Purple heys

At least one of the Purps (& Knot) at record shot range. Thanks Mario & Rosie

Heysham Obs
North harbour wall and area
Purple Sandpiper on the rocks between the locked gate and harbour entrance, later TWO there around midday on the large skeer by the sandworks entrance. These looked like 1st W birds (e.g. Collin's Guide criteria) BUT this has been thown into some disarray by known-age older birds looking 'similar' (broad white edgings to lesser & median coverts etc). Will research and re-post on this issue in the near future. Otherwise very disappointing with just one early morning sighting of 2nd W Med Gull and no auks or anything else of 'log interest'.

Heysham Nature Reserve
A collybita-type Chiffchaff was new for the winter Atlas (45E) and last seen around the Obs Tower pond. Blackbirds were fewer than yesterday with a count of 47 on BE properties with 23 of these on the reserve.

Ocean Edge/Red Nab
Three Twite were on the south field but not able to see the ring status. 175 Shelduck and a high count of 57 Lapwing on Red Nab. NO gulls of interest

Elsewhere
Purple Sandpiper still on the Stone Jetty - at least 10 years since there were three birds in this area. Unringed ad Med Gull on the Lune in the vicinity of Carlisle railway bridge and the Belgian-ringed bird still by Morecambe Strathmore area. Great White Egret seen at various places around Leighton Moss but no reports from yesterdays Cumbrian site. Two Water Pipits seen at Leighton Moss on at least 16th

Blackbird arrival.......and some vis

Heysham Obs

Vis by the office 0930-0935
Starling - 120 south in three flocks in just 5 minutes. No time for any longer!

North harbour wall
Meadow Pipit still on the mound along with Robin and Pied Wagtail (36V). One 2nd W Med seen

Reserve
20 Blackbird on the grass/in nearby bushes by the NR car park at 0930hrs - definite arrival, supported by accompanying 2 Redwing. A further 15 Blackbirds were flushed from the roadside between the reserve entrance and OE.

Miscellaneous
Saker or hybrid with jesses on the pylon by the office briefly mid-morning - flew towards Power Station but no bird scaring operations taking place on there.

Elsewhere
No sign of the LBBrent during a low tide count, therefore careful search, but it was back at high tide - "LB Brent off Sandylands near new block of flats - Old Grosvenor Hotel at about 3 pm" (thanks Rosie). Two female Common Scoter of Sunny Slopes. Great White Egret located in Cumbria in a ditch opposite the Wildlife Park along the A6 c500m north of the Lancs border and the bird flew off towards the Leighton Moss roost at about 1530hrs. No sign of the SD66S Snow Bunting in careful search.....but rather a lot of suitable habitat!

bits and bobs

Heysham Obs
North harbour wall
A brief visit saw the 1st W Med Gull along with the regular 2nd W

Vis mig from the office
Woodpigeon - 40+53 SW then the two flocks combined headed NE a few minuts later. Subsequently: 30 SW in dribs and drabs
Starling - 23S 17NW
Fieldfare - a solitary bird flew in from the NE and landed on the reserve (unusual)

Heysham south harbour wall (SD35Z)
A few bits and bobs new for the tetrad comprised: Goldfinch (2), Linnet (1), Robin (1), Wren (1)

Outfalls/Red Nab
Little Gull - the 2nd W was on Heysham 2 outfall early morning
Shelduck - 76 Red Nab

Ringing
Two nets by the office produced a lot of retraps and the following new birds: 7 Greenfinch, 1 Chaffinch and (surprisingly) 1 Robin

Insects
No insects the last two days of any note, despite lengthy presence at Middleton yesterday and sunny spells today

Elsewhere
Highlighted by a male Snow Bunting at the junction of Ringstones Lane and the Bentham to Cross of Greet road late afternoon - present for at least 45 minutes. NNEW on the Great White Egret & no Purple Sandpiper reports

More Woodpigeon

Heysham Obs
All the observations today were from Middleton IE as the shackles of Great-crested Newt legislation were cast aside at last and some conservation work could be undertaken in extremely fortunate low water levels

Vis from Middleton 1015-1530 intermittently
Woodpigeon - c730 north high, a majority of these comprising a loose flock of c400 at c1130 hrs. All on a line to the east of Middleton (c 1mile)
Meadow Pipit - 8 south high (unexpected)
Skylark - 2 south
Starling - 66 south

Nothing unexpected on the site itself but sightings did include:
Ad Med Gull at the sewage works late afternoon. Three Reed Bunting in the morning only may have been passing through (c/f one also at the Stone Jetty bushes)

Elsewhere
Great White Egret Leighton Moss area.

Woodpigeon mystery and return of the Meds

Heysham Obs
The main feature of the day only fringed Heysham and this involved a massive northerly movement of Woodpigeons. The late posting was due to waiting (in vain) for further info. on the movement over this area. Perhaps the most interesting reply on the national vis mig group was from Clive Mackay:

"Reverse" movement of Wood Pigeons is on-going here in Angus. They ALL went SW til 30 Oct, and since 1 Nov have ALL been going NE! The same pattern was observed last year, but the switch over date was much later (16th November). This return movement seems to be a feature of WP autumn movements, e.g.. also recorded by Keith Clarkson in Sheffield over many years. It's possible that depending on the geography of a particular site that movement will only be picked up in one direction. e.g. Keith mostly records S movement, whereas here I get more or less equal numbers SW and then NE. Does the geography of the Morecambe site favour picking up N movement or movement in both directions?

Answer: this is the first time any major northerly movements have been observed in this area - or can you contradict this John from any Crag Bank observations?
The only N/NE movement of woodpigeon I have had from Crag Bank was a total of 471 on 5 dates in spring 2006 ie none in autumn, (see L&DBWS Annual Report).

Vis mig by the office to about 1015hrs
Woodpigeon: Flocks of 220, 60 and 200 high and purposefully to the north. These were rather distant and over the golf course and therefore there was no coastal movement as such. It also means that some, possibly loads, could have been missed c/f c3,000 high to the north over north Morecambe and significant numbers, which would not have included these birds, over NE Torrisholme
Starling - 8 S

Ocean Edge
House Sparrow - Pair by Ocean Edge entrance - most unexpected
Linnet - c60 on the football field and surrounds

North harbour wall
Med Gull: FOUR. The 1st W with a poorly defined mask put in a reppearance, sitting on the fence with the others as though it hadnt been away. Also a returnee was one of the 2nd W birds along with the usual 2nd W and Czech-ringed adult. Combination of calm weather and loads of anglers?

Moths
Single Mottled Umber and Feathered Thorn graced the trap

Elsewhere
The Great White Egret is back and roosted on the island at the northern end of Leighton Moss! An adult Purple Sandpiper was new in at the Morecambe stone jetty and the Belgian-ringed Med Gull (usually favouring to the north of here) was seen. 16 Whooper Swan on the Melling field but no sign of any geese

Little Gull new in

Czech-ringed adult Med (above tarsus right leg). Thanks Mark

Heysham Obs
The only new bird found today was a Little Gull

Outfalls and area
Little Gull - 2nd W early morning but could not be found at HT
Med Gull - large adult Ocean Edge saltmarsh at HT
Twite - at least 11 OE saltmarsh and probably comprising some of the 15 'small finches' seen distantly flying south over the outfalls hide early morning
Linnet - c20 OE saltmarsh (not with Twite)
Knot - about 15,000 on this side (including Middleton) courtesy of the same or yet another dog walker on the heliport seawall

From Knowsley Road (north side of Heysham Head)
Light-bellied Brent in the region of the Sunny Slopes groyne

North wall
Ad and 2nd W Med Gulls (see pic above)

Elsewhere
Shock horror, NO SIGN of the Great White Egret at Leighton Moss (until dusk). Four Little Egret Middleton saltmarsh along with 2 (Scandinavian) Rock Pipit. Bean Goose reported in the Melling maize field with up to 14 Whoopers sometime in the last day or so - will check tomorrow am. View this field ONLY from the layby on the southbound side of the raised section of the A683 - anything else is very dangerous. Up to 5 Green Sandpiper in the 'last day or so' on the Lune oxbows in the region of the railway line just N of Melling but some of these (at least) may be on private land

Bits and bobs of late migration....& Purple Sand.

The two current NHW Meds - thanks Mark

Heysham Obs
A calm morning and a little bit of late vis and ringing of late migrants

Vis from by the office 0830-1030hrs
Redwing 20 E
Woodpigeon 28 SW + 12 N
Jackdaw 2 NE
Mistle Thrush 2 N
Siskin 1 SE
Starling 8 NW + 1 SE

North harbour wall etc.
The bad news was an assertion that "dog walkers could now walk along the seawall by the heliport as it is a right of way" - one did and all the waders were flushed towards Middleton. I will follow this up next Monday when the relevant person is available.


Purple Sandpiper - one flew from the north and landed briefly on the seawall before flying round towards the harbour (SD36V atlas record)
Guillemot - 2 offshore - both SD36V
Ad and 2nd W Med seen (see photos above)
Kingfisher (SD36V)

Ringing
A session at Middleton targeting Reed Bunting produced: 3 Reed Bunting, one Lesser Redpoll (presumably on passage), one Linnet, one Goldfinch plus a few other bits and bobs of a more resident nature.

The ringing details on the Light Bellied Brent were rather good:

Red right leg & letter B, Blue left leg & letter S
Ringed: De la Beche Bay, SW Bathurst Island, Arctic Canada as a juvenile male on 08 August 2007
Read in field: Off N Heysham/S Morecambe coast from at least 4/11-12/11/07 SD415626

There may be interim sightings which have not been processed yet.

Moths
TWO December Moth - lucky to get one of these in a year

December Moth - thanks Reuben

Elsewhere
Great White Egret still at Leighton Moss. Another titbit of migration in the form of a Tree Sparrow in the Stone Jetty bushes. Crossbill heard but not seen Thrushgill in briefish visit but 26 Redpoll were grilled and all were Lesser. No sign of the Great Grey Shrike at Dalton Crags in 10 minute scan.

Guillemot 'atlased'

Heysham Obs
A few less auks at Heysham than where I was for an hour and a half on the way to work on the other side of the country (=goodness knows how many Little Auks plus a very surprising 2 x Storm Petrel (there have been several of these seen in the last few days from E coast sites - which population are they from?))

Sea early morning North harbour wall (thanks Mark)
Raven - two blogging around the area (SD36V & 35Z)
Guillemot - one offshore (SD36V & 35Z)
Med Gull - just the one 2nd W - I think the other 2 regular & further irregular 2nd Ws went a few days ago (as the same birds did about this time last year as 1st Ws?)

North of Heysham Head
Colour-ringed 1st W Pale-bellied Brent by the Sunny slopes groyne near HT, then moved north as the tide dropped

Elsewhere
Great White Egret plus 12 Little Egret at the Leighton Moss roost. Guillemot off Crook Farm still. Three Scaup Glasson Basin. 18 Whooper Swan Wenning Foot, Lune valley. Very poor considering all the activity today (WeBS etc. etc.) and compared to last Sunday [e.g. no Crossbill or GG Shrike reports]

Meagre WeBS fare

Please could you text or e-mail any sightings tomorrow (or put on LDBWS site, if you prefer), even routine stuff like the Meds. Three key observers will be away. See contact details to the left. Thanks.

Heysham Obs
The only known birding in the area was the WeBS. Couldn't find anything to write the figures on until a huge expanse of pallid flesh was revealed on the back page of the Daily Mirror - Wayne Rooney mouthing the 'f'' word ('focus', of course). The unique feature of the day was the first ever, in my knowledge, half hour seawatching slot from Heysham north harbour wall when nothing at all flew or swam through the optics which were pointing towards Barrow. This momentous event took place between 1010 and 1040am

Seawatching 1000-1040hrs (see above)
Kittiwake - 3 out (2 Ad & 1st W) 1006hrs (36V, then 35Z)
Razorbill - 2 out together at 1010hrs (36V, then 35Z)

North wall
Ad & one 2nd W Med Gulls. A passerine was seen extremely briefly on the mound with the smart money on Robin. Also 2 x Pied Wagtail (36V)

Heliport
Biggest number of Knot yet this autumn = c22,000

Visible from Heysham head looking north
Colour-ringed 1st W Light-bellied Brent Goose by the Sunny Slopes
groyne

Ocean Edge saltmarsh/S. foreshore
Notable was a roost of 27 Ringed Plover and the Linnet flock still numbers c30

Moth
Surprising was a definitely different late Large Wainscot from the one caught two days ago

Elsewhere
Great White Egret Leighton Moss area. 5 Barnacle Geese NW past JB Point. 1st W Kittiwake JB Point. Nothing of interest Pine Lake (2 Goosander)

north-westerly dross

Heysham Obs
Nothing doing during a brief search by two observers - I should perhaps have done a bit of vis this morning as it was calmer than forecast

Med Gull - Czech-ringed ad following the Pilot Boat into port
Twite - single unringed bird on the mound
Water Rail - at least three Middleton IE

Elsewhere
No sign of the Black-necked Grebe. NNEW on Pale-bellied Brent. Nothing of interest on Pine Lake. Great White Egret Leighton Moss. Adult Great Grey Shrike still on Dalton Crags, viewable from the pull-in 400m along the right turn after the picnic area (leading to Keer bridge & Arkholme) late morning, looking NE with 50 x wide-angle. It was low-down just to the east of the N-S dry stone wall and only noticed when disturbed by a Mistle Thrush. Along Morecambe Prom, pair of Scaup off Scalestones Point and adult Spotted Redshank roosting on the Strathmore groyne along with Belgian-ringed adult Med Gull. 10-15 Brambling grounded on beech mast near Tower Lodge, Trough of Bowland.