Marginal wind direction persists for long enough....

So near...........or eyesight not good enough/looking in the wrong direction...........this was taken from the Walney Obs Blog this morning:  "The pick of the day’s sightings was a Sooty Shearwater that flew out of Morecambe Bay at 0855hrs". In good conditions you can see seagulls sat on the pier hide at Walney and easily read Barrow Town Hall clock  (never seen a Sooty from anywhere along the eastern Irish sea coastline other than north Cornwall (and from the Stranraer-Larne ferry))

Heysham Obs
Unfortunately could not get on site until 0700hrs with four Leach's Petrel on the first scan.  Reasonable selection but a bit tedious during the last two hours of the morning session dropping tide with effort wrongly focused on birds coming out of the bay rather than looking towards the outer bay for those cutting across.  When this happened (c0920hrs), two seen straight away.  The afternoon Leach's Petrels were a real bonus for the multiple observers with most forecasts going for the wind turning NW just after midday

North harbour wall 0700-1000 & IOM ferry lunchtime & short mid-afternoon visit
Leach's Petrel - 10 first session, one distantly lunchtime, one 1405 - all 'out', then four others until the wind went NW at about 1630hrs [total 16]
Arctic Skua - 2 juvs (plus small skua spp, almost certainly this species) early morning, then juv out at 1630hrs
Bonxie - 1 out 0710hrs, another out at 1735hrs
Black Tern - one around ferry in harbour mouth, then flew behind wooden jetty
Common Tern - one adult around ferry
Gannet - 4 early am, two 2CY behind ferry, ad & juv later in afternoon
Razorbill - one mid-afternoon
Fulmar - 1
Kittiwake - 4 (3 juvs) & c15 around harbour/behind ferry
Arctic Tern - 3 juvs early am & 5 juvs outfalls/around ferry
Sandwich Tern - 2 juvs early am, adult around ferry, one mid-afternoon
Guillemot - one on sea, two on sea at lunchtime
Shag - mobile 1CY in the harbour
Med Gull - 1CY & two adults patrolling the seawall, two further adults on Red Nab
Little Gull - adult stage 2 outfall mid-pm
Pink-footed Goose - flocks of 19+45+50 SW mid afternoon (first of autumn)

** What was almost certainly a juvenile Long-tailed Skua was seen by a very experienced observer late yesterday evening, but too far out and not all the features were clinched to his high standards of documentation

"Lovely day isnt it" until a late afternoon trickle

Heysham Obs
The classic 'red rag' from a well-meaning member of the public as a mid/late-morning visit to the north harbour wall coincided with a most emphatic clearance of the sky of anything resembling a cloud.  Not a chance of any seabirds this far into the bay unless some squalls arrive which did happen to a minor extent on the dropping late afternoon tide:

North harbour wall
15:00-18:00 dropping tide with 3 x minor showers produced
Black Tern   1 out slowly past line of yellow buoys 15:56-15:57 age indeterminate
Bonxie          1 floating out on sea, lifted and flew out several hundred metres before landing on sea again and lost to view 17:30
Fulmar           1 out
Kittiwake       juv in then perhaps the same out on the same 'line'
Auk sp          1 in then followed by 1 prob Guillemot out soon followed by 1 prob Guillemot in, may have all been the same bird
Arctic Tern    juv out c1615hrs
Unfortunately I didn't have the stamina to see if there was a Leach's on the last part of the outgoing tide but definitely better than staying at home and watching Freeview for 3 hours! (Tom Wilmer)

Ocean edge side
Leach's Petrel - one 'drifting' distantly east at about 1600hrs - this bird definitely did not venture north of the wooden jetty (observer unknown)

Miscellaneous inshore
Wheatear - a good autumnal total of 11 between 1/2 moon bay and the harbour mouth and a further four on Ocean Edge
Pied/White Wagtail - c22 - at least 6 showing chars. of White Ocean Edge and a further 15 on the north side of the harbour (7 white)
Linnet - 12 north wall, 17 Ocean Edge
Meadow Pipit - 6 SE in 20 minutes north wall, 8 grounded Ocean Edge
Med Gull - 2 adults Red Nab

Moths
Two Black Rustic the first for the year

Very Wet & windy

Heysham

No Reports so far.

Meds About

6 Med Gulls : 3 Adults : 1 2CY ; 2 1CY

Middleton  Industrial Estate Webs

2 Mute Swans
16 Coot
2 Moorhen
5 Mallard
4 Tufted
1 Pochard
3 Little Grebe
2 Snipe
also 1 Raven

Ocean Edge
4 Wheatear
1 Little Egret

Non-event

Heysham Obs
The time slot was the early morning, the weather was worse than forecasted.   It has been brought to my attention that a joke involving aircraft (this morning's visit being quicker than a Ryanair turn-round) was in very bad taste today.  I am really sorry about this - it was completely unintentional, although forgetting the significance of the date is almost as insulting.  Very sorry to upset at least one person. I have removed the offending sentence

Ocean Edge
One adult Med Gull

NR Office
2 Chiffchaff and a single Lesser Whitethroat
c36 Swallow south

Mound
10 Linnet

Please note that there appeared to be a movement of Lap Bunts following the front at some other NW sites.  Tomorrow morning?

Civilised 'lie-in' & back to coastal birding

Heysham Obs
Back to the usual west coast birding this morning after an aborted attempt at passerining the mound (couldnt see a thing walking into driving rain), and it wasnt bad! 

Ocean Edge/Red Nab/outfalls on turning tide & high tide count
Black Tern - juv in the channel/briefly end of Hey one outfall.  Appeared to be slowly making its way out of the bay
Common or Arctic Tern - juv seen very briefly end of Heysham one - appeared to go into bay. 
Curlew Sandpiper - two juvenile with 27 Dunlin and 9 Ringed Plover off Ocean Edge - unfortunately not in the BTO challenge area
Med Gull - adult Red Nab, adult off Ocean Edge, two adults harbour mouth and at least one 1CY on the outfalls/harbourmouth
Little Egret - one Red Nab qualifying for BTO challenge
Whimbrel - latish bird for here Ocean Edge
Bar-tailed Godwit - juv Red Nab

WeBS
Cormorant - a record 108 on the wooden jetty!
Shag - at least one possibly two 1CY on the wooden jetty (obscured)
The 1CY Med joined the two adults (one Czech-ringed) on the north wall railings
Turnstone - 117 wooden jetty
Curlew Sandpiper - the two were with an even larger flock of Dunlin (41)/R Plover but they wouldnt go into the BTO challenge area - landed briefly on OE west field, then flew towards Potts corner
Ringed Plover - 21 heliport, 17 mobile birds with OE area calidrids

Sea
Shelduck - flock of 38 flew south at HT

In situ or with the tit flocks

Heysham Obs
Not worth getting up early this morning, especially once I was stuck behind an O'Reilly lorry along Morecambe road/past ASDA, always an bad omen in my experience.  Still quite a few migrants around Heysham NR this morning but the sylvias had found their own bit of bramble and the phylloscs were mainly concentrated in and around a Long-tailed Tit flock.  Therefore no evidence of new arrivals and the vis was similarly rather poor with very bad timing by the Grey Wagtails as regards ringing!

Office area
Lesser Whitethroat - 3
Whitethroat - 2
Blackcap - 2
Chiffchaff - 5
Willow Warbler - 2
Ringing: just 2 Chiffchaff, one Willow Warbler, one Whitethroat, two Greenfinch, one Great Tit & a Magpie!

Vis mig by office 0630-0900
Coal Tit - the start of an autumn  irruption?  2+3+2+1+2 noisily south
Meadow Pipit - 16 S
Grey Wagtail - 1+4+1+2 SE
Reed Bunting - 1 SE
Goldfinch - 6 (flock) high south-east
Chaffinch - 1+1+1+1+1+1+1 south
alba Wagtail - 5 S
Swallow - 28 S
House Martin - 11 S

Moths
Dusky Thorn trapped at Middleton NR last night - a long overdue new species for SD45E

What a bonus!

Heysham Obs
A nice calm morning amidst all the low pressure areas produced a fair amount of vis mig and a reasonable number of grounded birds in the Middleton NR mist nets:

Middleton NR 0615-1145hrs
Osprey - one circling very high receiving attention from many large gulls at 1130hrs - drifted even higher SE
Common Buzzard - one south about 1025hrs
Grey Wagtail - 14 SE (7 ringed)
Tree Pipit - 5 SE (four very early on, one mid-morning)
Swallow - 215 SE (almost certainly undercounted)
Meadow Pipit - 115 SE - mainly VERY high
Reed Bunting - 8 grounded briefly/SE (all caught & ringed!)
alba Wagtail - 6 SE
House Martin - 35 SE (undercount?)
Kingfisher - one ringed
Lesser Whitethroat - 2 seen
Sedge Warbler - at least 6 (3 ringed)
Reed Warbler - one

Ringing comprised:  Garden Warbler (1), Sedge Warbler (3), Chiffchaff (4), Willow Warbler (2), Reed Bunting (8), Goldfinch (3), Grey Wagtail (7), Swallow (9), Great Tit (2), Blue Tit (4), Kingfisher (1), Wren (1), Coal Tit (1).  Managed to avoid any tit flocks - all tits caught singly!

Heysham N Reserve
Perhaps the same Kingfisher was seen feeding in front of the pagoda hide at lunchtime
Lesser Whitethroat in the brambles by the office

Reasonable morning by the office retrieved or did we miss the big one?

Heysham Obs
High Tatham dawned with rain and a slow start was exacerbated by a Lune valley tractor convoy in weather which was looking better by the minute as Heysham was approached.  The nets next to the office were hastily erected at 0720hrs, catching a Sedge Warbler within about 10 seconds of starting to set the first net!  A Long-tailed Tit flock was 'in residence' in the mist net ride but predictably melted away, along with attendant Chiffchaffs and 'tack' spp, not helped by that bane of early morning ringing, a mist net pole going awol.   By 1200hrs, the situation was somewhat retrieved, but did any of these early birds accompanying the tit flock (which was not relocated) actually reappear in the area?

Office area 0720-1200hrs
Whitethroat - 2 ringed and a retrap ringed at Middleton on 31/8 at 15.5grms and now weighing 19 grams with a fat score of 4.
Lesser Whitethroat - one ringed and another seen
Chiffchaff - at least 10, mainly early & only two caught & a further 6 along Moneyclose Lane
Willow Warbler - one ringed
Sedge Warbler - one ringed
Garden Warbler - one ringed
Blackcap - two seen
Goldcrest - one with the tit flock and another along Moneyclose Lane

Vis mig 0730-0830hrs by the office
Grey Wagtail - three SE whilst looking for mist net pole!
Redpoll spp, - 4 SE
Meadow Pipit - 11 SE
Swallow - 44SE
House Martin - 4SE
Goldfinch - 36 high to the south in dribs and drabs
Chaffinch - 27 as above, but including group of 8 - quite early for vis mig birds here
Greenfinch - no obvious vis mig but another influx of unringed birds in the nets totalling 14
Great-spotted Woodpecker - surprisingly, an unringed adult female was caught (along with a retrap juv)

The tide was too far in/high for any proper shore coverage in time available

Whats hiding in bent-double bushes?

Heysham Obs
Mound/heliport area
Shag - 1CY on the wooden jetty
Whinchat - one
Wheatear - 7
Phyllosc - one seen v briefly
Pied Wagtail - 8
Meadow Pipit - one
Linnet - now 12
Robin - one
Swallow - 8 south the only vis

Ocean Edge/Red Nab high tide
Wigeon - first of the autumn on Red Nab
Kingfisher - one (seen yesterday by Malcolm)
Med Gull - 3 adult, 2 1CY (no rings seen)
No Sandwich tern
Swallow - 5 SE (coasting)

Office/harbour/outfalls/dog track circuit pm
The western side of the of the screening planting along the dog track was sheltered.
Pied Flycatcher - Female/imm in long-leaved willow, flycatching & calling fairly frequently near the dog walk pond
Chiffchaff - 8 along the dog track, many with 'swee' calls or slightly dysllabic variations on this
Sedge Warbler - juvenile in the Rosebay along the south harbour wall!
Med. Gull - one of the 1CYs on Heysham one outfall (2 1CY Common Gull Heysham 2)
Wheatear - 2 Red Nab
Swallow - 44 south