (1), Long-eared Owl (1), Sand Martin (1), Swallow (82),  Tree Pipit (9), Grey Wagtail (3), Pied Wagtail (1),  Wren (19), Dunnock (8), Robin (23), Blackbird (9), Song Thrush (2), Cetti's Warbler (1), Grasshopper Warbler (3), Sedge Warbler (26), Reed Warbler (15), Lesser Whitethroat (35), Whitethroat (107), Garden Warbler (23), Blackcap (44), Chiffchaff (28), Willow Warbler (129), Long-tailed Tit (8), Blue Tit (26), Great Tit (14), Chaffinch (5), Greenfinch (34), Goldfinch (41), Linnet (1), Lesser Redpoll (1), Bullfinch (11), Reed Bunting (7)

 

    

      

     
         
  

         

 

        

Bits

Heysham obs
All day in the office doing birdy admin, moth trap and checking a mist net. The final time this is going to happen or have we another week before demolition. Hope they don't cut the leccy off way before anything else happening

Middleton (thanks Malcolm)
Teal are back with five on Tim butler pond
Mute - 2 pair one with 4 young, Tufted 2,  Mallard 7, Moorhen 3, Coot 4, Little grebe 1.  14 meadow pipit (grounded) Trickle of swallow south - 1,4,7,1&1

Sun was surprisingly warm, so lots of insect activity including 3 brown hawker, 1 migrant hawker confirmed + 4 presumed. 10 common darter including pair ovapositing.

Outfalls
5x 2cy, 3x juv med gull
Ad winter little gull

Black rustic today's first of the year

Heysham outfalls
Covered at two stages - an earyish check when a fair wadge of stuff was feeding on the seaward end of the outfalls and a later check as the tide rolled it and neutralised that source of food. Typically two key birds had moved on by the second check

Outfalls and area (thanks Ian for later check)
Black tern - one distantly, probably a juv, moved from outer hey one to outer hey two. Then lost
Little gull - winter ad hey two then later inshore, what was probably a 2cy moulted into 2nd winter plumage was distantly on hey one at the same time
Med gull - between us located 4x 2cy, 3x juv and 2 x ad