Dead calm and clear

Shouldn't really be moaning about these conditions as they are likely to at a premium during the next month or so...........but it looked like that was also the case for August and we had loads of ringing opportunities

A good morning to focus on the neap high tide and perhaps especially so today as all the waders were displaced some considerable distance by the "running sore of the Morecambe Bay SPA" at Potts corner.  This morning it was a Paragliding meet "allowed" access to the intertidal area, some distance out to avoid disturbing the caravan site (!).  There was the usual displacement of all intertidal birds within at least 700-800m either side (and most much further than that).  So the waders were all shunted up to the Ocean Edge end where there were fortunately no dog walkers, courtesy of a nicely positioned tidal channel: couple of very rushed pics dedicated to the flat earth society

Ringing-wise it was rather slow with a double effort at Middleton with the Grey wagtail vis mig down to three birds, but at least there was a sprinkling of late warblers and the odd Meadow Pipit to catch.  New birds:  Blackcap (9), Willow Warbler (3), Meadow Pipit (3), Robin (2), Lesser Whitethroat (2), Chiffchaff (2), Swallow (1), Grey Wagtail (1), Goldfinch (1), Reed Bunting (1), Blackbird (1), Wren (1), Sedge Warbler (1)

Ocean Edge high tide
Med Gull - 33 (4 1CY, 17 adult, 12 2CY)
Sandwich tern - 5 offshore briefly
Knot - 800
Dunlin - 400
Grey Plover - 370
Bar-tailed Godwit - 210
Icelandic Black-tailed Godwit - 1 juv
Redshank - 430

Middleton NR
2 Stock Dove came in from north over Tradebe, did a couple of circuits of open land then headed back north. Think this is my first sighting this year. 6 Mute + 2 juveniles 1 Coot 6 Moorhen 9 Tufted (7m) 7 Gadwall (2m) 2 Mallard 1 Heron  (MD)

A new season begins

Middleton Nature Reserve

It felt very autumnal this morning, just 6C at dawn and the ground covered in dew. It was calm, clear and very quiet, just a few Robins ticking. Gradually some birds made a move so today's 'haul' is listed below:

Vis:

Swallows - only 8 had roosted in the reedbed and just 60 flew over in drubs and drabs throughout the morning

Grey Wagtail - 13 (10 ringed)

Meadow Pipit - 10

Other:

Goldcrest - 1

Chiffchaff - 3

Whitethroat. - 3

Coal Tit - 1

Goldfinch - flock of 35

Linnet - 3

Reed Bunting - 5

Blackcap - 6

Robin - 10

Kestrel - 3 (one family)

On the Pond 

Tufted Duck - 5

JR

The luck comes to an end

It had to happen.  Couldn't make a lot of sense yesterday of the variable forecasts for this morning until an innocent looking trough was picked up over the Atlantic on the Magic Seaweed synoptic chart and the chance of this lot heading our way and 'developing' started to climb to 80-90%:
 

Situation at 7ish.  We have been very lucky this month with medium range forecasts indicating gloom and doom and the rain then either falling in the night or not at all and strong winds melting away.  Not so fortunate 'down south', it seems, so the decent numbers of birds we have ringed this month may have/have had a mist-net-free further migration. Unusually, I'm not aware of any birds ringed elsewhere in our nets this month.

Totals of newly ringed birds for the month of August from Middleton/Heysham.  Note that we have been two ringers short and many Middleton efforts have been just a single ringer with 2 or 3 18m nets and similarly at Heysham NR, just the line of three 18m by the office (including feeder):

Swallow (250), Whitethroat (97), Greenfinch (91), Willow Warbler (68), Goldfinch (65), Blackcap (42), Chiffchaff (35), Blue Tit (33), Long-tailed Tit (28), Lesser Whitethroat (22), Wren (19), Sedge |Warbler (19), Grey Wagtail (18), Great Tit (18), Reed Bunting (13),  Dunnock (13),  Garden Warbler (11), Robin (11), Reed Warbler (10), Sand Martin (7), Chaffinch (7), Coal Tit (4), Blackbird (4), Bullfinch (4), Grasshopper Warbler (3), Goldcrest (3), Kingfisher (2) and singles of Tree Pipit, Great-spotted Woodpecker, Song Thrush

Difficult to make any meaningful comments on a single month but Whitethroat and Willow Warbler above average for here, Reed Warbler below average all summer, Wren and Long-tailed Tit above average for August, Grey Wagtail in good numbers in the last few days of the month,  but never was so much racket played with such little effect for Tree Pipit.  Just one was caught and ZERO heard on vis mig!   Craig Bell indicated that the good numbers he was catching above Rossendale were due to his site already being at 1000ft and even there the birds were migrating very high.  Peter Alker is also at  a higher site at Billinge. So maybe we have been fortunate in previous years to get a few low-flying ones

Outfalls/Red Nab post high tide quick check in the rain
This was a little cameo, albeit with 55 less Med Gulls than seen the other day (wrong stage of the tide)
Grey Plover - 177 on mudflats
Greenshank - juvenile with Redshank OE saltmarsh creek
Sandwich Tern - adult on mudflats then flew south
Little Gull - moulting ad feeding on heysham 2
Med Gull - just 2 1CY with no 'small' gulls left on Red Nab
Wheatear - 2

Middleton NR post rain (MD)

Had a very pleasant stroll around MNR this afternoon. Not much to report, but the duck numbers are slowly increasing:

Tufted 5 (2m)

Gadwall 4 (2m)

Teal 4 (2m)

 

4 Robins singing plus three territorial squabbles. Looks like there is some movement.

 

Large dragonfly numbers reducing.

3 Emperor

3 Brown Hawker

 

3 "medium sized" hawkers

 

Lots of Common Darter

 

Female Brimstone

Steady but unspectacular trickle of migrants

Ringing operations at both Heysham and Middleton were successful without revealing spectacular numbers.  Another excellent Grey Wagtail capture rate with 8/9 known vis migrants caught and colour-ringed and, as expected at this time, Blackcap and Chiffchaff starting to top the warbler ringing lists, whilst acros were nowhere to be seen.

Whinchat - one Middleton
Barn Owl - Middleton early am
Marsh Tit - the long stayer retrapped at Heysham
Green Woodpecker - heard Heysham
Sand Martin - 2 south
Swallow - 135 south but just one in roost!
House Martin - 3 south
Grey Wagtail - 9 south
Reed Bunting - at least one vis mig bird (and two unringed ones caught)

No known coastal coverage

Meds and finches

An amazing 57 med gulls were around red nab and the outfalls just after low tide (Margaret and mark breaks).  10 1cy and the rest evenly split between ads and 2cys.

Ad little gull seen later by pete woodruff

Just the one wheatear

The only ringing option in the westerly was by the office which was predictably dominated by green and goldfinch totalling about 36 of the 47 new birds.

The moth trap held agriphila latistria

Routine coverage

Limited mist netting for a short time as per wind at Middleton left the jury out as to whether the earlyish start was worthwhile:  singles of Grey Wagtail, Willow Warbler, Great Tit, Lesser Whitethroat, two Blackcap, two Robin, one Great spotted Woodpecker and a retrap Wren

15 Med Gulls were on Red Nab but the next "best" was just three Little Egret

Cetti's Warbler singing western marsh for second day
Single Goldcrest at both Middleton and Heysham NRs

Vis mig saw two House Martin and another Grey Wagtail

The Swallow ex-roost didn't sound up to much and described as "one bird twittering"!

Male Black Darter photographed in the Nature Park yesterday (thanks Janice)

Grey wagtail autumn passage starts in earnest

Middleton NR
Grey wagtail - 9 se (8 ringed)
Tree pipit - one ringed
Meadow pipit - 2 se
No perceptible hirundine movement and only c10 ex-roost
Predictably, after the clear night, warblers were at a premium with 1-4 of the commoner species ringed, including garden warbler but not lesser whitethroat

Outfalls/red nab later stages of dropping tide
Med gull - just 4

Warbler wave

Middleton NR

A wave of Warblers passed through until 10am consisting of a minimum of the following:

Whitethroat 14 - some really heavy ones obviously ready for a long journey 

Garden Warbler 3

Chiffchaff 7

Blackcap 6

Lesser Whitethroat 3

Willow Warbler 1

Sedge Warbler 1

Other species today:

Kingfisher (1)

Jay (2)

Grey Wagtail (1)

Reed Bunting (1)

Long-tailed Tit (11)

Goldfinch (flock of 14)

No attempt was made to count the Med Gulls today.

JR

Routine

Med gull - 17 red nab (3 1cy)
Sandwich tern - one off skeers at low tide
Swallow - just 20 in roost
Gadwall - 5

Low tide med fest

Med gull - 17 red nab and outfalls (just two juv actually on outfalls)
Little gull - moulting ad
Sandwich tern - ad
Wheatear - 3