Whistle stop

Heysham Obs
North wall
Med Gull - ad
Purple Sandpiper - at least one on the rocks next to the wooden jetty with c30 Turnstone

Middleton Industrial Est
4 mute
14 coot
4 moorhen
2 little grebe (still in winter plumage, but together and calling)
3 pochard (2 male)
27 tufted
8 teal
12 mallard
3 goldeneye (1 male)
4 snipe
1 heron (frogging season!)


Ringing details of Pink-footed Goose
This bird was 1/2 km east of the Obs recording area boundary when this ring was read and therefore easily "seen from"! The closest the bypass PF geese came to landing in the recording area - most were 1-3km to the east

Bird ID: CGTJT
Metal ring: 1428053
First Ringed
16/12/2007
Loch of Lintrathen, ANGUS, Scotland

Re-sighted
30/12/2008
Cockerham Moss Edge
LANCASHIRE

08/01/2009
Preesall Park, Preesall
LANCASHIRE

08/01/2009
Cockers Dyke, Pilling
LANCASHIRE

09/02/2009
Head Dyke Lane, Pilling
LANCASHIRE

15/02/2009
near Heysham
LANCASHIRE

Moth
First Hebrew Character of the year in the hut trap (contrasting with 93 moths of 11 species at Millhouses MV trap!)

Elsewhere
Great Grey Shrike still Dalton Crags by trig point - a good run of sightings of this often very elusive/'impossible' to find bird. Redhead Smew Leighton from mid-morning, but very mobile spending quite a bit of time in the main dyke & visiting Public & Lilians meres. Tundra Bean Goose with the Sand Villa PF flock = in LDBWS recording area. 8 Whooper Swan still between Gressingham bridge & Melling. Additional male Mandarin of unknown origin with free-flying collection at Ashley's Farm, High Tatham

Foggyish

Heysham Obs
Mid-morning brief visit to north harbour wall
Didnt have to resort to grilling flotsam (see 28/1/09) - there were some birds to see/hear despite visibility oscillating between 400 and 600m. The most interesting "sighting" was of 250+ noisy gloom-looming Pink-footed Geese at exactly wind turbine height as they headed NW over the Bay. There was enough wind (just) to rotate blades. Exactly why there are concerns over offshore windfarms on migration routes of species which are both diurnal and nocturnal

Purple Sandpiper - a shape on the lower tiers of the wooden jetty conformed to this species - well it did have a longish bill!
Mute Swan - adult on the sea by the wooden jetty
Pink-footed Goose - see above = c1015hrs

Moth trap
One March Moth

Elsewhere
Water Pipit seen at Leighton Moss yesterday away from public areas. Great Grey Shrike Dalton Crags just SE of trig point late afternoon. Waxwing Leighton Drive still. Ad Ross's x Pink-foot hybrid Sand Villa & 21 Bewick's Swan Jeremy Lane (3 juvs).

Proper moths at last

Heysham Obs
Apart from a single obscure 'micro', this is the first moth catch of the year for an 'open' site which is always a little slow compared to some of the local oak woodlands (up to 87 moths per night of 10 species at Millhouses, nr Wray this week)

Moths
Dotted Border (4) and the first Satellite (below) since 2003.

Elsewhere
Great Grey Shrike Dalton Crags this morning. 2nd W Med Gull flew over A683 at Denny beck this am - this looked like the very elusive inland-feeding bird which was seen earlier this winter on single occasions at Pine Lake and Claughton

Heysham Obs.

North harbour wall 

Purple Sandpiper 2 below wooden jetty

Red-throated Diver 2 offshore

Wigeon 3 'out'

Shelduck 1 + 1 'in'

Eider 5 'in' + 1 'out'

Skylark call - not sighted

Skylarks on the move

North harbour wall  (low tide 1103 hrs)

Skylark 4 + 2 North  1000 hrs

Purple Sandpiper 2 below wooden jetty

Med Gull adult S1 outfall

Red-throated Diver 1 offshore

Shelduck 2 + 2 'in'

No sign of any Twite

Brief search

Heysham Obs
North harbour wall
Med Gull - one adult

Ocean Edge/Red Nab
Dunlin - 465
Wigeon - 114
apparent influx of Lesser Black-backed Gull (27 seen)

Elsewhere
Nothing locally bird-wise (by 1530 at least). 71 moths of 8 species in MV trap at Millhouses, nr Wray last night including another Small Brindled Beauty
and a North Lancashire single-trap record catch of 17 Spring Usher

Three Purple Sandpiper again

Heysham Obs
Purple Sandpiper - 3 on the wooden jetty

Turnstone - 19
Med Gull - 2 adults in the harbour

Ocean Edge

Lapwing - 98

Bar-tailed Godwit - 1

Red Nab

Wigeon -116

Turnstone - 42

"seen from" recording area boundary

Loads of Pink-footed Geese carefully grilled on the edge of the recording area in fields next to the Heysham bypass by the new roundabout. Estimated 2,800 - all definitely PFG. One neck collar (TJT). Going through this stuff is a very poor substitute for the former similar scrutiny of the hordes of gulls next to Lancaster tip!

Elsewhere

There seem to be two Waxwings in Lancaster, the reliable Leighton Drive bird and another at the junction of Cedar and Lune roads. 13 Little Egret roosting at Leighton. A few moths last night included what must be a candidate for a February sheet and light record = 102 Pale Brindled Beauty plus a further 19 moths of three other species in about 1.5hrs at Cold Park Wood near Wray. The first Small Brindled Beauty of the year in the nearby overnight trap at Millhouses

Murky afternoon

Heysham Obs
Twite - 3 on north harbour wall. 6 over harbour pm.

Purple Sandpiper 3 roosting on lower beams of wooden jetty at high tide one of which proceeded to bathe in the sea, then preening back on the jetty.

Turnstone - 70 at roost with Purps.

Ocean Edge

Mute Swan - one adult

Dunlin - 21 + 6 at Red Nab

+ observed as wated covered salt mash (MD)

176 lapwing

49 snipe (0 jack snipe)

c60 golded plover (flying low SE)

3 goldeneye (flying NW - not the three from the IE)

Ringed Plover - the often elusive flock of 12 roosting on beach by Ocean Edge saltmarsh, including a metal-ringed male (trying to chase the others off) and another sighting of the following colour-ringed individual:

NW23526 Adult female

Ringed as a nestling at Snettisham, Norfolk on 16/7/04

Subsequently nested at Snettisham in at least 2005, 2006 and 2008

Seen: Cockersands on 30/9/07 by Ian Hartley

Seen: Ocean Edge caravan park foreshore 19/9/08 & 14/11/08 & 14/2/09

Middleton Industrial est

9 mute

12 coot

1 moorhen

3 goldeneye

4 mallard

7 tufted

4 teal

1 snipe

Elsewhere
Ad Med Gull Skerton Weir. 5 Tundra Bean just out of the area at Bone Hill near Pilling. Waxwing still Leighton Drive and single Spotted Redshank & Green Sandpiper Aldcliffe

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