Kittiwake famine is over

The apparantly paired-up passage Med Gulls which spent a short time along the north wall - the male is the upper bird.  Thanks to Mike Baron

Heysham Obs
Its been a great winter for people responsible for checking freight on ferries at Heysham port for storm damage.  For the same reason, it has been an excellent winter for birds which dont want to be blown into or diverted into Morecambe Bay.  Not quite so good for 'year-ticking' Kittiwake, with even the seductive entrails of the midday Isle of Man ferry drawing a blank.   An initially boring seawatch in good visibility was enlivened by a tight synchronous flock with flashing white underwings...

North wall 0900-1000ish
Kittiwake - flock of 8 in, then landed, then out & c16, presumably all this species, but flocks can get joined by migrant Common Gulls, on the sea mid pm
Meadow Pipit - 2+5+1+1+1+1 north
Red-throated Diver - 2 on the sea
Purple Sandpiper - 2 on the wooden jetty
Twite - 44 with 5 unringed
Med Gull - 2 ads: one full summer and one partial summer bird along the north wall - neither ringed and the partial summer bird definitely not one of the regulars on bill pattern (none seen earlier this week)

Ocean Edge/Red Nab
No sign of the Avocets:  4 Black-tailed Godwit, 13,700 Knot, c2,500 Dunlin, just 24 Wigeon left
Mistle Thrush in full song from Ocean Edge reception!

Just inland of Half-moon bay
Stonechat - one female

Dogwatch  1125-1145
20 minutes observing dogwalkers from the Heysham NR office window produced the following dog-related sightings (please bear in mind a large off-lead area is provided):
1) A couple in a red volvo - two off-lead dogs running around the reserve, did at least put waste bag in bin
2) Single male with dog walking in from Moneyclose Lane, straight over the dipping pond stile on to the reserve, no lead, lively dog all 'over the place'
3) Single female walking in using the same stile - more sedate dog off the lead, remained near owner during period observed 
4) Couple returning from the off-lead area with two lively off-lead dogs well ahead of them.  These went through the fence, on to the reserve and did a tour of the classroom area before their owners arrived back to the off-lead gate.  Returned to car.

Therefore in twenty minutes, none of the dog owners observed took a bit of notice of carefully worded, conciliatory but not over-fussy, signs

Elsewhere
Great Grey Shrike Dalton crags.  Tundra Bean Goose Sand Villa

Black and white bentbills

Heysham Obs
Ocean Edge
Avocet - two feeding along the channel off Ocean Edge saltmarsh
Black-tailed Godwit - 17 as above
Loads of small waders, mainly Knot/Dunlin, in the 5-figure region but no time to count.  These were corralled at the Ocean Edge end by a significant number of vehicles on the sand & dogs charging around off the Potts Corner area
Med Gull - second winter moulting to second summer on Red Nab

North wall
Twite - a small catch again revealing passage with 5 unringed and 5 ringed birds caught - again no white/green birds seen (see yesterday)

Mammals
Live Grey Squirrel on the fence by the entrance gate

Elsewhere
Red Kite reported at Leighton Moss at midday.  No sign of any Whoopers at Hornby mid-afternoon

Shocking Shoveler

North Harbour Wall
Visible from the North Harbour Wall at high tide:
Shoveler - male on the sea
Red-throated Diver - 7
Eider - 93
Purple Sandpiper - 2
Twite - 45.  These did not contain any of the pale blue site ring over split white over green colour-rings from the catch the other day, indicating that these were birds on the move.  Similarly, an absolute minimum of 6 unringed birds (out of c30 seen properly)
Linnet - 1
Black-tailed Godwit - 7.  A rare sighting from the north wall.

Elsewhere
20 Whooper Swan still just north of Hornby including darvic S53.

Underguesstimates

Heysham Obs
Nothing worse for challenging the human eye than a huge rather distant flock of Knot (or Starlings) being Peregrinated.  Your counts have about as much credibility as a calculator in george osborne's office.  Therefore a flying swirling estimate of 10,000 Knot turned into a careful spread out along the tideline '100 block' count of 15,700, plus the fact that 3,800 of the "flying Knot" were Dunlin!

Ocean Edge foreshore
Knot - 15,700
Dunlin - 3,800
Black-tailed Godwit - 12
Black-headed Gull - 6+5 'purposefully' north

near Middleton ex-ICI
Stonechat - pair near the tanks on the west side of the new access road

North harbour wall
Red-throated Diver - 5
Twite - 46
Linnet - one
Purple Sandpiper - one on the wooden jetty at lunchtime

Mammals
A milestone was reached with the first dead Grey Squirrel ever to be found (as far as I can remember) on Moneyclose Lane - they are quite scarce around here other than during autumnal dispersal

Elsewhere
Great Grey Shrike seen at Dalton Crag in the 'usual area' this morning.  Great White Egret still Leighton Moss

Double-figure dots

Heysham Obs
Technocrat Jean Roberts has now introduced 'live traffic feed' - see bottom of side panel

North harbour wall
Red-throated Diver - absolute minimum of 12 and possibly as many as 20 offshore, depending whether the same birds remained in situ on the dropping tide
Common Scoter - male offshore, then out
Whooper Swan - flock of 13 north mid-pm
Purple Sandpiper - 2 by the wooden jetty with 25 Turnstone
Greylag - one 'in'
Eider - 96
Twite - 46 - all appeared to be ringed
Meds - regular birds presumed gone as is normal for e.g. Czech bird:

EX78711 1 03.06.03 Chomoutov, Olomoucky, CZECH REPUBLIC
Seen 24.08.03-26.03.04 Heysham Harbour
Seen 22.07.04-09.03.05 Heysham Harbour
Seen 20.7.05-06.03.06 Heysham Harbour
Seen 08.07.06-06.03.07 Heysham Harbour
Seen 04.08.07-09.03.08 Heysham Harbour
Seen 18.07.08-at least 23.02.09 Heysham Harbour
Seen 07.07.09-07.03.10 Heysham Harbour

HNR office area
Goldfinch - one north
Meadow Pipit - 2 north
Blue Tit - unringed bird now ringed - the only bird caught in two rounds before the wind increased
Green Woodpecker - one calling in the direction of Ocean Edge mid-afternoon

Elsewhere
Two Small Brindled Beauty trapped overnight at Millhouses near Wray (known site, but first of year)

Twite On Their Way Home

North Harbour Wall

Twite - 39.  Ringing session this morning caught 15 retraps, 17 new birds.  The 7 not caught were already ringed.  Until recently, virtually all the "local" birds were already ringed, today ~ half were new birds indicating movement through the area towards breeding grounds.
Linnet - 1 trapped.
Med Gull - no sign of any birds.  Did anyone else see any there or have they moved off?
Eider - 4 males

North Harbour Wall
Med Gull - 3 Adults
Twite - 46
Purple Sandpiper - 1 wooden jetty

These, the only reports so far.

Twite on the move

Heysham Obs
North harbour wall
Scaup - very distant flock of 2 males and three females - presumably the same as February?  Also 3 'dark smallish ducks' further out!
Great-crested Grebe - 17
Red-breasted Merganser - 14
Eider - 80+
Red-throated Diver - one
Purple Sandpiper - one underneath the wooden jetty with c20 Turnstone at low tide
Twite - 51, 32 were examined for rings and a total of 14 seen to be unringed (recently no more than 1-2).  Were these vis mig birds or a result of new birds at the presumably communal roost - almost certainly the latter.  We still dont know where these birds roost, but it seems to be south of Ocean Edge.
Med Gull - two adults, including Czech-ringed bird (thanks Mike)

Heysham NR
Meadow Pipit - 2 north - forgot about these
Goldfinch - 1 probably migrant north

Middleton IE (thanks Malcolm)
4 Mute Swan, 11 Coot, 7 Moorhen, 6 Mallard, 11 Tufted Duck, 3 Pochard, 3 Goldeneye, 2 Teal, one Little Grebe and a singing male Reed Bunting.  Perhaps surprisingly c/f elsewhere, no migrant Stonechats - one just to the east along the bypass fields

Elsewhere
20 Whooper Swan near Hornby, including darvic S53.  Great White Egret Leighton Moss, also 2 Cetti's Warbler & Bearded Tit in eight separate areas

Foggy constraint

.....put the lid on the early morning offshore observations

North harbour wall
Med Gull - two adults on the north wall, one Czech-ringed - both in full summer plumage
Twite - just 8 on the seed

Heysham NR
Green Woodpecker - one calling down Moneyclose Lane
Siskin - one north
Meadow Pipit - one north

Ocean Edge area
Black-tailed Godwit - 11 (unringed)
Knot - c3,200
Dunlin - c2,500
Bar-tailed Godwit - c1,200

Elsewhere
20 Whooper Swans along A683 just south of Hornby, including darvic S53.

Heavenly Siskin

Annual Report
30 copies of the 2009 Heysham Obs report have now been printed but still need ring binding with the colour front cover added.  They should be available early next week, or perhaps earlier, from the Heysham NR office or in a short time, when the necessary admin has been carried out, at Leighton Moss shop.  Thanks to Tony Moriarty and EDF/British Energy for printing

Heysham Obs
North harbour wall early morning low tide
A bit disappointing:
Siskin - heard twice high overhead
Red-throated Diver - 1
Twite - 32
Linnet - 1
Red-breasted Merganser - good count of 21

No high tide checks today

Heysham Nature Reserve
Green Woodpecker - by the entrance gate
Blue Tit - unringed bird trapped
Grey Wagtail - one high to the north
Reed Bunting - female by the feeder for a short time

Elsewhere
Great White Egret and single Avocet on Allen/EM Pools.  Smew Freemans Pool.