Alternative viewing to royal wedding

In contrast to the madness that was Royal Wedding fever on the TV, Heysham was relatively quiet and peaceful, a bit too peaceful really on the sea.

From the Roundhead/lighthouse on the south wall 0900-0930 and 1050-1350. Clear, sunny, hazy in distance, F1 WNW
Eider - at least 68 at low tide
Great-crested Grebe - 8
Sandwich Tern - 28 in the low tide channel, 2 in, then 19 on the sea further out
Mute Swan - 7 flew across the Bay then landed on the sea at 1105h
Common Scoter - 5 in at 1130 then 200 much further away floating in at 1205
Guillemot - 2 floating in at 1315h
Kittiwake - 1 floating in at 125h
Swallow - a grand total of 5
Shag - 2CY on the wooden jetty 1055-1350
Rock Pipit - suddenly appeared from inside the power station fence on the south wall and flew to the roundhead
Grey Seal by Heysham 1 outfall.
Alfie balloon floated in  - this is the second one seen.
JR

Ocean Edge salt marsh beach
12 Dunlin and 11 Ringed Plover at high tide.
MD

Itsy bitsy end of season feel

The forecasted easterlies have deteriorated into 'middle of high pressure variables' with any decent easterly airflow shunted to the back of next week when observer availability is going to be a factor.  Fair weather birder stuff!

Sea for probably far too long to 1330 (thanks Dan for the last bit)
Arctic Tern - 3 in early on
Arctic Skua - light morph motoring up the Kent channel as the tide started to flow mid-am
Common Scoter 355 in, (incl 340 in together landing in one distant raft, which soon fragmented).
Guillemot 13 floating in, 2 seen to fly out. Mostly non-breeding plumaged birds in contrast to most recent sightings.
Sandwich Tern 2 adults blogging
Whimbrel 3+1 out
Bar-tailed Godwit 1 out
Little Egret 2 cross-bay in-off.
Pink-footed Goose 2 floating in
Swallow 11 N, 1 in-off
Great-crested Grebe - at least 11 off Heysham Head with two displaying birds carrying 'weed' - a Heysham novelty!

Mammals
Harbour Porpoise - 2
Grey Seal - 1
Otter - spraint using bits of crayfish on the rocks of model boat pond

Heysham Head
Spotted Flycatcher - one in garden just north of church

Middleton NR
see above
Cetti's Warbler - certainly two and almost certainly three singing males
Grasshopper Warbler - one singing along golf course edge
Little Grebe - pair on no swimming pond

Dragonflies Middleton
Broad bodied Chaser - 7
4-spotted Chaser - 5

Spotted Flys and bits on the sea

Sea on and off 0815 to 1135
Arctic Skua - At 1125, two dark morphs this am appeared to come high from the south-east before landing on the sea and floating in with the tide. I've seen plenty of skuas circling up and heading north east overland but not seemingly arriving from overland, although this is quite often seen with arctic (and when you get them) black tern flocks
Arctic Tern - flock of 4 in as soon as the tide started coming in
Sandwich Tern - one fishing distantly at low tide, then just two seen - flying purposefully into the bay together so presumably late migrants.  So presumably the hordes are now finally on 'nearer to the nest duty' in SW Cumbria?
Common Scoter - just c40+5 in
Guillemot - 8 floating in quite close
Kittiwake - single adult in
Razorbill - one as above
Whimbrel - 1 in
Swallow - 16 in
House Martin - 1 in
Red-breasted Merganser - two close inshore and pair further out
Great-crested Grebe - 17 counted at low tide - Malcolm (who knows the skeers and tides better than anyone in this area) went to investigate:

 Little Egret - 1

Miscellaneous
Spotted Flycatcher - one on pond fence by HNR office during a loo break prompting a quick Heysham Head check and there was at least one mobile bird in the line of trees between the church and the chapel

Bits and bobs of local quality in fresh north-easterly

One of those seawatches where a commitment made you leave a good hour before you really wanted to and unsurprisingly a Pomarine Skua was probably available, if it didn't climb in the fresh north-easterly, about 1130 (per Rossall data)

Sea from Knowlys road 0845-0930, outfalls from Ocean Edge 0950-1000, north wall 1005-1040
Little tern - one fishing and showing well for five mins before drifting out of sight 0903-0908hrs
Little Gull - two ad summer (or 3cy) together heading into bay 0906hrs. Thought they were black tern for a split second as the light was such all I noticed was the jet black underwings!
Arctic Skua - dark morph on then in 0914hrs
Sandwich tern - 16 in +/- fishing en route
Common scoter - min of 420, a fair proportion continuing into the bay
Guillemot - 10 floating in at yellow buoy range, mostly just before I left
Raz/guill - c10 distant as above
Gannet - 5 - all 1035-1040
Manx Shearwater - 1 - 1035
Arctic Tern - two on outfall railings

Better than mine! (thanks Malcolm)
1275 big seagulls on skeers, mostly 2CY or 3CY Herring
Shag - long staying 2CY shag close inshore off the Head, then flew towards wooden jetty
Eider - 85
Great crested Grebe - still 7 (3 pairs)

Grey Seal - 1

Burnet Companion IOY on Heysham Nature reserve (per Steve)

The float-in and the fly-by

The early morning mist was a bit on the thick side so visibility was compromised but not so badly that seawatching couldn't be carried out. The sea was like a mill pond so anything floating in at yellow buoy range was easy to see.

North Harbour Wall 0730-1030  Weather: SE F1. 8-13C
Sandwich Terns - c30 were milling about along the low tide channel and sitting on the buoys throughout the watch.
Arctic Tern - 14 in one flock headed into the Bay
Eider - 75 in the low tide channel
Great-crested Grebe - 5 (2 displaying pairs and a singleton)
Guillemot - 15 floated in at 09:30 in small groups
Black Guillemot - 1 in summer plumage with one of the Guillemot groups and was seen on and off (i.e. on top of then under the water) from 10:00 to 10:15. At 10:15 the sea mist cleared and the Guillemots cleared off north westwards.
Shag - 2CY on the wooden jetty as usual
Swallow - 4 north
A mixed flock of Dunlin and Ringed Plover flew overhead.

Meanwhile back at Heysham Nature Reserve:
Farmyard goose  - 1 white individual morphed from a lowly hybrid goose into a migrant goose and flew NE at 08:50
Hobby - 1 flew SE-NW at 09:02

Middleton Nature Reserve

 

The two mute on the main pond have abandoned their nest, which is now empty. There was no sign of human trampling close by so this was probably the nest predated by the fox.
The good news is that the Broad bodied Chasers are emerging. One near the largest new scrape was still pumping up its forewings (see first pic). Three others were flying in the sheltered strip to east of golf club.

Other stuff:
4-spotted Chaser 11
Lots of Bluetails and Azure (see pics)
Surprisingly, just one Large red today
"No swimming" and Central marsh Cetti's singing.
One Buzzard high over gun club

Sandwich day

The main theme of today was Sandwich Terns and not much else:

North Harbour Wall/Knowlys Road vantage point 06:15 - 08:30 
Weather: NE F1, 3C on arrival, 4/8 cloud

Sandwich Tern - 191 into the Bay and very few out
Arctic Tern - 12
Kittiwake - 12 (8+4 floating in, 2 flying out)
Gannet - 3 adults out, 1 adult floating in
Swan sp - 3
Common Scoter - 5
Whimbrel - 1+
Great-crested Grebe - 3 (2+1)
Swallow - 3
Tree Pipit - 1 (highlight of the day! Landed briefly on the mound)

14 Turnstone on the wooden jetty

Grey Seal - 1

JR, PJM

More seabirds

North Harbour Wall 0600-0830  Weather: NW F1 8C 5/8 cloud.  High Tide 10:36 8.91m

Steady trickle of seabirds early morning with very few after 07:30. Gannets were hard to count as they were milling about, going in then out then having a sit down. More or less the same number went out as in so the total below is probably about right. Most birds, apart from Sandwich Terns were distant and a telescope was essential.

Common Scoter - on arrival, a huge flock of about 600 were seen way out on the horizon heading out of the Bay with 6 other relatively closer ones also going out later on.
Gannet - 49
Arctic Skua - a dark morph flew out along one of the channels at 06:01
Manx Shearwater - 14 (i.e. 14 came in and 14 went out)
Sandwich Tern - 18 (18 came in, 14 went out)
Arctic Tern - 68 (5 flocks max 31)
Kittiwake - 3 in (with the Arctic Terns)
Great-crested Grebe - 2 in
Auk sp - 1 out
Red-throated Diver - 2 (i.e. 2 in , 1 out)
Whimbrel - 1 heard, not seen.
Swan sp - 3 north
Swallow - 4 in

Dragonfly
The first 4-spotted chaser of the year on Middleton - perhaps surprising before Broad-bodied?

JR, PC, AC, MD

Cumbrian seabird mirage and Little Tern for the year list

Low single figure temperatures and bright sunny weather often leads to a heat haze on the sea and that was the case this morning.  Loads of birds remained unidentified including an identikit of the 'Five Fastnet Flappers' of historical Cape Clear fame.  They could have been anything from swans to geese to Egyptian vultures etc etc..  Most of the unidentified birds were probably Common Scoter, although judging by Rossall reports from Ian, others could have been Manx Shearwater.

Sea 0600-0830
Manx Shearwater - 3
Common Scoter - 362 identified but at least double that as 'probables'
Sandwich Tern - 151 out leaving three still on buoy
Little Tern - two together out with a bit of fishing en route 0615
Common Tern - 1 in close inshore
Arctic Tern - 38+15 in
Goosander - two males in
Kittiwake - flock of 7 in
Gannet - two singleton ads out
Guillemot - one on sea floating in
Arctic Skua - light morph at 0620 and dark morph at 0645 both floating in then rising up off sea to chase sandwich terns
Whimbrel - 1+8 in
Red-throated Diver - 1 out
Mute Swan - 2CY out at long range then landed on sea
Raz/Guille - one out
Swallow - just 14 in
Common Sandpiper on the Near Naze

Grey Seal - 2
Harbour Porpoise - 1

Two decent sightings

Early morning sea-watching was left to Nick at the Stone Jetty and, not for the first time, the single skua record in a south-easterly was a couple of Poms.  Then Jean had a very close encounter with an in-off adult Hobby which whizzed past very close at 'eye level' on Heysham Head - a really decent bird here which is barely annual

Remember the continental-looking Robin already bearing a British ring?  Not far wrong with the Fair Isle guess!  Note what is presumably a very held-up migration (from southern Europe?) this year in the poor weather

Robin
S808539        Ad          11/03/17          Kildary, Cromarty Firth (Highland)
Recaptured                   01/05/18          Heysham  420km  S  416 days

Sea stone jetty/north wall/knowlys on and off to 1020
Pomarine Skua - two light morph in 0635
Common Scoter - c60 early on then one out
Arctic Tern - 3
Sandwich Tern - c10
Gannet - two adults u-turning
Manx Shearwater - 1+6 as above

Misc
Hobby - Ad in-off 1015
Swallow - 22 N
Whimbrel - two OE saltmarsh
Wheatear - 4
Greylag - pair Middleton

Interesting seawatch

It is not often you can roll up on a morning sea-watch ten minutes or so before high tide and see 99% of the birds of interest, especially on a slow-moving neap tide.  The first 55 minutes 0650-0745 were very slow.  Most of the action was after the second Arctic Skua at 0748hrs and the most numerous species were strangely compartmented with almost all the incoming Gannets between 0745 and 0842 and all the incoming Manx Shearwaters in a relatively concentrated fashion between 0840 and 0915, including a flock of 42.  The sea-watch was not without its problems as a lone observer with running eyes for the first hour or so, leading me to leave the 'scope-only' Knowlys site to mix and match with binoculars at the suboptimal location of the 'new' north wall barrier. 

Sea 0650-0930
Arctic Skua - 7 - DM unless stated - singles in at 0711, 0748, 0802, 0815 (LM), 0831 (Darkish M), 0842, 0918 (LM)
Light morph Arctic or Pomarine Skua - probably the latter in very distantly and rapidly at 0846 looking 'heavy and long-tailed' but not seen clearly enough in the slight heat-haze
Manx Shearwater - 119 in and then many coming out which were treated as already counted
Gannet - 83 in, all but one full adult, with several coming out later in the watch treated as already counted
Arctic Tern - flock of 3 in
Kittiwake - flock of 3 in (1 x 2CY)
Sandwich Tern - mostly flying purpose fully in = 32 with some out/blogging later in the seawatch with one being briefly chased by the last Arctic Skua  
Common Scoter - 3 in (one male)
Fulmar - one in
Guillemot - 2+ 2 in on incoming tide therefore not duplicates