Very quick visit

Happy Christmas. A quick visit at the end of the day after being thwarted (yet again) with work which had to be done at Stainmore/Barras by fog!! At least managed to get two hours done and what brilliant scenery on the fog-free journey to & from. The usually maggot-ridden, gully-eroded Howgills were transformed. Thanks to Malcolm for some early stuff

North harbour wall
Med Gull - 2 adults
Purple Sandpiper - one on the lower tier of the outer section of the jetty
Song Thrush - one on the NHW mound!
Twite - too late in the day?

Half-moon Bay area
Single Redwing & Fieldfare

Elsewhere
Four Snow Geese flew out of the river and on to Aldcliffe Marsh about 1430hrs. 3 Scaup in channel north Morecambe

No obvious response to the cold weather here

Heysham Obs
.............other than the disappearance of the huge flocks of Knot from Ocean Edge foreshore/Red Nab, soon after a monitoring programme was set in motion!

North harbour wall
Med Gull - 2 adults
Twite - 21, including one ringed at Askam-in-Furness (Duddon Estuary) in autumn 2008 (probably the regular bird), one with just a metal ring, 3 unringed and about 50:50 birds ringed in autumn/winter 2008/9 and birds ringed this autumn. This means that the recent reduction in numbers has almost exclusively involved 1CY birds.

Ocean Edge foreshore/Red Nab
Med Gull - large adult - invariably on this side of the harbour on an intermittent basis
Wigeon - 109
No Knot on incoming (neap) tide

Elsewhere
Fieldfare - c200, mainly a trickle, but including a loose flock of 55, all heading east during early/mid morning at High Tatham - the only obvious evidence of CWM, although there were about 25 conspicuous Blackbirds in the surrounding hedges! No Redwing or Song Thrush seen this morning

Sean vigil

Heysham Obs
Thanks to Sean for these records:

North harbour wall and environs
Med Gull - adult seaward end of Stage one outfall, 2 adults later on the north harbour wall - this is quite likely to involve three individuals on previous form
Grey Plover - one 1CY - rare NHW
Twite - 25-30 on the seed on an intermittent basis
Knot - only 40 at the Heliport roost!
Pink-footed Goose - 6 south
No sign of any Purple Sandpipers on the wooden jetty in careful check (just FOUR Turnstone - where are they?)

Elsewhere
at least 57 and probably c73 Great-crested Grebe off the Stone jetty on the turning tide - one sweep. At least one male and 2 female Scaup still north of the Stone Jetty/Teal Bay

Heysham Twite given star billing

Heysham Obs
No reports from today

Late news for 25th November
Managed to narrow this bird down to "almost certainly today, rather than tomorrow (26th)". This involved a Leach's Petrel making its way slowly out of the bay, being harrassed by gulls in 'mid afternoon'. One flew into the bay in the morning (plus one flying over the A6 at Yealand!), so perhaps the first bird making its way out (per visiting angler)

Heysham ringing recoveries in the very select annual list
Ringing and Migration arrived this morning and two Heysham recoveries stood out. One was a Knot in Spain. The other was a Twite ringed at Walberswick on 23/12/06 as a 1CY female and then captured twice by Alan during the winter period 2008/9 - November 2008 and February (I think) 2009. This indicates that, as an adult, it was part of the wandering wintering metapopulation along coastal north Lancashire, including intermittent use of the Heysham feeder (as suggested by the retrap data - see NLRG site posting from earlier this year for a fuller explanantion)

If it was a Pennine bird which decided to go the "wrong way" in winter 2008/9 and joined the almost exclusively western Scottish birds on the coast, why did it do this as an "experienced adult" after it had correctly wintered in Suffolk as an "inexperienced youngster"?

I suspect that it is either a Scottish bird which was disorientated during its first autumn of migration or it is perhaps less likely a bird from a small fragmented unknown, perhaps north Pennine, population without any defined migration pattern

Elsewhere
The Scaup flock is still off north Morecambe/Scalestones (ad male & 2 females)

Escape from Bowland

Heysham Obs
An hour of graft with a spade and salt enabled an escape from Ashley's Farm to check out the Red Nab roost

Red Nab area late afternoon high tide
Knot - 3,220
Oystercatcher - 870
Redshank - 13
Turnstone - 3

North wall very quick visit
Too late in the day for Twite - 25 seen earlier by Tom
Med Gull - 2 adults on the railings
No Knot in the heliport area and similarly also at 1330hrs (per Tom)

Elsewhere
4 x Snow Geese still feeding very close together amongst the Greylags on Aldcliffe Marsh. 20 Meadow Pipit on saltmarsh by Golden Ball/Overton road junction

Message from the snowfields of north Bowland

Helipad pm - Snow? What snow?

Heysham Observatory
Serious travel problems today (e.g. a cancelled christmas meal as close to home as Wray Bridge House tea rooms) with Malcolm flying the flag by braving the elements to complete an icy Middleton WeBS (Pete). Not sure who posted the afternoon stuff but it must have cleared amazingly well, no sign of any thaw at Tatham

Middleton early am by text
"Ice and snow. 2 Mute, 1 Moorhen, 1 Little Grebe, 2 Snipe, one disorientated toad"

NHW - pm

Twite 29 - minimum 10 colour ringed with Heysham rings from 2008/9
Linnet 1 - metal ring

Med Gull adult

Helipad

Knot 5000

Oystercatcher 3000

Harbour

Med Gull - 2 adult (prob. one from NHW) both had well defined masks.

Starlings flying to WJ roost - not counted.

(Whilst viewing twite from the car, a car with four smoking immature youths with immature behaviour decided to pip their horn and block my view by parking alongside. Being in relaxed mode watching birds, I could only smile at them, which had the desired effect and they moved on.

They must have been seriously bored).

Elsewhere
Pied Wagtail a significant midwinter record at High Tatham, also 5 Meadow Pipit in the paddock and 12 shivering Mandarins on the pond. Four Lapwing south unusual in midwinter & presumably a CWM - little other evidence at High Tatham this morning with 20 Fieldfare west along with 24+33 Starling in 3 hours of intermittent watching

Space invaders

Heysham Observatory
Careful counting either side of the harbour saw at least 63,000 Knot today enlivened by a Peregrine attack. The RSPB have diversified several hundredfold since the early 1970s Leighton Moss shop selling "only things strictly relevant to birds" (which unfortunately did not include any food or drink) - have they tried computer games with Peregrines chasing Knot or a combination of raptors chasing Starlings at a roost?

The other 'space invasion' today was more subtle. There were a lot (for this site) of Lapwings on Red Nab during a prolonged morning survey. It was assumed that these were displaced from nearby frozen fields, but a discrete group of 44 suddenly (not prompted by the tide) did a presentable imitation of a jump jet and headed upwards almost vertically and were tiny westbound dots high in the sky just half a mile from Red Nab. Surely this group involved a cold-weather movement having a 'breather'? This was in sharp contrast to almost all the other 250 or so Lapwing which headed for Ocean Edge saltmarsh in dribs and drabs as displaced by the tide


WeBS etc
Purple Sandpiper - one (at least) on the wooden jetty
Twite - very brief check of the feeder saw c30 plus another 21 south over Ocean Edge earlier on
Rock Pipit - one on Red Nab
Med Gull - large adult on Red Nab for 2 hours, Czech-ringed adult on the north harbour wall railings
Knot - at least 50,000 & perhaps 60,000 estimated on or around the heliport/near naze (see below), 13,000 on Red Nab definitely different
Mute Swan - pair & one juv south
Wigeon - 106 Red Nab
Shelduck - 217 Red Nab

Middleton IE
One small ice-free area held 6 Mute Swan, 5 Coot, 6 Moorhen, one Little Grebe, one Pink-footed Goose
Black-tailed Godwit - one sat on the ice with gulls!

Ring-reading of Knot on the near naze
Despite problems, unfortunately including birders getting out of cars and flushing them, the following were read by Richard. Thanks for these:


SEVEN were ringed on the Dutch Waddensee with two of these having previous history as follows:

25-7-2001 Ringed: De Richel, Holland 53.16.97 N, 5.08.23 E
25-5-2004 Indre Billefjord, Porsangerfjord, Norway 70.21.02 N, 25.03.15 E
21-3-2008 Heysham, Lancashire, England 54.02.00 N, 02.55.00 W
11-12-2008 Heysham, Lancashire, England 54.02.00 N, 02.55.00

5-9-2005 Ringed: Simonszand, Holland 53.29.48 N, 6.24.17 E
19-3-2008 Heysham, Lancashire, England 54.02.00 N, 02.55.00 W

ONE was ringed in Norway as follows:

Ringed: 26.05.2007 Oldefjord, Norway 70 29 28N 25 03 57E

Celeb culture

Heysham Obs
A visit to Ocean Edge revealed that "David Platt" had visited the site earlier in the year and asked about the local birding. The last time I watched Corrie was in the days of hairnets, as a captive audience rug-rat during grandmother visits, but apparently his screen role is some kind of bad lad. In real life, a 'Salford-based twitcher' according to OE staff.

Ocean Edge
Wigeon - 106
Shelduck - 216
Med Gull - adult
Grey Plover - 2
Twite - heard only

One Scottie, 10,000 waders

Please keep an eye open for any colour-ringed (Greenland) Knot now there are good numbers on the easier side of the harbour to observe them in the heliport area. They can be individually traced (providing you see both legs) - this one was photographed by Richard du Feu in January 09 and was ringed in Holland in September 08 (where they moult before moving WNW to this area)

Heysham Obs
Heliport area
This is now a 'desire line' for dog walkers and this produced Scottie-driven flight-views of fleeing Knot and Oystercatchers

Knot - Circa 6,000 but couldnt find any 'flagged' or colour-ringed birds

No sign of the Black Redstart, even after scoping the whole tideline of Half-Moon Bay

North harbour wall
Twite - c55 but disturbed
Med Gull - just the Czech-ringed bird seen

Elsewhere
Nothing as yet

No obvious sign of Black Redstart

Heysham Obs
Stuck at an upland site with persistent low cloud for most of the day with nothing to do other than think up phrases such as 'mid month mass maggot movement' for the only activity which seemed to be taking place. Thanks to Gavin, Jean et al for records as part of a RSPB fact-finding mission.

North harbour wall
No obvious sign of Black Redstart or Purple Sandpipers
Reed Bunting - 3 on heliport a surprise, even allowing for the longer vegetation at present
Med Gull - 2 adults
Twite - 56 - only one appeared to be unringed
Linnet - 3
Goldfinch - 1
Knot - 5,400 on heliport (lots more on the other (Ocean Edge) side)
Kittiwake - 1CY behind the IOM ferry