Bad cloud morning

Heysham Obs
Clouds are important features of birding. Good clouds cover up the sun when its in your face, drop masses of Black Terns on inland waters and lead to otherwise stratospheric rare birds hitting the deck in front of your eyes. A few years ago, when the observatory ringing effort was concentrated in a few straggling bushes which now form the lorry park, three fruitless net rounds in crystal clear conditions were followed by the appearance of big black cloud, two drops of rain and a Wryneck (& Chiffchaff) in the nets. This morning was the turn of unhelpful clouds. These form orange expanses in the sky, in completely the opposite direction to the sun, and lead to dreadful light for observing seabirds. Hence this morning, even though the viewing direction was a sun-behind north-west, the sea area north of Barrow was hopeless, exacerbated by the rough sea and 'broken' background. A straggling flock of c40 Kittiwake was invisible in this sector and only seen when it appeared heading out to the south.

Previous comment on Leach's Petrel deleted - there was a little cluster in the NW with 3 off Blackpool 26th and one off Walney 27th plus a possible or two

North wall offshore passage 0900-0930
Kittiwake - c40 out in one straggling flock, 50% 1CY & one in during very brief mid pm seawatch
Red-throated Diver - one out

Behind freight ferry (would have been more but some birds joined outgoing ferry whilst still out of identifiable range)
Med Gull - 2 ads
Kittiwake - 7
Little Gull - 3 adult, 1 1CY

Behind IOM ferry (thanks to visiting birders)
Gannet - one adult - very scarce at this time of year
Kittiwake - c20
Little Gull - single figures, probably some of those already recorded

Outfalls area
Little Gull - c6 adult, c6 1CY, a majority of these on the inner 2/3 of Heysham 2 outfall [about 16 Little Gull in total for today]

Miscellany
Twite - 26 north harbour wall
Guillemot - two inner harbour, the only 'inshore' seabird

Elsewhere
Swallow Leighton Moss (one Levens Moss yesterday)

A bit of attritional seawatching

Heysham Obs
North harbour wall and area 0930-1105/coastal areas mid-pm
Leach's Petrel - one in, then turning round, then in again x 2 just beyond the yellow buoys at 1058hrs - looked like a juv with well-marked GC bar & no obvious moult but difficult to retain in the scope! Disappeared into the bay.
Bonxie - one in at a vast rate of knots at 1003hrs
Little Gull - absolute minimum of 21 close inshore - observations suggested adults were gradually moving through - 9 x 1CY, 2 x 2CY, 10+ x adult, 6 of the 1CYs on outfalls mid-pm along with c6 ad/2CY. This is a typical difference in behaviour by a majority of ads & 1CYs
Kittiwake - ad stage 2 outfall pm, 12 behind the IOM ferry all flew into bay
Guillemot - one in harbour pm
Twite - c50 early on but clearly not impressed by the conditions & many of them disappeared

Elsewhere
Leach's Petrel flew over M6 near Yealand

Offshore Little Gulls

Heysham Obs
A couple of whistle-stop visits to the coast at lunchtime and mid-afternoon, involving single scans of the sea area off the north wall, revealed no seabirds with the only additional registration worth mentioning being (?one of the earlier) Ad Little Gull on Heysham 2 outfall as the tide came in

North harbour wall - sea 0930-1000hrs
Little Gull - 3 adults and 1st W blogging off the seaward end of Heysham One outfall mid morning, then disappeared as tide started rising
Twite - 51
Med Gull - ad in harbour & different large adult on Red Nab mid-afternoon

Elsewhere
Great White Egret - singleton appearing out of Leighton roost, then west

Leach's!!

Heysham Obs
North harbour wall
Leach's Petrel flew out along the north harbour wall, in view for 10 minutes, at c1430-1440. Thanks Sean!
Med Gull - 2 ads around
Twite - up to 82
Linnet - up to 15
No sign of any Shag or Purple Sandpiper in lengthy coverage

Ocean Edge/outfalls
No known coverage

Insects
Rather dozy worker wasp around the reserve litter bin - this is getting very late

Elsewhere
Single Great White Egret in the Leighton roost (pm)

More useless southerlies

Heysham Obs
Rather too long was spent searching the coastal areas this morning with very little reward

North harbour wall & area
Twite - c60 but very mobile
Med Gull - Czech adult around
Shag - single juvenile appeared from the inner bay 1145hrs & appeared to enter harbour (thanks Colin)
No sign of the Purple Sand or the Black Redstart.

Ocean Edge & area
Med Gull - large adult on mudflats near Stage 2 outfall

Middleton IE
Atrocious conditions for checking a windswept Middleton IE for Cetti's and no reports

Elsewhere
No news on anything much this weekend - have the Great White Egrets gone? At least one Cetti's (singing) still at Leighton causeway today.

First Cetti's confirmed

Heysham Obs
An early start and the red clouds backed by darker stuff to the west postponed the moth trap check and leisurely start in favour of pre-rain Heysham. Not too bad, although offshore scans before the tide started moving were completely fruitless. A 'probable' Cetti's Warbler on Middleton IE (two calls in 10 days in poor weather) was firmed up this morning by a single burst of song

North harbour wall
Shag - two juveniles in the harbour mouth, one of which sat on the harbour wall and revealed that it was unringed
Purple Sandpiper - one on the outermost bit of skeer under the wooden jetty (took some finding!)
Med Gull - one adult loafing around in the harbour
Twite - none at all until about 1015 when a flock of 66 & one Linnet materialised from the south. Two opportunities to check them on the seed revealed: two Askam-in Furness birds ringed autumn/winter 2008/9, 7 ringed here earlier this autumn, 8 ringed here autumn/winter 2008/9. This leaves a rather unexpected 49 unringed birds.
Starling - flock of 270 'in-off' then SE!
Rock Pipit - one heard, but no Meadow Pipit seem to be left

Ocean Edge foreshore
Lapwing - 160 - continuing the upward trend started last late autumn

Middleton IE
Woodpigeon - 26SE
Cetti's Warbler - Presumably the bird which was inconclusively heard calling twice in the last 10 days (location hampered by dreadful weather) gave a single burst of song (& a couple of calls) this morning alongside the 'no swimming pond' - the one immediately to the west of the model boat pond

Elsewhere
Nothing yet

Whistle-stops

Heysham Obs
North harbour wall 0945-0955
Twite - 19
Med Gull - ad
Red-throated Diver - one out

Ocean Edge saltmarsh high tide
Too low to kick out any Jack Snipe
Snipe - 6
Twite - perhaps the same 19 as on the north harbour wall

Elsewhere
Nothing yet

Wet birds

Heysham Obs
Three well-spaced short checks of the sea/outfalls saw the wind far too far to the south for most of the day

North harbour wall
Twite - 9, 4+ unringed
Linnet - 4

Seawatches totalling 25 minutes
Pintail - flock of 5 out (never seen this species at rest in this area; invariably a product of (usually useless) wet & windy late autumn/winter seawatches)
Shelduck - 21+14 out

Elsewhere
Adult winter Spotted Redshank on the Regent road groyne (surely the 'usual' bird from north of the jetty displaced by rough seas and covered groynes?)

In the tranquil zone.........just

Heysham Obs
Flat calm seas and a gentle breeze but what a lot of rain! Decent thrush fall with one or two other bits and bobs but no obvious sign of yesterdays Black Redstart

Heysham NR/Landscape strip
Blackbird - obvious influx with at least 80 birds
Song Thrush - 9 seen
Blackcap - female in the NR car park bramble
Chiffchaff - collybita-type along the NR top path

Coastal areas
Almost a complete blank with no obvious sign of any Twite or remaining food and just:
Med Gull - ad following dredger
..........worthy of note

Ringing returns
A Twite ringed on one of the two Heysham north harbour wall sessions this autumn was seen at Askam in Furness on 16th November - a north-westerly movement usually associated with the return passage (of western Scottish birds) in spring! Wonder if it was a Pennine bird doing a 180 degree migratory 'error'? Eddie Maguire at Machrihanish Bird Observatory on the Mull of Kintyre has also sent details of two of our birds which obviously bred in the vicinity with a few repeat sightings during summer/early autumn 2009.

Elsewhere
Nothing yet

Unexpected surprise given the weather

Heysham Obs
A check to see what might have been blown in to the intake area of the harbour was halted half way to watch a Black Redstart being chased by a Robin by the old Fishers building (the derelictish blue one on the SE side of the harbour). Nothing storm blown appeared to be in the nooks and crannies or offshore.

Harbour area/north wall
Black Redstart - female/immature as above by trailer TL512 at 1215hrs - last seen disappearing into Fishers building
Med Gull - adult in flight
Twite - c10
Linnet - c5

Ocean Edge/Red Nab early morning
Rock Pipit - 2
Snipe - 4
Raven - 2 over SW

Late afternoon outfalls check
Little Gull - adult seaward end of stage one outfall
Med Gull - 2 adults, presumably including the above, seaward end S1O.

Elsewhere
Slavonian Grebe still Pine Lake