Even better tidal display

However - it isn't really what we are about this time of year and the forecast for the foreseeable future has migrant mediocrity written all over it and doesn't look like providing the back-up ringing to getting up early to catch and colour ring a handful of Grey Wagtail.  We'll see - could really do with a howling gale if it is going to be unhelpful weather

Purple Sandpiper - adult moulting out of summer plumage on Red Nab - disappeared behind a rock and I lost it in the incoming tide mayhem - loosely with Turnstone
Sanderling - c6 Red Nab
Dunlin - 500 Red Nab then flushed by tide
Med Gull - 25 by the wooden jetty feeding on tube worms this evening (ANLT amongst them)

Rhomboid Tortrix in moth trap I think is new for year

Good early morning neap tidal display

Inshore
Spotted redshank - Juv oe creek then along inner shore to south
Grey plover - 369 many in summer plumage
Dunlin - 1870
Bar-tailed Godwit -  411
Sandwich Tern - 4 red nab
Med gull - 3x 2cy 1x Juv Red Nab, then 9 by wooden jetty in evening including metal ringed Ad and German green ANLT (thanks Malcolm)
Shag - 2cy by then on wooden jetty
Cormorant - 135 wooden jetty at least

Vis 08:00-10:00
Reed Bunting 1
Swallow 18
Dunnock 1
Grey Wagtail 1
Meadow Pipit 1
Chaffinch 2

Ringing
Very slow
Robin 2 up to 10am and several blank round

Middleton NR
Teal 8 (2 Tim Butler 6 no swimming ponds)
Tufted single male still in eclipse
Gadwall 15
No sign of Coot, but they are sometimes elusive.
Water Rail - one calling from low ground between main pond and Tim Butler pond. Presumably a new arrival.
Common Snipe 1

Southern hawker on golf club strip. Probably same insect as previous sighting.
Common darters ovipositing, including in remnants of new ponds.

More Ringing in the crystal clear

This was a very odd day where there was just about one of everything but absolutely no numbers other than perhaps Swallow.   Despite a clear corridor there seemed to be zero cross bay vis mig!

Tree pipit - one se

Grey wagtail - 5 ringed

Singles or twos of Whitethroat, blackcap, willow warbler, lesser whitethroat, chiffchaff and a few robins ringed.  Jay also ringed!

Vis mig 
In addition to the Tree Pipit and Grey Wagtails -
Chaffinch 16
Swallow 21
Linnet 2
Meadow Pipit 1

Mainly Ringing on Tuesday

A triple session at all our main sites saw an unremarkable return with further confirmation that most warblers had cleared out and there was little evidence of passage from elsewhere.   Best was a single Tree pipit

Vis
alba wagtail 1
Meadow Pipit 5
Swallow 8
Linnet 2
Chaffinch 1
Grey Wagtail 2
Coal Tit 1
Starling 34 - probably ex-roost but all went SE

Low key coverage

Two sandwich tern and just five med gull on red nab at high tide

Whitethroat caught in feeder net run for a short time by office this pm
Along with a Male Greenfinch first ringed in 2013

The Moth trap held typical autumnal species including Treble Bar

Out of the Blue

A shock today at Middleton where the first substantial Blue Tit flock for many years ended up in the net.  This is early days for migratory/dispersing flocks - usually peaking around the last week of September - so hopefully its not a precursor of the rest of the autumn as they can lead to a precautionary reduction in mist nets and all the rarities slip through the dense scrub unrecorded

Note the blackberry stains on the bags from the eight Blackcap ringed earlier:

Alan back at base with 60% of todays otherwise unremarkable ringing in one net on one round! 

Middleton NR WeBS
Mute Swan (4), Coot (2), Moorhen (12), Gadwall (10+), Tufted Duck (1), Grey Heron (1), Cormorant (1).  In addition
Common Sandpiper - one main pond
Green Sandpiper - one Tim Butler pond

Vis mig this morning 0730 on wards  SEish unless stated otherwise
Grey Wagtail - at least 6, poss 8
Swallow - 215
Meadow Pipit - 20
Chaffinch - 4
alba Wagtail - 5
Linnet - 1
Goldfinch - 60
House Martin - 16
Sand Martin - 18 (late for these numbers but similar to others seen locally)
Pink-footed Goose - flock of 11 NORTH!  IOA

Ringing Hey/Midd
Blue Tit (20), Grey Wagtail (3), Willow Warbler (2), Goldfinch (3), Greenfinch (1), Wren (2), Linnet (1), Blackcap (8), Reed Warbler (1), Whitethroat (1), Great Tit (2)

Saturday 1st Sept

Vis mig at the office at HNR during am
Meadow Pipit 24
Reed bunting 1
Yellow wagtail 1
Grey wagtail 5
Alba wagtail 7
Swallow 57
Redshank 5
Chaffinch 9
Carrion crow 1
House Martin 1+

Grounded Heysham NR/foreshore

Wheatear - 2
Willow Warbler - 2
Whitethroat - 1
Sandwich Tern - juv Red Nab roost

Middleton
Southern Hawker - not common here - photographed Middleton today (thanks Malcolm)

At last the Blackcaps materialise

Just received the ringing totals list for the month from Alan and they make quite interesting reading with respect to relative abundances of migrants during the month.   It did seem that many of the locally-bred warblers deserted the rather dry 'wetlands' of Middleton nature reserve, at least in the ringing area.  The exceptions were Lesser Whitethroat and Whitethroat, and, today, Blackcap (16 out of the monthly total of 42 ringed today).  The main feature of the month - and I know this compared to plenty at some other coastal sites - was the comparative redundancy of AA rings.  Only 69 size AA rings were used all month with 43 of these on Willow Warbler - the vast majority early in the month with no late passage of this species.  Not a single Long-tailed Tit flock passed though the Heysham or Middleton mist net rides and Chiffchaffs were in very short supply but will hopefully kick off in September.  Another species which seemed to desert the wetlands was Reed Bunting with just two ringed, one a probable vis mig bird today.  Sedge Warblers were typically low in August but Reed Warblers were in good numbers for here with far more than usual trapped out of habitat at Heysham NR office nets.  No Swallow roost materialised in August this year at Middleton    

Top ten August ringing totals:  Goldfinch (110), Whitethroat (81), Greenfinch (69), Willow Warbler (43), Blackcap (42), Lesser Whitethroat (39), Blue Tit (30), Robin (23), Reed Warbler (22), Sedge Warbler (18)

Coastal records today limited to single figures of Med Gull and 25 Eider & 4 GC Grebe off Heysham Head.  Two Wheatear and at least two Rock Pipit below the cliffs at Heysham Head:

Vis mig was a bit intermittently recorded, especially Swallow and the clear conditions surely send birds very high:
Chaffinch 2
Meadow Pipit 13
Tree Pipit 2
alba Wagtail 8
Grey Wagtail 4
Carrion Crow 6
Swallow 34
Jay 2

The Vismig season kicks off

Middleton Nature Reserve

It was a chilly start, only 5C at 06:30 and with air pressure building hopes were high for some diurnal migrants. There wasn’t exactly a deluge of migrating birds but there were a few:
06:30 - 11:00
Grey Wagtail 11 (of which two were caught and colour-ringed)
Tree Pipit 2
Meadow Pipit 5
Swallow 68
Chaffinch 5
Raven 4
Coal Tit 1
Alba Wagtail 1
Reed Bunting 1

Also on the reserve -
Green Sandpiper
Flock of c14 Goldfinches

Ringing (new birds)
Blackcap 1
Willow Warbler 2
Chiffchaff 1
Grasshopper Warbler 1
Robin 2
Lesser Whitethroat 1
Blue Tit 3
Dunnock 1
Goldfinch 2
Grey Wagtail 2

An adult Whitethroat may have been ringed elsewhere or was very old as the number on the ring wasn’t familiar.

Mid week hiatus

Not much seen/reported today.

14 Mediterranean gulls on Red Nab, no juveniles. Just two by wooden jetty this morning, none on ebbing tide.

Middleton Nature Reserve
Quite a lot of insect activity in afternoon sun, particularly in sheltered areas, but not the variety of late.
Dragonflies: lots of Common darter, 2 Brown hawker, 2 (presumed Migrant) hawker.
Butterflies: mainly Speckled wood and small white. Also 2 Comma and 1 Red Admiral.

Birds.
1 Green sandpiper - this is showing well on Tim Butler pond most visits, but viewing points are few. Best from high ground on western end looking along pond.
1 Common snipe
c20 Gadwall
1 Tufted

(Report MD)