Two vigils and a happy wanderer

Heysham Obs
Excellent coverage today of the coastal areas with two separate work-related sessions either side of the harbour and a 'man & terrier' linking the two and walking the rest of the coast!

Heysham Nature reserve & area
Chiffchaff - heard calling along the top path
Redwing - 2 by dipping pond
Bullfinch - male dog walk track

Ocean Edge saltmarsh & mudflats
Dunlin - 153 - a high count for midwinter (86 of these roosting at high tide on Red Nab - unusual in winter)
Stonechat - male along the tideline
Rock Pipit - one at high tide

Pink-footed Geese
22 + 47 SE

Red Nab vigil on dropping tide
Med Gull - large adult which flew off towards the Lune Estuary
Wigeon - increase to 148
Golden Plover - singleton roosting on the rocks
Black-tailed Godwit - two flew in from the south on dropping tide - previously very rare/absent in winter
Skylark - 5 'in-off' at 1103 hrs heading NW to SE. Since the disappearance of the small wintering flock on Ocean Edge two winters ago, very rare here other than on early spring and mid-autumn 'vis mig' & 2-3 breeding pairs hanging in at Middleton IE
Knot - just 470 in roost

North harbour wall/heliport/Half-moon Bay
Med Gull - 2 usual adults attending the post-angler 'clean-up', one the Czech-ringed bird
Whooper Swan - 4 south at c1100hrs
Golden Plover - flock of 35 north (very unusual for here)
Knot - maximum of 3,000 heliport
Red-breasted Merganser - one IN harbour
Twite - none and no food left when I arrived mid-afternoon (rabbits). 4 in transit at Half-moon bay, headed towards the mound area early afternoon
Black Redstart - no sign in 6 hours of foreshore coverage

Elsewhere
Nothing new Pine Lake. 6 adult Whooper Melling including one with yellow darvic on left leg, also 200 (exactly) Greylag, 18 Pink-footed Geese and 161 Canada Geese. Aldcliffe geese included a Dark-bellied Brent Goose plus the 4 Snow Geese but no mention of any Barnacle Geese

More minor displacement

Heysham Obs
Heysham Nature reserve
As a well-meaning volunteer, salted the dog-walk path entrance and received a muttered "about time" to follow the berating for not doing anything about it two days ago! [Comment deleted - there are too many dog/walker rants on birding sites and many of the dog walkers are great people]. Reserve very quiet with no obvious sign of Chiffchaff.

Middleton IE
This is going through a good cold-weather spell for Malcolm with:
Pink-footed Goose - 70+180 south, 90 north (probably offshoots of the 3000+ flying about over the Lune Estuary at this time ( see Aldcliffe blog)
Woodcock - 1 (flushed)
Pheasant - 1
Snipe - 7
Fieldfare - 19
Redwing - 15
Mute Swan - 2

North harbour wall mid afternoon
Dead with just the one adult Med Gull seen

Elsewhere
See Aldcliffe site - extra Barnacle Goose with the PFGs. 1-2 Cetti's Warbler Leighton causeway by grit trays

More Woodcock and now a pair of Stonechat

Heysham Obs
Middleton IE
12 Fieldfare, 1 Redwing, 3 Woodcock seen in flight (not flushed), 6 Moorhen, one Coot, 2 Mute Swan, 3 Snipe & pair of Stonechat

North harbour wall very brief visit late afternoon
Med Gull - ad
Twite - 12 (7 ringed autumn 2009 & 5 with 2008/9 rings; one with split dark blue/white over the site ring, two with site ring over yellow/pale blue and two with the site ring over white/dark blue)

Elsewhere
4 Snow Geese & 3 Barnacle Geese Aldcliffe, but only c6 Pink-footed Geese. One of the Greylag with very white band just above the bill. No sign of any Whooper Swan Melling (all Mutes) - significant number of grey geese, mainly if not all Greylag, at Melling - out of identification range in late afternoon light (& Canadas)

Chiffchaff still surviving & pheasants reappear at Middleton

Heysham Obs
Following a berating from a dog-walker, watching a labrador doing the splits and two cars having great difficulty getting up the hill, the reserve gate will definitely be locked again tomorrow and reviewed at the end of the day. The problem is the compacting which is always worse than the initial snowfall

Reserve office area
Chiffchaff - collybita by the Obs Tower pond midday

North harbour wall
Twite - at least 5 heard and seen very briefly
Med Gull - one adult

Middleton IE
Pheasant - 2 - mega, 3 Redwing, 2 Fieldfare, Woodcock, 6 Moorhen, 2 Mute swan

Elsewhere
Aldcliffe was viewed from the southern end of the Golden Ball road and revealed the four Snow Geese, three Barnacle Geese and and sizeable mix of Greylag, Canada and Pink-footed Goose with c115 of the latter visible, but quite a bit of coming & going from the (out of sight) riverbed. Another mass of geese visible from the raised layby just south of Melling in the Lune valley and also included at least 20 Pink-footed Geese & 5 Whooper Swan (the family party of Whoopers had moved the Claughton in the morning). Nothing new on Pine Lake.

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