Bursting into song

Heysham Obs
You could almost do an early CBC today as the local songbirds celebrated 6ish degrees C! The rest of the birding slot was depressingly familiar; indeed 'credit crunch birding', as the deserted MFI car park offered views of a fair chunk of the by-pass PFGs (and not a hint of anything else) via two hedges. Five minutes along the north wall produced the only 'mentionables'

North harbour wall
Med Gull - Czech adult on the railings
Purple Sandpiper - one creeping about under the outer section of wooden jetty
Red-throated Diver - 2 offshore long with loads of flotsam, mainly branches
No Twite seen

Elsewhere
Greenshank photographed near the railway viaduct at Arkholme - a mega inland record in winter. Spotted Redshank reported there recently as well along with the more usual Green Sandpiper. Waxwing still Leighton Drive, Lancaster mid-afternoon. No sign of either the Aldcliffe nor Bull Beck Greylags & at least 80% of the Heysham bypass geese were scoped and were all Pinkfeet, with the only species which could possibly have been overlooked in the other binocular-scanned 20% = Tundra Bean

Flying visit

Heysham Obs
North wall
Med Gull ad

"Seen from" alongside bypass
c2,000 PF Geese seen whilst driving, possibly more

Ringing
Two opportunities to observe a proportion of a flock of 27 Twite by Crook Cottage, Lune Estuary revealed 8/8 and 10/11 were Heysham 2008/9-ringed. Some of the first lot may have been in the second lot!

Elsewhere
Med Gull - Ad Skerton (not P96). Waxwing still Leighton Drive, Lancaster early morning at least & one reported on Station Road in High Bentham

Monoculture

Heysham Obs
First of all, thanks to Tracy Kilifin in Heysham 2 Doc Centre for photocopying the North Lancashire Naturalists annual report. This will be available at Leighton Moss in a few days and is well worth the value at a nominal £1-50

"Seen from" the edge of the recording area
Pink-footed Goose: Monoculture ruled alongside Heysham bypass with uniform 'improved' grassland hosting perhaps the biggest flock of Pink-footed Geese I have ever seen gone through in detail not holding any other species. Perhaps about 5,150 but estimates during the day varied, perhaps indicating some coming and going.

North wall
Med Gull - 2 adults
Twite - c30 flying around the sandworks

Nothing at all wader-wise on the wooden jetty

Red Nab
Flock of 30 Turnstone appeared (in flight) to be accompanied by a Purple Sandpiper but the flock landed out of sight on Red Nab & no time to check.

Elsewhere
Waxwing: A third-day bird at north Warton finally surfaced in the public domain and the singleton similarly remained at Leighton Drive, Lancaster. Most unusual to have two separate singletons at this stage of the winter.

Ferry fare

Heysham Obs
Brief visit to NHW at lunchtime
Twite - none - no obvious food & surface of ground 'scuffed and disturbed'. Plenty of nyger seed put down
Med Gull - 2 adults around ferry - one followed it in from at least No 8 buoy and the other was in the harbour
Purple Sandpiper - two on the wooden jetty - one roosting with Turnstone (c30) on the top of the middle section, the other creeping around the lower cross-pieces of the outer section
Kittiwake - adult distantly behind IOM ferry - peeled off & flew out
Red-throated Diver - 2 offshore (HT)

Red Nab
76 Wigeon
New barrier system in operation at Ocean Edge

Ringing
3 Heysham-ringed Twite (all three birds) with c150 Linnet in set-aside near Aldcliffe
One Heysham-ringed Twite and three unringed birds at Knott End

Observers: Dan Haywood (Aldcliffe), Chris Batty (Knott End) & Pete Marsh

Elsewhere
The 4 European White-fronted Geese are now back at Aldcliffe (from yesterday). DB Brent with Greylags at Bull Beck but not obviously there later on. Waxwing still at Leighton Drive late afternoon. 3000+ Pinkfeet alongside Heysham bypass but difficult to watch safely. One neck-collar but no obvious sign of any other species.

Quiet Day - Noisy night

No records so far today for HNR.

Heysham Village 10pm
Two tawny owls calling either side of St Peter’s School grounds.
One “Ke-wick” the other “Hoo-oouh”.
First I’ve heard in Heysham this year, but a resident told me he has been hearing the Ke-wick call for about a week. (MD)

Elsewhere

Little Egret in ditch adjoining Heysham Moss. Five Snipe, pair of Stonechat and a Raven in Southern Meadow at Moss, during a quick visit to monitor waterlevels.

Tufty treat

Tufted Duck male & three female feeling at home in the harbour

Purple Sandpiper below wooden jetty

Med Gull 2 adult in harbour

Wigeon 78 off outfalls

Strictly routine

Heysham Obs
Nothing really to beat the snippet of international news: "Taxi driver deflates police tyres" on the Trumacar Stores billboard

Various offshore & inshore observations
Purple Sandpiper wooden jetty at roost
Kittiwake adult near intake in harbour
Red-throated Diver 6+ out
Med Gull - single adult
Twite - flock of 19 at 1200hrs but not 30 minutes later

Middleton Industrial Est
All open water frozen, apart from two small patches kept open by two pairs of mute swan. Accompanied by:
6 coot
4 moorhen
2 mallard
2 snipe
3 Roe deer Male & female plus one smaller female type (presumed last year’s young)

Ocean Edge 1hr after high tide
c650 dunlin
2 snipe

Observers: John Wood, John Girdley, Malcolm Downham & Pete Marsh

Elsewhere
Waxwing Leighton Drive, Lancaster mid-afternoon - driven off by Mistle Thrush but 'plenty of berries in area'

Highest winter Red-throated Diver count for several years

Heysham Obs
South harbour wall area 1200-1230ish
Red-throated Diver - 17 definitely different birds floating out on the tide but all a long way out
Kittiwake - ad in harbour
Med Gull - one ad following IOM ferry
No obvious sign of Purple Sandpiper

North harbour wall
Twite - just two at the feeder in the morning

Observers: Dan Haywood & Alan Draper

Elsewhere
4 European White-fronted Geese still at Bull Beck with Greylags

Inshore shopping list

Heysham Obs
Ocean Edge
540 Dunlin
Two Mistle Thrushes amongst the caravans

North harbour wall 1600-1620ish
Very rapid acquisition of the usual inshore targets but a vast area of empty sea further out i.e. no RTDs.
Med Gull - the Czech adult homed in on the car - no bread with me!
Twite - 16 but no chance to peruse rings - late in the afternoon for connecting with this species
Purple Sandpiper - 2 below the inner end of the outer section of the wooden jetty - as usual at this stage of the incoming tide - cannot get to grips with these occasional extra birds
Kittiwake - ad (3CY?) by the harbour waterfall

Observer: Pete Marsh

Elsewhere
No obvious sign of any Greylag by Bull Beck. Pine Lake "dead" other than a few Goosander & 140 Pochard

Twite metapopulation

Heysham Obs
A small catch of 15 Twite this morning provided further evidence of midwinter mixing and matching between the various flocks scattered down the coast between here and at least the Wyre. There were 6 unringed birds and only 2 out of 8 retraps had been previously retrapped.

Also most interestingly, the Walberswick (Suffolk)-ringed individual, trapped here on 5/11/08, was retrapped this morning. Does this start to firm-up the origin as a west Scottish bird which moved to Suffolk in its first ('waif and stray'?) winter (ringed 23/12/2006) or could it still be a (south) Pennine bird which unexpectedly followed the 'usual pattern' in its first winter, but not in this winter as an adult? Or could it be from somewhere else, such as the north Pennines? Where was it in winter 2007/8?

No other birds of interest seen!

Observer/ringer: Alan Draper

Elsewhere
2 (presumably just the adults recorded) European White-fronted Geese just north of Bull Beck on the Lune floodplain. Short-eared Owl just inland of Cockerham Sands caravan park, Common Sandpiper Conder area.