Heysham Obs
As is also the case on the Walney Obs site (see links), daily postings are currently thriving on a diet of rather good moth catches. Todays stars were a Lime Hawk-moth (3rd record), two Elephant Hawk-moth (surprisingly the first in the hut trap since 2006), Barred Yellow (again perhaps surprisingly scarce in the hut trap)..............and Dingy Shears (a local dull brown moth) & five Double Dart (a seriously declining dull brown moth where this appears to be the best remaining site in northern Britain). A map showing Double Dart decline has been published in the latest Butterfly Conservation moth newsletter.
Saturday, 3 July 2010
Friday, 2 July 2010
CES disaster but an anticipated new moth species
Heysham Obs
Middleton IE CES
A Reed Warbler bearing a foreign-type ring inscription, almost certainly French, escaped before it had been read due to fiddling about with new glasses which allowed me to see about 6 inches in front of my eyes (i.e. read ring numbers) but not the process of getting the bird out of the bag!!! Hopefully it will be a local breeding bird, not a very early dispersing adult and will be caught again. The remainder of the catch was lower than it should have been due to a combination of sun and wind (I was hoping for cloud cover for the whole three hours) for the last 1.5 of the 3 hour session (7 Sedge warbler, one Reed Warbler plus the above). Loads of Sedge Warblers around but not very mobile until it became too windy/sunny to net efficiently & most of them seemed to be in the net-free western marsh
Green Sandpiper - the inviting muddy edge of the central marsh attracted one in until accidentally flushed at some unearthly hour (0550ish!) whence it flew off NE
Med Gull - adult flew over towards the coast at about 0830hrs
No time/chance to check the outfalls gulls
Moths
Middleton IE CES
A Reed Warbler bearing a foreign-type ring inscription, almost certainly French, escaped before it had been read due to fiddling about with new glasses which allowed me to see about 6 inches in front of my eyes (i.e. read ring numbers) but not the process of getting the bird out of the bag!!! Hopefully it will be a local breeding bird, not a very early dispersing adult and will be caught again. The remainder of the catch was lower than it should have been due to a combination of sun and wind (I was hoping for cloud cover for the whole three hours) for the last 1.5 of the 3 hour session (7 Sedge warbler, one Reed Warbler plus the above). Loads of Sedge Warblers around but not very mobile until it became too windy/sunny to net efficiently & most of them seemed to be in the net-free western marsh
Green Sandpiper - the inviting muddy edge of the central marsh attracted one in until accidentally flushed at some unearthly hour (0550ish!) whence it flew off NE
Med Gull - adult flew over towards the coast at about 0830hrs
No time/chance to check the outfalls gulls
Moths
A fairly decent catch, as the rain did not also involve a wind blowing into the window as happened during the great thunderstorm night earlier in the week. The highlight being the first Blackneck for this site.
Thursday, 1 July 2010
Time to check gulls on a daily basis!
Heysham Obs
Ocean Edge high tide
Not the best time but still three full s.p.adult Med Gulls on view
Middleton IE
A mist net ride trimming session saw singing male Reed Warblers in the central and western marsh reedbeds and one singing Grasshopper Warbler in the western marsh. Best was the first Common Sandpiper of the autumn on the central marsh pond
Elsewhere
The Yellow (male = Channel) Wagtail family party seems to have dispersed from the Wenning Foot area with no sign this evening
Ocean Edge high tide
Not the best time but still three full s.p.adult Med Gulls on view
Middleton IE
A mist net ride trimming session saw singing male Reed Warblers in the central and western marsh reedbeds and one singing Grasshopper Warbler in the western marsh. Best was the first Common Sandpiper of the autumn on the central marsh pond
Elsewhere
The Yellow (male = Channel) Wagtail family party seems to have dispersed from the Wenning Foot area with no sign this evening
Wednesday, 30 June 2010
Mothfest
Heysham Obs
A ringing session by the hut, somewhat interrupted by moth collecting activities, produced 12 birds, including 4 Tit sp., 2 Common Whitethroat, 2 Lesser Whitethroat, 1 Willow Warbler, 1 Chiffchaff.
Moths: The hut trap produced 210 moths of 58 species - a good catch for this site. Thanks to John for his unexpected but timely arrival to complete the identification of the catch. Silky Wainscot perhaps the pick of the bunch
Silver Hook and Obscure Wainscot were the highlights of a short sheet and light session at Middleton IE - both are presumably breeding there
The model boat pond produced a distant sighting of a photographer with head in hands (asleep??) so presumably no Red-veined Darters! Looks like this last winter/'premature' autumn emergence might have put paid to this species and there is absolutely no evidence of any along the south coast e.g. Dungeness BO website. Still a bit early to be certain.
(ajd)
Elsewhere
The Channel Wagtail x female flavissima pairing in the Lune valley now has fledged young on the shingle at Wenningfoot
A ringing session by the hut, somewhat interrupted by moth collecting activities, produced 12 birds, including 4 Tit sp., 2 Common Whitethroat, 2 Lesser Whitethroat, 1 Willow Warbler, 1 Chiffchaff.
Moths: The hut trap produced 210 moths of 58 species - a good catch for this site. Thanks to John for his unexpected but timely arrival to complete the identification of the catch. Silky Wainscot perhaps the pick of the bunch
Silver Hook and Obscure Wainscot were the highlights of a short sheet and light session at Middleton IE - both are presumably breeding there
The model boat pond produced a distant sighting of a photographer with head in hands (asleep??) so presumably no Red-veined Darters! Looks like this last winter/'premature' autumn emergence might have put paid to this species and there is absolutely no evidence of any along the south coast e.g. Dungeness BO website. Still a bit early to be certain.
(ajd)
Elsewhere
The Channel Wagtail x female flavissima pairing in the Lune valley now has fledged young on the shingle at Wenningfoot
Tuesday, 29 June 2010
Monday, 28 June 2010
Sunday, 27 June 2010
Tits galore
Heysham Obs
A quick visit to the reserve office early morning saw at least 40 tit species in the usual ringing bushes - however we had already committed to a session at Middleton. It looks like its been a very good breeding season for tits (also supported by provisional nestbox data) after a reasonable feeder-assisted survival this last winter. A significant proportion of the flock was Long-tailed Tit - I dont think this would have been the case after winter 1962/3, before they discovered fat balls
Middleton IE
Only two hours ringing due to work committments produced a steady trickle of warbler species (including Grasshopper) and a few rather myopic Swallows. Worryingly, two ringing sessions there totalling over 70 birds have not included a single Reed Bunting, implying first brood failure. Memo: add to the records an unseasonal fly-over Siskin during the CES on 20/6
Moths
Rather a lot and most of the flighty stuff was intercepted before the sun blazed into the trap. As far as I am aware, a mass breakout of Common Footman (14) was actually new for the year, also apparently new were: Map-winged Swift, Satin Wave (a bit belated), Dingy Footman and Grass Emerald. Need to get the records out of the log on to MapMate, rather than trying to plough through 5 varieties of handwriting!
Dragonflies
Colin unfortunately could not make it today - can someone please do the Middleton butterfly/dragonfly transect in the decent weather - I'm away till Thursday & its going off then by all accounts. A VERY brief check of the model boat pond did not produce any darters
A quick visit to the reserve office early morning saw at least 40 tit species in the usual ringing bushes - however we had already committed to a session at Middleton. It looks like its been a very good breeding season for tits (also supported by provisional nestbox data) after a reasonable feeder-assisted survival this last winter. A significant proportion of the flock was Long-tailed Tit - I dont think this would have been the case after winter 1962/3, before they discovered fat balls
Middleton IE
Only two hours ringing due to work committments produced a steady trickle of warbler species (including Grasshopper) and a few rather myopic Swallows. Worryingly, two ringing sessions there totalling over 70 birds have not included a single Reed Bunting, implying first brood failure. Memo: add to the records an unseasonal fly-over Siskin during the CES on 20/6
Moths
Rather a lot and most of the flighty stuff was intercepted before the sun blazed into the trap. As far as I am aware, a mass breakout of Common Footman (14) was actually new for the year, also apparently new were: Map-winged Swift, Satin Wave (a bit belated), Dingy Footman and Grass Emerald. Need to get the records out of the log on to MapMate, rather than trying to plough through 5 varieties of handwriting!
Dragonflies
Colin unfortunately could not make it today - can someone please do the Middleton butterfly/dragonfly transect in the decent weather - I'm away till Thursday & its going off then by all accounts. A VERY brief check of the model boat pond did not produce any darters
Saturday, 26 June 2010
snatches of time
Heysham Obs
Middleton IE
Model boat pond
Darter spp - a red darter was briefly in the centre of the pond before being chased off by Bk T Skimmer. The variable-height flight mode was not convincing for Red-veined, but this might have been due to being harrassed. If it was a RVD, it was not a full adult male.
Black-tailed Skimmer - minimum of 12, possibly up to 20
Ocean Edge
High tide produced:
Med Gull - single adult (Ocean Edge saltmarsh) and ad/3CY with only the upperparts visible (Red Nab) with c350 Black-headed Gull
Moths
The catch included two Broad-barred White. Two nights ago produced a convincing e.g. of Heart and Club which is being thoroughly checked following quite a few false alarms with extralimital claims (has appeared here once before)
Middleton IE
Model boat pond
Darter spp - a red darter was briefly in the centre of the pond before being chased off by Bk T Skimmer. The variable-height flight mode was not convincing for Red-veined, but this might have been due to being harrassed. If it was a RVD, it was not a full adult male.
Black-tailed Skimmer - minimum of 12, possibly up to 20
Ocean Edge
High tide produced:
Med Gull - single adult (Ocean Edge saltmarsh) and ad/3CY with only the upperparts visible (Red Nab) with c350 Black-headed Gull
Moths
The catch included two Broad-barred White. Two nights ago produced a convincing e.g. of Heart and Club which is being thoroughly checked following quite a few false alarms with extralimital claims (has appeared here once before)
Decent Middleton ringing session
Heysham Obs
Middleton IE
A ringing session using the CES net sites in the central marsh and the western marsh net sites produced a significant number of warbler species including Grasshopper Warbler, Lesser Whitethroat and reasonable numbers of Common Whitethroat. Of the 7 Lesser Whitethroat caught, one was ringed elsewhere - the first time we have had either a recovery or a 'control' of this species and about time!
Middleton IE
A ringing session using the CES net sites in the central marsh and the western marsh net sites produced a significant number of warbler species including Grasshopper Warbler, Lesser Whitethroat and reasonable numbers of Common Whitethroat. Of the 7 Lesser Whitethroat caught, one was ringed elsewhere - the first time we have had either a recovery or a 'control' of this species and about time!
Thursday, 24 June 2010
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