Firecrest

This was the predicted fare in these early November easterlies and a nice male.

Grounded
Blackbird - 104 comprising birds on the tank farm, those flying inland from dawn and those grounded to the north of the office.  There were no grounded thrushes on Middleton mid-am
Firecrest - 1 caught below the old Obs Tower site
Goldcrest - 1 new bird
Song Thrush - 4
Redwing - 27
Woodcock - 1
Meadow Pipit - always a few grounded around the coast in early November - rather odd:  Photo from Kevin:

Vis
Mistle Thrush - 2+7 north
Woodpigeon - 159 S (flock 140)
Pink-footed Goose - 66 S
Redwing - 13 high flyers
Chaffinch - 27
Brambling - 1
Bullfinch - 3
Goldfinch - 5
Carrion Crow - 3

Middleton Nature Reserve - mid afternoon
No sign of Goldeneye or Pochard,
Gadwall 23
Tufted 1 male
Teal 2 (m&f)
Shoveler only the male seen
Little grebe 2 (1 partial sp on Tim Butler plus juv/wp bird on "no swimming" pond.)

Redwing c60 grounded

Great White Egret 1 flew east from golfclub direction leaving the Reserve over the main pond (MD)

Bits and bobs from Sunday

Little Egret - colour ringed bird Red Nab - our first
Shag - ad and 1CY in the inner harbour
Ad Little Gull
Med - 2 x 1CY - not seen recently

More later

Early morning rounds quite productive but where are the cuddy ducks?

Middleton main pond
Goldeneye - male but flew off
Pochard - male and female (IOA)

Low tide channels from Knowlys
Great-crested Grebe - 24 in second channel
Red-breasted Merganser - 4 in second channel
Shag - 4 - three feeding close together and synchronously amongst the more individually feeding Cormorants off the Head. These all looked to be 1cy.
Later, one adult flew into the inner harbour.

Mute Swan - Pair and three young on the sea
Red-throated Diver - one out distantly
Meadow Pipit - 5 horse paddock
Rock Pipit - one heard calling from beach area by horse paddock

Outfalls
Little Gull - ad
Purple Sandpiper reported by an unknown couple as being on the skeer by the harbour

Agonopterix heracliana on office door

Middleton Nature Reserve - rest of stuff
Mute 5 adult 7 juvenile
Gadwall 23
Shoveler 3
Mallard 2
Moorhen c10
Little grebe 1
Woodcock 1
Common snipe 1
Jack snipe 1
Water rail 1

Cetti's warbler 2
Meadow pipit 3
Reed bunting 2

Thrushes
Lots feeding on hawthorn in NW corner before drifting off south.
Minimum numbers:
Redwing 30
Fieldfare 17
Blackbird 12
Song Thrush 2

Robin resumes acquaintance

Not a lot happening today.
Robin caught on Heysham Nature Reserve - first ringed as a juvenile in 2012.

Shelduck are feeding in large numbers between Red Nab and Pott's corner, c 200

The Wigeon flock gathered at No.1 outflow as tide started flooding. A count produces a, frustratingly, round number of 150.

Woodcock new for autumn

Office area from dawn
Woodcock - one in flight by the office
Brambling - one
Grey Wagtail - 1
Blackbird - c20 inland
Redwing - c10
Siskin - 2
Chaffinch - 20
Fieldfare - 2
Song Thrush - 4+
Lesser Redpoll - one ringed

Miscellany
Med Gull - at least one around including this following the ferry in (not the Czech bird)

Little gull 1 adult No.2 outflow and sitting on seawall
Either this is not the same bird as the returning moulting adult or something, maybe health, is stopping it behave as normal

Rock pipit 1 on Ocean Edge foreshore
Skylark - one OE saltmarsh
BH Gull - TMIC harbour
Eider - 20 lt channel
Great crest Grebe - 3 lt channel

Wednesday - Bit of variety

The most interesting theme this morning was a significant if rather localised movement of Blackbirds inland from the 'tank farm' first thing with 131 in total, including a loose gang of 77, plus a new Cetti's at Middleton.

Little gull -  adult started feeding on No.2 outflow just after tide covered Red Nab. Earlier 1 adult preening on Red Nab plus 1 adult or possibly 2CY flew in to bay.
Purple Sandpiper - landed on base of sea wall near No.2 outflow, with 6 Turnstone, just as tide reached the wall.
Rock pipit 1 near lighthouse.
Grey Wagtail - colour ringed bird Red Nab from 14/9/19 L/M  metal/O

Vis mig
Chaffinch - 107
Reed Bunting - 2
Greenfinch - 4
Goldfinch - 80
Linnet - 3
Skylark - 1
Redwing - 239
Blackbird - see above
Fieldfare - 212
Song Thrush - 5
Starling - 52
Pink-foot - 35 N
Whooper Swan - 12 east
Woodpigeon - 11
Carrion Crow - 36
Jackdaw - 30

On sea
Great -c Grebe - 4
RBM - 2
Wigeon - 110 Red Nab

Grounded
Blackcap - one ringed HNR office
Cetti's Warbler - new one ringed Middeton NR
Chiffchaff - heard calling HNR



 

28 & 29 October

Tuesday 29 October

Heysham Head and Heysham NR
Visible migration 07:30-09:30
Weather: NE F3, clear, 0-10C, 1029mB
Finch passage mainly heading along the coast into the wind.
Chaffinch 152 (largest flock = 44)
Brambling 4
Redpoll sp 5
Greenfinch 4
Goldfinch 7
Siskin 2
Skylark 8
Linnet 2
alba wagtail 1 (south)
Fieldfare 15
Mistle Thrush 1
Blackbird 4
Starling 10 (south)
Meadow Pipit 7 (south) c20 grounded Near Head
Whooper Swan 10 (4 +6 south- see photo below)
Woodpigeon 40 (south)
Carrion Crow 6
Rook 2
Jackdaw 30
(NB Swallow at 12:50)

These Whoopers flew directly over my head and in the time it took to scrabble for my phone they had almost disappeared from view.

In the low tide channel:
Goldeneye 3 (1M, 2F) which flew SW as the tide turned
Red-throated Diver - 1 flew into the Bay
Great-crested Grebe - 2 feeding in the channel

Wooden Jetty
Purple Sandpiper 1

Turnstone 100
Cormorant 97

Outfalls
Little Gull

Ocean Edge saltmarsh 
Skylark 4 (north)
Pinkfoot 37 (north)
Male Stonechat 1

***************************************************************************
Monday 28 October 

Weather: NE F2, clear, sunny, very cold (0-8C)

Heysham NR
Visible migration 
Most birds heading northwards into the wind
Chaffinch 85
Brambling 2
Greenfinch 19
Siskin 1
Redpoll sp 1
Bullfinch 1
Woodpigeon 48
Fieldfare 33
Redwing 16
Jackdaw 19
Carrion Crow 14
Corvid sp 55
Song Thrush 1
Blackbird 10
Skylark 4
Meadow Pipit 1
Tree Sparrow 2

Grounded 
Redwing 7
Fieldfare 1
Blackcap 1
Goldcrest 4
Siskin 1
Blackbird 15
JR

Middleton NR

The overnight frost must have been the last straw for the Coot as there was no sign of it.
Still one Little Grebe and 4 Common Darters.
Mute Swan 3 adult, 7 juv  (the additional juv is much browner than the 5 +1 resident juvs)
Moorhen 11
Mallard 3
Tufted Duck 1 male
Shoveler 3 (see photo above)
Gadwall 6

Plenty of feeding thrushes around, mainly Blackbird, but at least 8 Redwing and 2 Fieldfare.
MD

Reasonable selection minus the Purp

No early morning start in the fresh north-westerly this am.  Coverage was centred around looking for the Purple Sand to no avail.....but it could have slipped the net if feeding below the jetty or along the north wall.  The Leighton Café rarities committee were divided on the identity of a diver photographed off the Stone Jetty yesterday which proved to be a rather 'heavy billed' juvenile Red-throat.  Probably the same bird close inshore off Heysham this am (pics MD):

 

Juv GBBG - a plumage rarely published outside books on seagulls

 

Little gull - adult No.2 outflow
Jack snipe  - 1 saltmarsh
Stonechat - 1 female type, briefly at saltmarsh, male by Red Nab
Meadow pipit - 3 near lighthouse, 6 saltmarsh
Rock pipit - 1 saltmarsh, one harbour
Linnet c30
Red Throated Diver. 1 juv close inshore last seen by Heysham 2 outfall feeding quite happily
Kittiwake - 4 ads behind Ben

Guillemot - one out medium range

Med Gull - 1-2 Ads behind Ben

A decent number of Knot on the Heliport for over a month now - good murmuration views today as the north westerly high tide restricted the area in which to roost.

Goosewatch
As I was coming off skeer yesterday evening, just before it got dark, 5 geese flew low to west. They could easily have come from children's play area. Similarly today as I was walking along foreshore when 4 or 5 geese were flying from saltmarsh towards Potts. In both case they were too distant to identify, but previous habits suggest Brent (MD).

Welcome return

A Purple Sandpiper was photographed at Red Nab this afternoon (thanks, Kevin). Last year  one was seen on one date only last autumn. Let’s hope this one sticks around for a little while.

An adult Mediterranean Gull was seen from the North Harbour Wall this afternoon and one seen from the Knowlys Road vantage point.

Feathered Thorn in the moth trap

JR

Pre-rain vis session

Not too bad a session pre-rain this morning with clear-cut southbound vis mig, allowing the more subtle lower-flying fare to be logged as such instead of indeterminate possible 'bloggers'.  Much better than chasing down to Hertfordshire for what proved to be a manicured wire-hopper.

Vis 0800-1000 HNR office
No cross-bay vis in the cloudy conditions, everything was from Heysham head direction along the coast
Whooper Swan - 3 - very high and nearly missed - an odd record in the conditions
Greylag - 3
Carrion Crow - 14
Chaffinch - 297 (no Brambling perceived, certainly no nasal calls)
Goldfinch - 52
Greenfinch - 67
Bullfinch - 9 (5+2+2)
Long-tailed Tit - flock 11
Jay - 5 (2+1+1+1)
Tree Sparrow - flock of 7
Blackbird - odd - none first thing but steady stream heading south over the office out of the bushes to the north after 0900 - total 67, including loose flock of 29
Redwing - just two with the above
Song Thrush - 1
Collared Dove - 3+1
Woodpigeon - 46 - no big gangs
Pink-footed Goose - 450+ 640 north - suspiciously like roost >feeding area but definitely not Oxcliffe fields unless they swung back south oos.

Blogging raptors noticeable - 2 x Peregrine, Kestrel, 2-3 x Sparrowhawk

Grounded
Goldcrest conspicuous by its absence within audible range HNR office
Chiffchaff - one calling from fire pond area
Plus the above thrushes