The early morning air of unpredictability

Heysham Obs
On site at Middleton by 0545hrs, almost as conscientious as the Fylde ringers.  A crystal clear sky, half a moon and a niggling northerly wind did not look good.  Surely only a few Grey Wagtail and perhaps local Goldfinch could be hoped for.   Just two nets were set due to the wind and the first of these caught Grasshopper Warbler and Whitethroat in the pre-dawn gloom!

Assessment of migrants present on the site early morning as follows:
Willow Warbler - c15 (2 ringed)
Chiffchaff - c10 (2 ringed)
Whitethroat - c10 (4 ringed)
Grasshopper Warbler - 1 (ringed)
Garden Warbler - 1
Sedge Warbler - 1
Blackcap - 5 (one ringed)
Robin - 6

What do I know about night migrants and 'falls'!   All these were behaving like new arrivals and quite obviously moving from the seaward end inland. Not many birds were caught in the wind and sun and the session also featured up to 8 net-avoiding/bouncing Grey Wagtails and the nets were down by 0900hrs.  Probably the first time there have been so many on the move without ringing any of them.  Vis as follows (to 0900hrs):

Grey Wagtail - 8 SE
Meadow Pipit - 19 SE
Tree Pipit - 2 SE
Reed Bunting - 3 SE
Swallow - 25 SE
House Martin - 4 SE

Heysham Nature reserve moths
Humming-bird Hawk-moth - one in the mist net ride next to the office at 1040hrs
Red Underwing was the highlight of the trap with minor interest (literally) provided by Small Wainscot

Wimpish early morning coverage

Heysham Obs
Early morning Vis Mig day two was subject to cancellation as the rain was too horizontal.   All that was seen by early-morning car-bound observers was "at least four" 1CY Kittiwake on Heysham 2 outfalls and one of the ad Med Gulls

outfalls area incoming tide
Kittiwake - 5 1CY
Common Tern - one juv

Middleton IE
c300 Goldfinch!
probable Ruddy Darter western marsh, but no optics with me at the time & couldnt be absolutely certain, given current status
Wall brown - single near the model boat pond

Moths
First Pink-barred Sallow of the autumn - the first truly autumnal moth to go with the weather!

National vis mig day one support

1CY Kittiwake on the outfalls today - thanks to Mike Watson

Heysham Obs
One hour by the office, then 15 minutes on the north wall, then 15 minutes or so around Ocean Edge.  West-north-westerly 3, increasing 4-5 with light showers.  Unfortunately, not very good conditions for vis.  Wind increased in the afternoon producing a few seabirds on the dropping tide

HNR office area 0630-0730
Grey Wagtail - one south (0645hrs)
Meadow Pipit - 2 south
Lesser Whitethroat - one in the bushes
Willow warbler - 2 in the bushes
Chiffchaff - 2 in the bushes
Blackcap - one calling

Sea
Arctic Skua - distant lught morph out pm(thanks Mike B)
Gannet - one distant adult-type out & across am
Sandwich Tern - two in the second channel early am, 22 'out' pm
Lesser Black-backed Gull - 9 'purposefully south' am
Common Gull - 2 as above am
Med Gull - two adults around

Ocean Edge
Pied Wagtail - 28 on the grass - all Pied
Little Gull - adult sat on the mud
Kittiwake - FIVE 1CY stage 2 outfall at high tide (thanks Mike W)
Little Egret - at least one in the saltmarsh channel (2 yesterday, per dogwalker)

North harbour wall
Birds on the 'mound'/Hoopoe compound in the late morning comprised:  2 Meadow Pipit, 3 Wheatear, 6 Linnet, 2 Pied Wagtail and a Lesser Whitethroat hiding in the gorse - the first record for SD36V!

Rather unpredictable morning!

Latish Cinnabar caterpillar.  Thanks Janet

Heysham Obs

After a clear, starry, fullish moon night, not a lot of night migrants were expected but conditions were perfect for ringing and especially early morning vis mig.  So time to kickstart the Grey Wagtail study.

Heysham office area revealed a predictable lack of night migrants, although two Blackcap and a Willow Warbler were ringed, but Middleton was rather strange and much better than expected in this category:

Grasshopper Warbler - three (oldish) 1CY trapped in the western marsh near to where there was a singing male last night (heard during moth trapping event) of which there was no sight/sound this morning!   Were these migrants grounded during the night by the song?  These are the latest ever to be ringed here.

Reed Warbler - migrant 1CY ringed (no local birds left)

Sedge Warbler - no sign of any

Lesser Whitethroat - 4 1CY ringed

Whitethroat - fully moulted adult male & 1CY ringed

Willow warbler - 3 ringed (& one HNR)

Chiffchaff - 2 ringed & a few others calling in the sewage works screening planting

Blackcap - 3 1CY ringed (& 2 HNR)

Tree Pipit - one escaped from a mist net whilst extracting a large tit flock (you are supposed to get these out first!)
Shoveler - female/imm escaped from the top shelf of a mist net!!!!! [rare here].  This is the third duck species to escape from the top shelf of this particular mist net this year (Tufted & Mallard being the other two!)

Mammals
A group of four Foxes seen at 08.00 roaming on the Reserve plateau area. Most likely the same family, including three cubs, seen close to the Hut some while ago.

Vis mig Middleton/Heysham
Tree Pipit - 2 SE & the above grounded bird

Grey Wagtail - a loose flock of 6 at about 0615hrs (4 ringed) and 2 others at about 0620hrs. Singleton over HNR almost certainly different.

Swallow - 25 SE
House Martin - 5 SE

Meadow Pipit - 4 SE

Tit species - a veritable 'plague' from about 1000hrs leading to the best net at Middleton being closed to avoid wholesale recaptures.   These made a major contribition to about 100 extractions today, with 54 of these not already bearing a ring.  The Long-tailed Tit flocks were a complete mixture of older-ringed/more recently ringed and 'new' birds, but at least one of the Blue Tit flocks consisted wholly of unringed birds.  7 unringed Great Tit during one ringing session is a high number for this site.  Two of the retrap Great Tits were from the HNR nestbox scheme.

Outfalls

At least one Kittiwake on the outfalls - thanks Janet

Early return or early passage?

Heysham Obs
The main news today was an early Purple Sandpiper on the wooden jetty with c40 Turnstone (thanks Sean)

Other stuff seen during the morning by John (early) & Sean (incoming tide):
Wheatear - three north wall
Med Gull - ad north wall
Little Gull - ad outfalls
Kittiwake - 4 juvs still hanging around but more mobile/offshore than yesterday
Swallow - 30-40 blogging/south
Knot - singleton still around

Early morning by the office (too windy from the wrong direction for ringing)
Tree Pipit - 2 together south
Meadow Pipit - one south
Swallow - 4 south
Willow Warbler - 2
Whitethroat - 2

First full wing formula of the year!

Heysham Obs
Grounded migrants
............the 'usual' wing formula at places which don't catch many rarities, a check on an 'out of habitat' migrant Reed Warbler in the HNR office nets.  Even if it was in the reedbed at Middleton, should really check all of them at this time of year

A handful of migrant phylloscs around the NR office (at least four Chiffchaff and two Willow Warbler) but the only presumed newly-arrived sylvia was a single Whitethroat, with two off-passage birds also caught (one with fat score of 4) and there were very few 'tacks' and 'churrs' in the brambles compared to last week

One of the things about an excellent month for ringing, reflecting good productivity, has been the unprecedented late summer/early autumn total of 65 Greenfinch, with very few retraps.  Most of these have been young birds, with quite a variation in the stage of moult from juvenile to first winter body feathers, reflecting first, second or even perhaps third broods.  This species has been at a very low ebb in recent times due to the virus (see e.g. BTO website)

Vis
Non-existent early on, other than a trickle of House Martin and Swallow amounting to no more than 6 & 15 respectively, all casually noted moving south late morning

Coastal stuff (thanks to Derek Gifford)
Little Gull - moulting adult outfalls
Med Gull - either 2nd summer moulting to adult winter or first summer moulting to second winter (stage of primary moult not clearly seen)
Sandwich Tern - one off outfalls
Kittiwake - 7 of yesterdays juveniles were still hanging about off the north harbour wall/outfalls
Cormorant - 52
Dunlin - 2 Red Nab
Knot - one Red Nab
Swallow - 20 or so blogging

Butterfly census around the reserve
Highlighted by three Wall Brown with possibly another seen casually near the office.  Also confirmation that many late summer butterflies had been trashed by the recent weather with just two Gatekeeper seen, although Meadow Brown comprised 36 worn individuals.  Three each of Brimstone and Small Copper were also seen

A few seabirds and trashed insects

Heysham Obs
A degree or two too far to the north west early on, then several degrees too far to the north-west after the mid-morning prolonged squall/cold trough/front.  As a result, a handful of stuff in off their own bat early on, then the rest probably dragged into the bay by various Fleetwood/Heysham-bound boats

Offshore/transient seabirds (thanks to Tom & Mick Wilmer for the later stuff)
Bonxie (Great Skua) - one distantly in about 0815hrs
Manx Shearwater - one across the mouth of the bay about 0835hrs
Gannet - one out 0820hrs, 2 later
Kittiwake - 3 juvs in the harbour early on, then up to 30 milling around the harbour mouth after the squall - unusual in recent Augusts
Fulmar - 4 out after the squall
Common/Arctic Tern - one rapidly and distantly out was amazingly the only tern seen

Outfalls
Little Gull - ad
Med Gull - ad
Mute Swan - pair on Red Nab - check this isnt a new BTO challenge species!

North harbour wall
2 Ad Med Gulls (including Czech bird) early on

Moths
A pretty trashed stunningly unremarkable catch, plus a similarly battered Meadow Brown seen in the field

Udea lutealis and Meadow Brown suffering in the weather.  Thanks Janet

CES and opening heavens

****Worth seawatching tomorrow morning if the forecast goes to plan this time!

Heysham Obs
The short-range forecast prompted both the Heysham & Middleton CES this morning in the supposed 'weather window'.  Oh yeh! We were very lucky indeed to get away with it, with a constant watch on clouds which seemed to be changing direction all the time.  Indeed, conditions were so localised that Middleton actually got away with just one small pulse of rain before the heavens opened just after the end of the CES time period (0630-0930) with all but one of the nets taken down.  Heysham NR unfortunately suffered a slightly earlier downpour (nets temporarily furled) and then six wet (already closed) nets as the rain hammered down during 'take down'.  At Middleton we decided to quickly take the nets down ahead of a Long-tailed Tit flock & entrails and this was the correct decision [you are allowed to carry on ringing after the CES time period, but the birds are not included in the CES statistics]

It was a very difficult morning to assess as there have not been any recent morning ringing visits to Middleton to know what might have been lingering.  There was certainly a mass clear-out of Whitethroat/Lesser Whitethroat by Heysham office and this was reflected in the poor CES catch there (irrespective of the interruptions).  At Middleton, on the other hand, there appeared to be a small fall of Whitethroat species!

Middleton IE CES/vis
Grey Wagtail - 2 SE
Swallow - 28 SE (& 12 ringed)
Tree Pipit - one appeared to land in the centre of the western marsh
Whinchat - fem/imm first thing in the western marsh
Whitethroat - 7 ringed
Lesser Whitethroat - 3 ringed
Sedge Warbler - just 2 ringed
Blackcap - one ringed
Willow Warbler - just one bird heard calling!
Chiffchaff - two birds seemed to drop out of the sky first thing & one was caught & ringed

North harbour wall
Med Gull - 2 adults (one Czech-ringed)

Moths

Crescent caught at a sheet & light session at Middleton (technically yesterday) - first record for SD45.  Phoenix the best in the HNR trap.  Thanks John

Slum weaver sensation

Heysham Obs
HNR Office area
A good wind direction allowed the top two nets next to the office and these helped to reinforce the impressions over the last three days that there are a lot of Common Whitethroat moving though (10-15 this morning, 5 ringed) and 3-4 Lesser Whitethroat are in vocal residence(? - at least two unringed this morning) in the brambles just north of the office.  Willow warblers, however, were at a premium this morning with just two heard, a big downturn on the last few days. Also:

House Sparrow - Juvenile ringed - the first for at least a millenium and a decade 
Grey Wagtail - first of the autumn south
Meadow Pipit - 4 south-east
Swallow - 35 SW
Sand Martin - one SW

Middleton IE
Tufted Duck - one
Wall Brown - one

Coastal sites (thanks Mark & Malcolm)
Med Gull - three adults outfalls area
Little Gull - winter ad on mudflats off OE
Little Egret - one OE saltmarsh creek
Sandwich Tern - one far offshore
Wheatear - one OE

Rapid whizz round

Heysham Obs
Office area 
Lesser Whitethroat (2), Whitethroat (4), Willow Warbler (5), Chiffchaff (2)

Ocean Edge/outfalls/Red Nab
Little Gull - moulting adult
Med Gull - adult
Little Egret - one OE saltmarsh channel
Raven - two picking at unidentified soggy object on the beach off OE - first time Ravens have been seen on the beach here as far as I am aware

North wall
Dire with not even any Med Gulls

Moths
Smallish catch did include the first (migrant) Rusty Dot Pearl of the year