New Med and distant Scoter

Heysham Obs
North harbour wall 0630-1030ish
Common Scoter - flock of c80
Gannet - 1
Fulmar - 1
Kittiwake - 1
All the above very distant

Inshore
Shag - there are still two juvs around!
Med. Gull - First summer drifted south along the wall and was last seen passing the wooden jetty
No mention of any tern species
Trickle of inshore northbound Swallow with 2 House Martin

Thanks to Mark and John for all the above records

Evening visit to Red Nab

Wheatear female

Ringed plover 14

Dunlin 2

Whimbrel 1

Curlew 6

Shelduck 21

Red-breasted merganser pair

Great crested grebe 1

Greenfinch juv Nature Park

Middleton IE
A few Marsh Orchid spp. (x ??)


Thanks Malcolm

Elsewhere
Spoonbill adult on flood (E end of EM Pool, Leighton Moss). Secondhand, but seemingly reliable information re-the Whitendale Eagle Owls taking a collie (spp.) as prey yesterday. Osprey Dunsop valley c1000hrs. Common Crane still Chipping Moss area - last known position was c674424, about 7km east of Chipping and c10km south of the LDBWS recording area.

Bits and bobs

Heysham Obs
Outfalls/Red Nab/ inshore am
A quiet morning.
Oystercatcher c600 off RN & Ocean Edge
Turnstone 5 south + 6 below wooden jetty
Shag juv wooden jetty
Cormorant flew in from Bay with 'nest mats' in bill & offered to its mate with alot of sideways head movement - display?

North wall seawatch/outfalls/inshore 1200-1400hrs
This was better than expected:
Arctic Skua - light morph 'in' at 1255hrs
Fulmar - one very distantly out and across at c1300hrs
Turnstone - 13 on rocks
Common Tern - 2 on Stage one outfall, seaward end [no Arctic Tern seen]
Common Gull - maximum of c25 on seaward end of Stage one outfall
Shag - the most interesting sighting was a juv flying out of the harbour seemingly heading for its usual roost/preen on the wooden jetty. However the landing was aborted in the fresh wind and the bird simply continued out of the Bay until lost from sight! Are there any left from the epic influx?
Swallow - 2 north

Middleton IE
Two Grasshopper Warblers in territorial dispute

Moths
New for the year were May Highflyer and Yellow Shell. Two Shaded Pug were also in the trap.

Elsewhere
Quail heard calling from just south of Stauvin Farm, Roeburndale East, this early afternoon. Common Crane on nearby Chipping Moss this evening (not sure where this is - hope in the right county!).

A quickie

Heysham Obs

1620 - 1710 hrs
Heysham 2 outfall - Arctic tern 10, common tern 2
Heron off Red Nab
Shelduck 13 RN/Ocean Edge

Shag juv wooden jetty
Herring gull on nest on one of the three platforms in the harbour near the 'waterfall'

Insects

The first Shaded Pug of the year in the moth trap. This species is very local and coastal in NW England and has only been recorded at Heysham, albeit in increasing numbers, during the last 5 years. Shoulder-striped Wainscot and Common Swift were also new for the year

Thanks to John Holding

Elsewhere

Osprey over the Dunsop valley

A drizzly morning

Heysham Obs
A walk taking in Ocean Edge, Red Nab and the outfalls in poor visibility produced not a lot.

Wheatear OE

Ringed plover 3 OE foreshore

Shelduck 2

Arctic tern 2 off No. 2 outfall

Common gull c10 1st summer

Insects
Treble lines at the Observatory in the moth trap. This is the first record for the site. This moth has a curious distribution with evidence suggesting that it has declined in north Lancs with all but two recent records from the limestone areas around Warton/Silverdale. However, the coastal distribution in the Fylde and SW Lancs suggest that it may indeed be thinly scattered, but until now unrecorded, in coastal areas north of the Wyre



Thanks to Alan Draper

Log entries unfortunately not transferred - sorry

Heysham Obs
No information received today - the first blank entry since we started in mid-December 2006 and due to lack of time because of problems with some management work, not lack of activity. Todays moth catch should be posted tomorrow

Elsewhere
The Eagle Owl situation in Whitendale is now in the public domain. Comments can be found on the LDBWS site

Goosander surprise

Heysham Obs

Sea/vis from the north harbour wall
The routine two-hour 'seawatch' was undertaken between 1200 and 1400hrs. A very pleasant 'deck chair in the sun' experience, uninterrupted by notebook entries!

Eider - A group of 3 floating in with the tide was the sum total of the offshore observations other than a few meandering immature gulls. There was no hirundine passage at all in the two hours.

Inshore (north wall)
Turnstone - 6 back and forth along the north wall
Goosander - A quality Heysham rarity in the form of a female which flew south above the NHW and cut across over the large cable-carrier towards Red Nab (1325hrs)
Arctic tern - 5 on outfalls
Shag - 2 juvs on the wooden jetty

Grounded migrants
A Spotted Flycatcher by the Obs and two Wheatear on Middleton IE

Breeding birds
One of the Middleton Grasshopper Warblers was singing intermittently. The 'No Swimming' pond held a pair of Little Grebe with 3 young.

Insects
New for the year in the moth trap were: Clouded Bordered Brindle, Small Clouded Brindle, Eyed Hawk-moth. Two 4-spotted Chaser seen Middleton IE

Elsewhere
At least one Spoonbill Leighton Moss

Even worse...........

Heysham Obs
This must be the least productive day at theoretical migration time ever experienced in north Lancashire..........................but what a result at Wembley where at least one local patch birder was celebrating! Congratulations to Morecambe.

Seawatching of sorts 0630-0930ish
Shag - one around
Arctic Tern - 6 on Heysham one outfall

Not a thing moving offshore but was anyone watching in the Walney direction at 0900ish? (Spoonbill circling the Obs)

Insects
A very early immature male Emperor dragonfly seen on the 'dog-walk' (Landscape strip) pond

Elsewhere
Two Spoonbill still at Leighton Moss (per pager). Male and Female Cuckoo seen/heard upper Hindburndale this evening - they have been scarce this year so far. Absolute zilch recorded on JBP seawatches today, reflecting the earlier complete dearth at Heysham.

Utter rubbish

Heysham Obs
As the modified posting on the LDBWS site implied after last night's weather forecast, seawatching today was a complete waste of time. There was nothing weather-wise to the south of here to push anything into the Bay and more evidence that the windfarm is stopping even minor deviations by Gannet, Fulmar and Manx Shearwater which should have been in reasonable numbers today

Sea coverage north wall 0630-1400ish
Gannet 4
Manx Shearwater 2
Fulmar 2
Arctic Skua dark morph out - the ONLY skua seen in the Bay today!
Red-throated Diver 1
Pink-footed Goose - late flock of 14 to the NW at 0840hrs

Inshore
Whimbrel - 1
Little Gull - 1st S Heysham 2 outfall low tide
Arctic Tern - c17 Heysham outfalls low tide
Common Tern - 2 outfalls low tide

Elsewhere
Male Scoter spp on the sea off JBP before flying out & landing in the 'middle of the bay'. (The) Black Scoter not ruled out but no features whatsoever to suggest this was not just a male Common other than circumstances!

PS I went to the Solway just after midday!!

"Typical" seawatching weather!

Heysham Observatory
Sea 1200-1400
Everything was flying out bar one very distant skua spp at about 1341hrs. This watch coincided with the rapid clearance after a cold front & birds swept into the bay must not have liked what they saw as regards an overland route!

Pom Skua - light morph out and across, then south 1236
Bonxie - one out, close inshore, at 1310
Kittiwake - 7+1 out
Manx Shearwater - one distantly across the mouth
Arctic Tern - one out - the only tern seen
Dunlin - c110 out (about 6 flocks)
Sanderling - 2+2 out
Turnstone - 17+5+2 out [none on the wooden jetty this last few days]
Ringed Plover - c10 out (3 flocks)

Sea 1800-2000
Petrel spp.: almost certainly a Storm Petrel - It was trying to flutter out but was progressively swept into the Bay at about 1830hrs

Inshore
Shag - 3 juvs

Heliport roost at HT
Oystercatcher - 450
Turnstone - 23
Ringed Plover - 17 (excluding breeding pair)
Dunlin - 5

Insects
Reasonable moth catch with the scarce and local Broad-barred White new for the year as also was Silver Ground Carpet and Turnip Moth

Broad-barred White. Thanks to Jean Roberts

Elsewhere
JBP: dm Arctic Skua up the Kent channel as soon as the rain cleared at 1200hrs. Another dm Arctic Skua seen distantly offshore about a hour later.

Mutually-exclusive seabirds!

..........but not the black seaduck that we all wanted. A feature of today was that seawatching from Knott End, Heysham and JB Point all recorded different birds from each other! There is no way that the two Heysham observers would have missed flocks of 4+2 dark-morph Arctic Skuas passing between 1030-1130 and subsequently recorded at flying into the Bay at JBP (then 4 up the Kent estuary/2 over Leighton Moss). This has happened before and one common denominator could be the faster flowing sea on the increasingly 'spring' tides could possibly encourage these skuas to remain sitting on the sea 'going with the significant flow' in the right direction. They would be too far offshore to be picked up in this mode off Heysham. Perhaps similarly, the birds which were picked up in flight off Heysham were intent on gaining height and overlanding before reaching the inner Bay, hence unrecorded at JBP! Any thoughts when this posting is reproduced on the LDBWS site later tonight?

Heysham Obs
Sea/vis 0900-1200
Arctic Skua - lm and dm about 300m behind each other heading NE about 0930. 2 lm in close inshore together at c1035. One very distant pale morph skua at 0950 was presumably Arctic but looked a bit 'lightweight'
Bonxie - one very distantly in
Kittiwake - a rarity this spring was a flock of 33 in at c1030hrs
Linnet - 2 late birds north
Swallow - c30 north
Whimbrel - flock of 12 north

No terns seen!

Inshore
Shag - 2 juvs on wooden jetty after feeding along NHW

Insects
Setaceous Hebrew Character new for the year

Mammals
Grey Seal off NHW

Elsewhere
JBP seabirds: 1+4+2 Arctic Skua 'in' - ALL dark morph! See above for comment. Osprey seen from JBP heading out towards Heysham but not 'picked up' there (despite being alerted) & presumably headed inland over Morecambe. Pair Garganey still on Barrow Scout. Two Spoonbill still at Leighton Mos but a bit elusive. No sign of the escaped Night Heron at Lancaster Uni during brief check.