A small day

Heysham Obs
The outfalls/Red Nab far from 'dead' today with a moulting adult Little Gull (just starting inner primary moult & head moult half-complete) new in.   New for the year was a Small Wainscot in the moth trap

Outfalls/Red Nab/Ocean Edge incoming tide
Med Gull - 2 juvs (which flew off together towards Sunderland) and two winter adults.  The juvs were unringed, not sure about adults
Little Gull - moulting adult
Whimbrel - 1
Turnstone - 16
Ringed Plover - 9 (no sign of (potentially) returning colour-ringed bird)
Greenshank - one Ocean Edge saltmarsh - flew off south

Migrants
No birders/ringers first thing today and an arrival at 1000hrs produced 5 Willow Warbler, a Sedge Warbler and a Lesser Whitethroat in the vicinity of the office in deteriorating weather.  Probably too clear & calm at dawn for new arrivals and plenty of departure weather overnight for yesterdays birds!
Wheatear - 3 Ocean Edge foreshore (2 yesterday at the heliport)

Moths
Much reduced catch with Small Wainscot highlighting.  Two actinics left in the northern part of the reserve produced a Juniper Pug but none of the wetland specialities

More early migrant landbirds

Heysham Obs
Small ringing efforts at both Middleton NR (east side) and the nets by Heysham NR office revealed a passage of Sedge and Willow Warbler.  The operator of the NR office nets got up a little too late (as yesterday!) & again arrived to 20+ Willow Warblers calling in the surrounding vegetation with 6 ringed as soon as the nets were set and the rest then disappearing into thin air pretty quickly, as is often the case with a migrant 'should-have-been-here-an hour-ago' fall.  The Middleton NR people were more conscientious and ringed 12 Sedge Warbler in the early morning (a good total for August, by which time the locals have departed).   Unfortunately, the weather was by no means 'safe' with large black clouds around and the number of nets at each site was carefully limited and taken down rather early as the wind increased from the west.  Warbler spp ringing totals were: Sedge (12), Willow (9 + 2 retrap), Grasshopper (1+1), Reed (1), Blackcap (2+1), Whitethroat (3+1), Lesser Whitethroat (1)

Middleton NR
Grasshopper Warbler - 2 singing males (one retrapped) and an unringed juvenile caught
Reed Warbler - one juv caught

Heysham NR
Willow Warbler - at least 20 around the office at 0655hrs
Sand Martin - one south
Swift - 2 south
Green Sandpiper - one south at 0830hrs (appeared to come out of the NR marsh which is good enough for the BTO Business challenge!)

A birder reported the outfalls area as 'dead'

Moths
Over 50 species of 'macro' is really good for here and these included Fen Wainscot, Sallow Kitten, Bordered Beauty (2), Barred Rivulet (3), Dingy Footman (2), Silver Y (13) and Golden-rod Pug (2).  The micros were highlighted by another 'plume moth 1523'.  Would have been even better if I had left some egg boxes under the window, instead of all being piled up at the door end after yesterdays haul!

Willow Warblers, Large Yellow Underwings and Silver Ys

Heysham Obs
Grotty weather led to a later start than usual this morning & arrival at the NR office was greeted by a lot of hoo-eting and half-hearted Willow warbler songs.  Two nets were quickly erected by the office and a small catch of 5 Willow Warbler, two Whitethroat, Lesser Whitethroat & a few Greenfinches and odds and ends was made

Office/tank farm area
Willow Warbler - c25
House Sparrow - 2 in the tank farm
Lesser Whitethroat - at least two
Whitethroat - 2 ringed, no other evidence of any

North harbour wall
Whimbrel - 1
Med Gull - 2 adults, including first definite sighting of Czech-ringed bird this autumn

Moths
For here, a significant influx of Large Yellow Underwing (38) plus 11 Silver Y.  Interest was limited, but did include the first Tawny-speckled Pug of the year and another Ypsophola scabrella

Elsewhere
Singing adult male Crossbill still at Thrushgill plantation entrance - please dont tape lure- absolutely no need - also 2 others flew towards main plantation (one scruffy Ringlet)

A few routine observations

Heysham Obs
Most people otherwise occupied today - in my case one for the cricket buffs talking to ex-England/Derbyshire bowler Harold Rhodes about 20:20 cricket and nesting Spoonbills - another person who has been in the public domain who has taken up quite serious birding in later life.  This was at the funeral of a lifetime friend of my parents (posted by Pete Marsh).

Janet spent some time photographing birds around the Red Nab area and here is a female/juvenile Chaffinch

Thanks Janet

The moth trap was not checked until 1030 and held nothing memorable other than perhaps Red-barred Tortrix (per John)

Elsewhere

Adult Yellow-legged Gull and juvenile Med Gull Lune Estuary, Glasson area

The meagre fare cliche

Willow Warbler Ocean Edge today - thanks Janet

Heysham Obs
A reasonable look around Ocean Edge/Red Nab etc just after high tide produced:
Little Egret - 1
Med Gull - just one adult
Whimbrel - 3

Moths
Reduced catch but still 36 species with Ancylis badiana the star

Butterflies
Single Wall Brown seen at Middleton today, on the track to the south opposite the model boat pond car park.  3 Small Coppers also seen - thanks for passing these recorsd on

Vegetative dilemmas

Heysham Obs
Nice pic by Janet of a Peacock on buddleia followed by a Small Copper on ragwort this afternoon.  I planted the buddlieas by the office about a couple of millenia ago and every year they attract large numbers of butterflies which are enjoyed by many people.  Should they, however, be part of a nature reserve?  Unlike a certain large reserve in the north of the county, they are politically correctly kept out of the butterfly transect, so no "artificial" bolstering of numbers here.  Ragwort is a real dilemma.  There is a stables nearby - enough said - and in order to sell the baled hay from the biannual mowing regime to help fund on-going management work, its got to be ragwort-free.  So there is some selective removal on the reserve.

The problem is that, along with the oft-quoted and obvious Cinnabar moth, there are many others whose larvae feed on ragwort, including two regulars in the moth trap, Cochylis atricapitana and the misleadingly named Golden-rod Pug.  As can be seen from the pic, it is also a valuable nectar source, especially late in the autumn.

 Thanks Janet.

Ocean Edge/outfalls area
Med Gull - juvenile on the beach & very distant ad around the outfalls

Moth trap
Another good catch including Ypsophola scabrella and a large plume moth of very localised (northern) distribution with a ridiculously long name -Oidaematophorus lithodactyla

More dodgy forecasts

Heysham Obs
Just about got away with the HNR CES weather-wise this morning and it produced a Blackcap ringed elsewhere

Yesterdays Long-tailed Tit flock at Middleton contained a bird ringed at a Knott End seafront garden (a major Long-tailed Tit flightline!) on 12/11/09

Todays moths included both Buff (rare here) and Dingy Footman and Acleris emargana.

This provides an infrequent chance to compare two of the scarce Footman species here Dingy (left) & Buff (right). ajd.

The berry stains of autumn

Great-crested Newts Middleton NR today - thanks Janet - quite a few consultants working on various pipelines etc. have reason to be grateful for these creatures at this site! 

Heysham Obs
Middleton IE CES
This was rather odd.  It was absolutely dead first thing and an extra net was set on the western side.  In the absence of any overnight birds, this net started to fill up with new birds arriving from the seaward side and we ended up with a marked contrast between standard CES nets (3 birds caught in four 18m nets) and supplementary 18m net (about 25 birds caught).  Then a  Long-tailed Tit flock & 'entrails' went into the supp.
net JUST after the CES time period.  Bureaucratic nightmare!

Grasshopper Warbler - three males still singing, including one near the model boat pond car park and (unringed) adult & two juvs ringed
Common Whitethroat - one berry-stained/staining juv plus another three juvs ringed
Blackcap - 4 juvs caught 'out of habitat' - this exemplifies just how early the British population can start to migrate, rather 'masked' by the complication of late autumn Scandinavian passage migrants and central European wintering birds!
Sedge Warbler - very few around - just two unringed birds caught
Kingfisher - one
Swift - 22 south
Willow Warbler - just four ringed
Chiffchaff - one ringed by the HNR office on 26/7 was caught in the Middleton CES nets, a movement of about 1.8km in 7 days!

Moths
Fairly good catch but nothing particularly of note

Butterflies
Mass break out of Peacock on the office buddleia (max of 9) plus the two Red Admiral still

Pyrausta despicata steals the show

Pyrausta despicata - thanks John

Heysham Obs
The final session of sorting out the LDBWS report for the printers this morning was multitasked with some ringing by the office and checking half the moth trap before John Girdley arrived in time to target the egg-cases as opposed to the walls.  The moth trap saw a deja-vu with a species I was tripping over earlier this year whilst working in Kent but which was only the seventh VC60 record and the second for Heysham NR - Pyrausta despicata

Ringing
Low-key effort next to the office produced a sprinkling of 'new' warblers, including both Whitethroats, a Great-spotted Woodpecker and further evidence that it has been an excellent breeding season for Greenfinch and that the birds are mostly passing through with 34, almost all juveniles, caught this last three weeks with very few retraps

Vis
Swift - 23 south
Sand Martin - 3 Middleton model boat pond

Moths
See above, plus the usual variety of the less-common species including Dingy Footman,  Dingy Shears, Barred Rivulet and Southern Wainscot

Butterflies
The first two Red Admiral seen in the area for quite some time on the office buddleia - looked newly emerged.

Elsewhere
Yellow-legged Gull Glasson and up to 6 Meds in coastal north Fylde

Whimbrel & more moths

Heysham Obs
The moth trap is perfectly designed to receive hordes on cloudy westerly-wind nights and that is just about what has been happening this last fortnight!  It consists of an east-facing prison-barred window with a blended 160W MV hanging from the ceiling and loads of egg packing on the floor.  Winner of the 'most unusual trap' on the inaugural National Moth Night about 10 years ago.  This waffle disguises the fact that this was not the best day ornithologically, especially as two top-notch birders were on the coastal prowl

North wall
Whimbrel - 4

Moths
Sallow new for the year and notable were: 2 Dingy Footman, Pediasia aridella, 2 Barred Rivulet, Rush Veneer, Chilo phragmitella & Phoenix