Out of the blue

A bit of coastal birding in bright and breezy conditions degenerated into texting Lou Cross to see if I had just seen his van going along the Barrow coast road at the other side of the Bay...................then on the same text theme Malcolm informed of a vocal Yellow-browed Warbler near the steps on the SE side of the model boat pond.  No sign of it later but very little was actually calling and it was rather breezy with several potential corridors the bird could have made its way along

Middleton NR
Yellow-browed Warbler - see above
Chiffchaff - 2
Mute Swan - 7
Migrant Hawker - at least 7
Common Darter - 6+

Inshore
Early stages of incoming tide & ferry
Med Gull - 3 x 1CY, 2 x 2CY and a minimum of 6 Ads (inc 8 birds behind ferry as it entered port).  One of the 2CY has a lot of solid black on the outer primaries - not one which has been previously recorded
Little Gull - Ad
Guillemot - one in harbour

Wet and wetter

Three 1cy meds and one 2cy med plus the usual ad little gull all that registered today!

MD, PM

Passerine migration gives it a miss

Almost unbelievably bad this morning with not a single bird flying over heysham NR which could be deemed a migrant.   Typically this was the one day we could leave nets up from about 0900 to 1600.  This saw the grand total of obvious migrants limited to two Goldcrest and a 'three o clock' Chiffchaff with a small unringed LTT flock.   Amazingly, thanks to the bottomless trickle of unringed Greenfinch, the ringing produced about 20 new birds, or about 2.74 per hour

Outfalls/ocean edge etc two hours pre tide
Little stint - juv with 85 Dunlin and 49 ringed plover
Med gull - two ads but many gulls had left the area
Rock pipit - one by slipway

Insects
At least three migrant hawker

Better than staying in bed

It was a shame the SW wind kicked in before dawn (certainly the upper wind) as there was obviously some eastern promise trying to reach this side overnight, led by quite a few redwing flight calls.   In reality night migrants were thin on the ground - probably mainly the final leftovers from the fall on  30 Sept and a few subsequent 'tricklers'.   At least rock bottom numbers highlight any new influxes!

Coverage was very good today with Dan putting in a stint around Heysham Head.  

Crickets
The night migrant possibilities lacked so little prospect that Jean went and recorded the first Short-winged Coneheads from ocean edge saltmarsh (using bat detector) whilst also checking what the tide kicked off

Vismig over a) Middleton NR b) Heysham Head
Redwing 5, 3
Grey Wagtail 2
alba Wagtail 9, 5
Pink-footed Goose 7, 102
Reed Bunting 4
Meadow Pipit 2, 9
Chaffinch 2, 5
Skylark 11, 17
Tree Sparrow 0, 7
Jackdaw - 8

Grounded
VERY little in addition to birds ringed
Goldcrest - c14 (8 ringed)
Song Thrush - 10
Chiffchaff - 4 (two ringed)
Stonechat - one Heysham barrows

Thanks Dan

Red nab and area mudflats
Med gull - 5 ad, 2 2cy
Little gull - ad
Snipe - 7 oe saltmarsh
Linnet - 25
Peregrine -1
Kestrel - 1

Harbour wall
Rock pipit - 2

Thanks Janet

Ringing
About 38 new birds between Middleton and Heysham (5 nets) with most of the grounded migrant element on Middleton: Included:  Goldcrest (8), Chiffchaff (2), Pied Wagtail (5), 2-3 Wren and Robin of probable migrant/dispersive status and Grey Wagtail & Reed Bunting (one each)

Insects
Speckled Wood - tatty one Middleton
Migrant Hawker - 3
Common Darter - 2
Red Admiral - 4

Under a cloud

A mass of cloud hung over the Heysham area till late morning putting a bit of a dampener on the vis and ringing.  A bit more action when it started to clear and I've updated stuff from elsewhere in the recording area to add to Jean's post

The mid morning 'action' was mostly tit movement with at least 20 coal and 35 long-tailed through Heysham NR as well as the flock of 13 unringed birds caught at Middleton

Vis

Pink-footed Goose - at least 485 Groups moving south throughout the morning

Sparrowhawk 1

Redpoll sp 3

Siskin 1

Meadow Pipit 18

Alba Wagtail 40

Chaffinch 16

Raven 1

Grey Wagtail 7
Skylark - 4

Snipe 2
Song thrush - 1
Mistle thrush - 2

No sign of the Redwing heading NW from the Pennines.

Two singing Cetti’s Warblers on site at Middleton NR

Ringing
at Middleton and Heysham NRs consisted mainly of Long-tailed Tits (13), Chiffchaff (5), Goldcrest (14) Reed Bunting (5), Coal tit (4), Pied and Grey Wagtails (two each) and a surprise late Willow Warbler.

Had a look at the ringing totals and, has been the case in recent years, the Chiffchaff total overtook that of Willow Warbler today (217:215) but it has been a poor later autumn for Blackcap which suddenly dried up in mid-September.   Goldcrest are very unpredictable but it looks like just one decent spell of suitable ringing weather could see a record annual total (already 211).  Thanks to everyone for the Grey Wagtail effort during an autumn passage where mist netting was by no means straightforward with a lot of last minute weather watching - 82 colour-ringed is a good total in the circumstances

One feature of this second half of the year has been the complete lack of any birds ringed elsewhere (other than Med Gulls).  Maybe the fairly constant low-level movements, rather than major falls, indicate that we are catching mainly young birds trickling south down the country from obscure inland locations (in this respect Heysham is very 'central' as the west coast headland nearest to the east coast!) and not 'finding' the numerous mainly coastal ringing sites en route.     

Miscellany
Guillemot - one out then landed
Red throated diver - one out
Ringed plover - 43 on red nab at ht
Med gull - ad and 1cy

Seawatching cameo

Webs count a day early knowing that all the waders south of the harbour would be on their way to Garry at Middleton on both today and tomorrow, so no problem with double counts

During this count, a bit of a seawatch from the back of the harbour and the first five minutes were 'amazing' by heysham standards in breezy but not particularly promising weather:

Sea 1255-1315
Guillemot - 1
Razorbill - 2 together
Gannet - adult out
Med gull - adult out
Then the rest of the seawatch consisted of a few large gulls

Miscellany
Med gull - 1cy outfalls
Little gull - ad outfalls

Cormorant - 122 wooden jetty
Redshank - 670 heliport wall
Oystercatcher - 6950 heliport - see how they don't mind being next to the tall vegetation but are in two lots either side of it with the near lot spilling on to the old heliport surface.  Not all were displaced from the seawall on the 10m tide as the fresh/strong wind had no north in it.

Ringed plover - 18 heliport,  30 south of oe on incoming tide
Little stint - probably two different individuals ( one definitely a juv )
with other waders south of ocean edge on incoming tide

MD, PJM

Gold rush

Clear skies overnight and a full moon usually mean a clearout of night migrants so a netful of Goldcrests was a big surprise (20+ first round at Middleton). Some were pretty weighty for this minute migrant (6 grams ! ) suggesting that they had hung around for a day or two feeding up.

Ringing with a line of 3 sunlit nets at Heysham and two better ones at Middleton
included 34 Goldcrest, 5 Chiffchaff, 3 Reed Bunting, 3 Coal Tit, 4 Wren and a couple each of Grey Wagtail and Robin and a single Bullfinch 

Vis over Heysham and Middleton NR

Meadow Pipit - c250

Skylark - 4

Raven - 1

Song Thrush - 7

Siskin - 2

Redpoll - 3

Alba Wagtail - 22

Chaffinch - 14

Grey Wagtail - 11 (just 2 ringed)
Jackdaw - 44 (3 lots)
Pink-footed Goose - c160 in three lots 

Carrion Crow - 8
Goldfinch - c30
Coal Tit - 7 (3 ringed)
Kingfisher - one

Grounded
included:
Cetti's Warbler - one migrant just to the south of the area at Potts Corner and at least opne singing/calling at Middleton
Chiffchaff - at least 11 in addition to those caught
Stonechat - two together Middleton
Goldcrest - at least 50 around

Miscellany
Sandwich Tern - one Red Nab
Med Gull - ad, 2CY, 1CY behind IOM ferry

PH, MJ, MD, JM, JR, PJM, DH

 

 

 

Waifs and strays

Wind easing and moving towards west, but still too much for some.

Juvenile Gannet was sheltering in Harbour late morning, had moved on by late afternoon.

Juvenile Little gull on No.1 outflow in morning, again no sign late afternoon.

Adult Common Tern No.2 outflow. Did not arrive till almost high water. Looks to be the same bird that has been here for three days now.

1 adult and 1 juvenile Mediterranean gull also on No.2 outflow

2 Skylark grounded on small patch of grassed ground on wall side of wooden jetty.

Red Nab
3 Grey Wagtail
14 Wigeon

Ocean Edge
6 Little Egret
5 Wheatear
1 Greenshank
1 Black Tailed Godwit
1 Common Snipe
1 Rock Pipit
MD/JR

Autumn fayre

So which is rarer at Heysham - Leach's Petrel or juvenile Gannet? Apparently the latter but both appeared in similar numbers today.

Thanks to Jim Clift for the photos

Seawatch from 09:10 - 13:00 (High tide 9.06m at 11:13)
Leach's Petrel - 1 out very close inshore at 10:40, 2 out at yellow buoy distance at 12:53
juv Gannet - 1 harassed by juv Herring gulls, later 2 others out, 2CY into Bay, 3 adults into Bay
Common Scoter - 1 drake close inshore flew out of the Bay at 10:20
Kittiwake - ad and first winter behind the ferry
Shelduck - 2 out and 2 in
Wigeon - 4 out
Pink-footed Goose - 375 in 10 flocks (120 at 09:40, 7 at 10:20, 45 at 10:25, 43 at 11:05, 8, 34, 34, 84)
Med gull - Czech ad, 2cy and 1cy at various times along seawall

Ocean Edge
Mediterranean Gull - 9 (3 x 1CY, 3 x 2CY, 3 x ad)

Outfalls
Common Tern - 1 ad (same as yesterday)
Little gull - usual ad

Moss Lane, Heaton
1600 mixed gulls (90% Black-headed) included 2 adult Mediterranean Gulls

Report by JR

Northwesterly pink foot surge

Various reports throughout the day gave

Pinkfooted goose - 590 in 10 skeins in very intermittent watching and missing the late afternoon peak to the north of here - all southish
Common tern - ad outfalls
Little gull - ad outfalls
Med gull - 5 (1x 1cy, 2x 2cy and 2x ad) red nab and area
Wheatear - 2
Rock pipit - 1
Swallow - 1

Thanks mainly to Malcolm for today's coverage