Heysham Obs

North harbour wall 0930-middayish

Arctic Skua dark morph 'in' 1015 hrs

Kittiwake 12 'in'

Gannet 4 blogging, 10 across the mouth of the bay

Sandwich Tern 1 'out' & 10 around later

Common Tern - 1

Arctic Tern - 1

Auk sp 'out'

Swallow 3 in-off

Med Gull - the 'usual' black-headed 1st summer

Half Moon Bay 7:15pm

5 “comic” tern blogging in distance for about 10 minutes before 4 flew out and 1 in

Elsewhere

Spoonbill Leighton Moss

The bird of the year slips through the fingers?

Heysham Obs

Morning seawatch
Red-throated Diver - 1
Gannet - 1




North wall 1430-1645
This was a cock-up and a good example of why you should follow up everything, just in case.



Pomarine Skua
Four (all light morph, two with full tails, the other two were the same size but "tailless") were picked up distantly in the mouth of the bay, sitting on the sea, at c1500hrs and dismissed as "gulls"!!! They took flight about 5 minutes later and the initial niggle of "why are they sat so close together on the sea for gulls?" was answered. These circled round and drifted/gained height towards Black Combe as soon as what transpired to be the last of the squalls had passed.


dark-rumped Whimbrel
After an hour of increasingly flat sea and dropping wind, chilled out on a seat by the seawall using binoculars, trying to get rid of the oilseed rape pollen clogging my system after a morning working on the Nottinghamshire/Lincolnshire border and a round the houses via Harrogate return, courtesy of an overturned lorry on the M62. Therefore a Whimbrel calling to my right near the sandplant entrance was presumed to be in transit and ignored. About 15 minutes later a Whimbrel call was heard and a bird seen in flight, having been displaced from the inshore skeer by the incoming tide. It headed south along the seawall and I casually glanced at it with the naked eye as it was level with me at about 60 or so metres range. NO white on the rump which was concolourous brown (to the naked eye) with the mantle and tail!!!! A quick check of this feature with binoculars saw me then erroneously attempt to scope the bird, therefore a valuable second or so whilst there were possibilities of at least binocular views of the head pattern were missed. On reaching the harbour entrance, the bird swung "right" and began a shallow gradual climb as it headed north-west towards the south Furness coast. It was calling all the time IF I had had the scope set up and IF I had bothered to check the bird out on the skeer, I might have clinched the head pattern and other subtleties allowing confident identification as Hudsonian Whimbrel. The only hope of anything definite coming out of this is if it is quickly relocated on the Cumbrian side. Fingers crossed
Arctic Tern - 1 out




Elsewhere
2cY Rose-coloured Starling seen at Arnside in the promenade bushes at 1245hrs by at least four obsevers

Not a lot

Heysham Obs

North Harbour Wall 0630-0830
Grey Heron 1 high NE
Swallow 1 NE
Pied Wagtail 1 in-off and landed on jetty during a heavy shower
Sandwich Tern 2 out
Black Guillemot - usual area

Elsewhere
Little Gull still in Aldcliffe area

Calm and seabirdlessish early morning

Heysham Obs
North harbour wall 0640-0740
Tree Pipit - 2 NE
Redpoll - 3 NE
Swallow - 14 NE
Fulmar - high flying bird eventually flew towards Cockersands
Shelduck - two birds still behaving territorially
Black Guillemot - invisible in the hole for 30 minutes, then more active - again harried by Carrion Crow
Med Gull - black-headed 1st summer did one circuit of the end of Stage one outfall (then towards stage 2?)

Late afternoon update:
Arctic Tern - 4 on outfalls
Sandwich Tern - 1
Gannet - 2 near turbines
Whimbrel - 1 heard
Swallow 1 NE
Black Guillemot - still hanging around the jetty

Moths
A Small Square Spot was the sole exciting occupant of the trap

Elsewhere
Little Gull in ploughed field at Aldcliffe

Why did we not turn round at Shap when the Gwynedd skuas came on the pager at lunchtime???

Heysham Obs
...........work can wait in these circumstances

Fortunately John Wood was able to retrieve the situation at the Stone Jetty and some observations were made by Tony at JBP. Here is John's report. Note the caution as the light is tricky looking out of the Bay in the afternoon and therefore the flock of 23 was not rubber-stamped as Poms.

1515-1815 hrs. A phone call from PJM suggesting a sea watch this afternoon as "the winds are blowing Poms up the Irish Sea". No car available so had a bus ride to the Stone Jetty.....
1540 Pomarine Skua 'in' fairly high steady flight.
1610 Pomarine Skua 'in' again fairly high.
1615 Skua flock of 23 much higher and more distant NW towards Black Combe, finally going out of range.
1625 Arctic Skua 'in'
1650 flock 5 Skua 'out' very low, all appeared dark but silhouetted.
1725 after heavy shower -
Fulmar 2 'in'
Gannet 2 'in'
1735 Gannet 3 'out'
1742 Arctic Skua dark morph 'in' then landed on sea.
1750 Arctic Skua 'in' and attacking Lesser Black-backed Gull. Followed immediately by
2 Arctic Skua 'out' one light & one dark morph. Both attacked one of a flock of 6 Kittiwake forcing it to disgorge which they both dropped to on the sea.
1758 Arctic Skua 'in'
Red-throated Diver 'out'

Heysham north wall 1840-1920
Pomarine Skua - light morph seen at 1845 and probably the same more distantly at c1910 - seemed to land on sea

Earlier:
North harbour wall 0750-0840
Black Guillemot - in residence throughout
Med Gull - a nice summer-plumaged 1st summer on the sea 0750-0800 Purple Sandpiper - summer plumaged adult mobile between NHW and under wooden jetty with about 35 Turnstone
Swallow - 18 NE - all via the harbour!

Absolutely nothing moving offshore!

Middleton Industrial Est
1 Wheatear

Elsewhere
At least one Pom Skua and 30 Common Scoter off JBP early evening

What else is around in the atrocious/fall conditions?

Heysham Obs
North harbour wall 0745-0815, 1215-1245
Spotted Flycatcher - one near the Twite feeding station
Whinchat - one by the heliport
Wheatear - 4
Zero offshore early am

LBB Gulls starting to nest build on the Centrica offices! A full count is planned of roofnesting gulls. Any Power Station workers with some height to overlook the harbour able to help here, please? The south side of the old Fishers roof is especially difficult (perhaps from by Duke of Rothesay traffic lights?)

Ocean Edge 0820-0845, 1245-1315
After the above, reasonable expectations but the rain was becoming torrential and only the following were seen during short attempts to see what was on the rocks:
Wheatear - 3
Whimbrel - 2

Lunchtime produced:
Arctic tern - 9 at seaward end of Heysham 2 - all sitting on railings
Sandwich tern - 2 off Heysham 2

Rain-soaked check around the office/Obs tower pond 0850-0900
This was prompted by a Spotted Flycatcher on the Obs Tower pond fence
Spotted Flycatcher - just the one
Sedge Warbler - a least 5

Lunchtime vis mig
Swallow - 33 NE (inc. loose flock of 19)
Swift - 4 NE

Elsewhere
Dockacres complex (Pine Lake etc etc) 'dead' mid-afternoon apart from c250 hirundines of the common varieties.

A black and white lunchtime

..........following more early morning rubbish for a suffering Jean (see yesterday, the day before, the day before.........). Why there were no Spotted Flycatchers seen/caught is beyond comprehension e.g. 20 at nearby Walney.

Ocean Edge foreshore 1215-1245, then north wall to 1310
Black tern - 6 - one on Heysham one outfall, the rest south of Heysham 2 along the channel
Arctic tern - 47 as above
Wheatear - one
Swallow - 26 NE
House martin - 1 NE

Ringing
A few migrants including Blackcap, Sedge, Garden and two female Willow Warblers but no Spotted Flycatchers!

Insects
Large White - 7 north along the seawall and at least 5 others seemingly heading north at more inland locations

Elsewhere
Black tern briefly on Tewitfield fisheries this afternoon

Sheer dredgery

Spent another 1.5 hours watching the dredger go in and out of the harbour.

An ebbing tide and a strong offshore wind are obviously not the conditions conducive to seawatching - just one Sandwich Tern in. Not sure whether you can count the 100 Black-headed Gulls which also flew into the Bay.

The vis was little better:

0630-0800
Swallow 8
Swift 2
Linnet 1
Lesser Redpoll 1

On the sea:
5 Mute Swans (mum, dad and the kids).

Elsewhere
Leighton Moss - 4 Black Terns, Curlew Sandpiper, 2 spotted Redshank.
Borwick Waters - 1 Black Tern

No news

No news received today.

Nice weather, shame about the (lack of) terns

North Harbour Wall 0615-0940

Brisk eastnortheasterly wind and clear skies favoured vis rather than seawatching.

Just 12 Arctic Terns on the outfalls and 12 Sandwich Terns on the sandbank at low tide.
Whimbrel 1 on the skear and 4 flew into the Bay
Dunlin 18 on the skear then flew SW
Knot 50 on the skear.

Vis
Swallow 49 NE
Sand Martin 3 NE
Lesser Redpoll 14 NE
Goldfinch 2 NE
Linnet 8 NE
alba Wagtail 1

Grounded (on the sandplant mound)
Wheatear 1 female
GRASSHOPPER WARBLER -brilliant views down to 2 feet!

Elsewhere
Yesterday - 2 Black-necked Grebes at Blea Tarn reservoir
Today - Black Tern over canal at Carnforth (details later)