Late arrival reveals a Blackbird influx

Heysham Obs
First decent influx of continental Blackbirds today with 45-50 on a walk round the reserve area at lunchtime! 

Grounded around reserve at lunchtime
Redwing - 4
Song Thrush - 4
Blackbird - 45-50
Chaffinch - 10
Treecreeper - 1
Goldcrest - 2

North wall/harbour area (thanks to Sean for last two sightings)
Med Gull - ad & 1CY north wall, well-marked 2CY stage one outfall
Twite - 8 including at least 4 unringed and one pale blue/red-white and one ringed the other day
Linnet - 9 north wall
Goldfinch - 8 north wall
Meadow Pipit - 4 north wall - 2 in-off
Wren - one north wall - no other small passerines other than the resident two Robins
Skylark - one 'in-off'
Shag - 1CY roosting with Oystercatchers by the heliport on seawall
Merlin - female 'in-off' then over the wooden jetty & inland

Insects
Red Admiral butterfly by the officve and a nice pic of the only dragonfly seen today - a female Common Darter taken by Janet near Ocean Edge.  Thanks

Little to Report from a Brief Visit

Heysham
N Harbour Wall
Small Twite/Linnet flock on feeding area - Twite 3, Linnet 14, probably a few others around. All in windy and slightly drizzly conditions.
Med Gull - 1adult patrolling NHW.

Moths - Yellow-line Quaker in hut trap. This is only the second record here (although quite common and widespread elsewhere), the first being in 1996, I think.

ajd

Varied vis

Heysham Obs
Office area 0725-0925
Pink-footed Goose - 38 (f) N
Chaffinch - 154 SW, mostly before the cloud rolled in at about 0815hrs
Redwing - 45+2+6 SW
Song Thrush - 5+2+1+2+2 S, 14 out of bushes and east in singletons
Blackbird - little evidence of any new migrants
Reed Bunting - 2 S
Coal Tit - 4+6+4 S
Goldfinch - 2 S
House Sparrow/Richard's Pipit type call - twice very high heading south at 0850 but couldnt see bird
Skylark - 1 SE
Greenfinch - 7 SW
Linnet - 2 SW
Grey Wagtail - 1 SE
Common Buzzard - one high over Heysham village drifted NE
Jackdaw - flock of 89 S
Carrion Crow 5 (with Jackdaw)+2+1+2+3 purposefully south
Meadow Pipit - 2 SE
Brambling - 2 SW

Bits and bobs highlighted by adventurous Blue Tits!

Please could others update the site tomorrow and Monday.  Thanks

Heysham Obs
Vis mig & grounded reserve area
Just a trickle of 'conventional' vis
Chaffinch - 20 SW
Meadow Pipit - 8 SE
Song Thrush - c15 grounded on reserve (4 ringed & one escaped)
Robin - 4 new arrivals ringed
Blackbird - little evidence of fall & only 2 ringed
Blackcap - very heavy off-passage bird ringed
Goldcrest - quite a few first thing but only one ringed (10-15)
Redwing - c15 first thing
Pink-footed Goose - flock heard
alba wagtail - 5 SE
Blue Tit - flock of 25 high to the south over the mound, then the wheel!
Rock Pipit - one Heysham Head

Grounded on the mound & area
Song Thrush - 3
Dunnock - 2
Wren - 2
Meadow Pipit - 22
alba Wagtail - 5
Linnet - 39
Twite - 5 (including two birds ringed in previous years (red/white & blue/white)).   There is a posting on birdforum about Linnet/Twite at Heysham.  Could "DerekG" please contact me on PMrsh123@aol.com.  Thanks.
Wheatear - 1

Miscellaneous
Med Gull - 1CY railings, adult behind dredger
Shag - surprisingly a 1CY on jetty then flew into bay
Kingfisher - one reserve

Ringing
Redwing (2), Song Thrush (4), Kingfisher (1), Long-tailed Tit (2), Greenfinch (5), Chaffinch (2), Blackbird (2), Dunnock (1), Robin (4), Coal Tit (1), Blue Tit (1), Goldcrest (1), Wren (3), Blackcap (1).  Amazing lack of tit captures, given the number wandering around!

...........and now we look to the north-west

Heysham Obs
.....from whence come Whooper Swans, more Pinkfeet, belated Meadow Pipits and 'our' Scottish Twite.......& hopefully another Snow & Lap Bunt or two.  Tomorrow, however, will theoretically see the last 'corridor to Scandinavia', albeit a pretty weak one, for a bit and the radar & vis mig reports suggest a thrush passage tomorrow.  Work in north Cumbria today gave c1000 SW-bound thrushes (via the Tyne gap) in two hours over midday - about 5:4 Fieldfare:Redwing.  We'll see what happens here - it certainly wasnt at Thrushgill this evening

Office vis mig 0730-0800
Chaffinch - 6 SW
Song Thrush - 3 grounded, then inland
Blackbird - 5 grounded then inland
Redwing - 1 SW
Greenfinch - 2 SW

NHW mound area early morning
Meadow Pipit (5), alba Wagtail (7), Linnet (21), Twite (2), Wheatear (1), (continental) Blackbird (2), Rock Pipit (1), plus the two resident Robin.

Ringing
3 Twite and 8 (out of a flock of 14) Linnet caught by Alan Draper mid/late afternoon

Moths
A really good catch for here at this time of year comprising 17 Red-line Quaker, 9 Pink-barred Sallow, Large Wainscot, 4 Silver Y, Dark Chestnut, Parsnip Moth, 3 Epirrata spp, Common Marbled Carpet, 2 Mottled Umber, Feathered Thorn. The forecast suggests this might be twice as many moths as for the rest of the year put together!

Siberian Chiffchaff

Heysham Obs
Not quite so productive this morning, especially vis from the east, with the rather high-layered cloud and perhaps too much north in the wind on both sides of the country.  The two most interesting birds in the nets, a very lightweight orange Robin and the Siberian Chiffchaff both turned up after the thickest darkest piece of cloud & associated spits.  Tom found the best diurnal migrant - a Yellowhammer by the anemometer.  Thanks to Emma for the pics below

..........Trapped and ringed at 1100hrs today.  The key thing was the call - a soft 'pew' like a weak high-pitched Bullfinch.  The plumage (and biometrics) also filled the tick boxes.  Photos are notoriously deceptive - please accept there was absolutely no green tinge to the mantle/rump/head.  We have had a good variety of Chiffchaffs here over the years including some with similar plumage but no calls heard

Grounded
Song Thrush - 7
Goldcrest - 10
Rock Pipit - 1
Chiffchaff - 3-4
Siberian Chiffchaff - 1
Robin - an orange bird caught weighing 14.8 grams just after very light shower!
Blackbird - c20
Redwing - 15
Mistle Thrush - 11
Yellowhammer - grounded by the anemometer then headed ESE
Water Rail - one by dipping pond
Fieldfare - single grounded  by dipping poind, then headed south

Vis
Redpoll - 2 S
Linnet - 2 S
Chaffinch - 31 SW
Grey Wagtail - 1 S
Siskin - 2 S
alba Wagtail - 13 SE
Meadow Pipit - 38 SE
Goldfinch - 4 S
Raven - two flew high out to sea, then u-turned at the tideline & headed inland
Sparrowhawk - male 'in-off' then SE
Coal Tit - 3 S
Pink-footed Goose 72 S early morning

Middleton IE (BE strip)
Garden Warbler - 1
Chiffchaff - 2
North wall
Med Gull - 2 adults
Meadow Pipit - 26 grounded
Linnet - 8 grounded
Blackbird - 1

Ringing (all HNR)
From memory - perhaps one or two numbers wrong!  Goldcrest (1), Wren (2), Greenfinch (10), Blue Tit (3), Dunnock (1), Robin (1), Great-spotted Woodpecker (1), Siberian Chiffchaff (1), Treecreeper (1 - yet another - I think this is about 10 since the comment after the July one that this would be the first and last of the year!), Chaffinch (4), Long-tailed Tit (4)

Moths
Dark Chestnut is a good record for here & first Mottled Umber of the autumn

Yellow-browed Warbler

Heysham Obs
Ever been ashamed of finding (or "  " in this case) a decent bird?!  Even worse than being a mystery miscreant on mega-private land or finding something of national importance when you should have been at work 100 miles away (I think this happened to someone with a Norfolk Fan-tailed Warbler??) is letting one go through poor judgement from a mist net.  I forgot the furling stick whilst setting the 'top nets' & double-looped one end which meant, of course it was a bit difficult to lower the net for a top-shelf bird, which was exactly where it should have been right above a Yellow-browed Warbler tape!  However it was still well within reaching range but the recent fog had resulted in slightly chilled hands.........

Having escaped from mist net at 0930hrs, the Yellow-browed Warbler was relocated by Tom Wilmer below the Obs Tower and showed well for about 45 minutes before becoming elusive and allowing only one further glimpse.  One of the observers was a perfectly timed Jon Carter!

Quite an interesting morning with complete clarity at dawn and much reduced thrush and finch passage seemingly heralding a 'duff' morning.  Then low cloud rolled in from the north-east, seemed to 'drop' the Yellow-browed along with a sprinkling of 'orange' Robins, a few Goldcrest & the odd new Chiffchaff.  Coal Tits were prominent this morning but only in ones and twos and difficult to numerate

Vis mig
Cormorant - 2 SE
Redwing - c20 at dawn, 27 SW
Chaffinch - c40 SW
Redpoll agg - 2 S
Brambling - minimum of 5 SW
Siskin - 9 SW
alba Wagtail - 15 SE

Meadow Pipit - 21SE
Crow - 16 messing about and eventually landed on non-op land & started eating seabuckthorn berries!
Peregrine - 1 E 0830
Snipe - 2 S
Pink-footed Goose - 8 S
Goldfinch - 18 SE
Mistle Thrush - 6 SE
Coal Tit - at least 15-20 passing through (see ringing)
Skylark - 3 S
Grey Wagtail - 1 S & one blogging


Grounded
Yellow-browed Warbler - one below the Obs Tower from 0930 to about 1130hrs
Goldcrest - very few early morning ('none' left from yesterday?) but a small influx when the cloud rolled in, probably c20 in total (see ringing)
Treecreeper - yet another new bird caught
Song Thrush - c20 grounded birds
Blackbird - less than 20 obvious migrants reserve area
Chiffchaff - 3, including a bird ringed at Middleton on 21/9!
Greenfinch - slightly more prominent than yesterday but no more than 15 passing through
Linnet - 31 Ocean Edge
Rock Pipit - 1 petrosus-type OEdge

Ringing (almost all on reserve)
Redwing (6), Robin (7 - including three very grey/orange birds), Blue Tit (3), Coal Tit (8), Long-tailed Tit (17), Blackbird (2), Chaffinch (6), Greenfinch (5), Dunnock (1), Great Tit (1), Blackcap (1), Wren (2), Treecreeper (1), Goldcrest (8), Chiffchaff (1)

A west coast migration morning including the great Wren trickle and late morning Goldcrest influx

Heysham Obs
A good variety this morning but no 'scarce' or distant migrant bettering a Chiffchaff giving the Hannu Jannes "eastern abietinus" disyllable.  Again rather clearer than the cloudy BBC radar map but consistent with the BBC Heysham 24 hr forecast (different 'departments'?)

Vis mig 0715-about 1130hrs
A bit slower than of late:
alba Wagtail - 17 SE
Skylark - c15 SE
Reed Bunting - 2 SE
Redwing - 31 SW, c40 at dawn, 60+ at dawn Middleton
Chaffinch - 34 SW
Meadow Pipit - really late (post 1030hrs), then a flurry of about 25 SE with some grounded at Middleton
Goldfinch - 10 S
Song Thrush - not many this mornig with a maximum of about 10 landfalling on the reserve
Bullfinch - 5 high SW
Brambling - 2 grounded briefly, then SE early morning, one midday
Redpoll agg - one north
Jackdaw 1 S+63+2 NW
Rook - 4 NW with Jackdaw
Crow - 7 W
Blackbird 15-20 migrants of which 12 seen arriving
Coal Tit - 3 S & others passing quickly through the bushes in small groups (10-15)
Siskin - heard & 3 grounded by dog pond
Tree Sparrow - flock of 14 NW, followed by a singleton which was briefly grounded

Grounded (all BE properties)
Blackbird - c25
Song Thrush - c15
Chiffchaff - 3-4
Goldcrest - interesting as careful searching produced less than 10 early-mid morning, then an influx when the wind turned to a sea breeze from about 1100hrs (see ringing total) - at least 25, possibly 30 birds involved and mostly below the Obs Tower
Wren - 6 new birds ringed - a lot in the context of this year!
Robin - 3 ringed around the office and 2 at Middleton but no obvious influx of any more migrants
Treecreeper - another new one ringed
Blackcap - one Red Nab, one ringed on reserve, two ringed Middleton

Ringing
Meadow Pipit (2), Long-tailed Tit (9),  Robin (5), Great Tit (3), Reed Bunting (2), Blackcap (3), Wren (6), Chaffinch (9), Blackbird (4), Dunnock (2), Greenfinch (just one), Goldcrest (12), Coal Tit (2), Treecreeper (1), Chiffchaff (2), Blue Tit (4), Goldfinch (1), Redwing (18)

The good run continues

Today's Firecrest.  Thanks Reuben

Heysham Obs
Quite an 'open' morning, more so than yesterday - a bit fortunate to connect with a grounded 'scarce'!

Grounded NR/Middleton/Red Nab/dog track
Swallow - one S
Redwing - around 100 grounded in the NR office area first thing, many probably during the night
SongThrush - prominent first thing with at least 30 grounded around the NR office area, soon dispersed inland, 8 still Red Nab area midday
Fieldfare - 2 grounded briefly at Red Nab (first of autumn)
Blackbird - small numbers grounded - c25 around office area, 10 Red Nab area
Wheatear - 2 Ocean Edge
Firecrest - ringed this morning having been seen in the field just prior to entering the net set below the obs tower = 1CY female
Goldcrest - only seemed to be about 5 around reserve (3 ringed), one dog track and 4 Red Nab
Chiffchaff - 2-3 by office/below obs tower, one dog pond area, 3 Red Nab, one Middleton NR
Blackcap - 2 Red Nab
Reed Bunting - 7 caught at Middleton NR

Vis mig - this was hard - very hard! - not helped by having a mist net set deep into the vegetation below the Obs Tower.  Skylarks 'impossible' against the blue sky.  Combination of Tom Wilmer & Pete Marsh (Red Nab & NR respectively) with far more over the NR, moving NW to SE on the north side of the power stations than yesterday

Vis mig 0700-0930, after which intermittent
Tree Sparrow - 3+ (flock) south
Pink-footed Goose - 61 north
Swallow - 1 south
alba Wagtail - 61 SE
Siskin - c35 SE plus a couple of heard only registrations
Skylark - absolute minimum of 53 S but 12 of those registrations were of heard only (recorded as single)
Meadow Pipit - 164 SE
Grey Wagtail - 1 SE & one blogging
Chaffinch - 115 S/SW
Redwing - after initial departure of grounded birds, small numbers from the NE to SW totalling just 85 birds in dribs and drabs
Mistle Thrush - 7 SW, one E
Goldfinch - c25 S
Reed Bunting - 5 SE
Dunlin - flock of 9 S over NR (very unusual)
Carrion Crow - 5+2+5 S over NR with 220 southbound corvid spp, including flocks of 60+ & 50+ over Middleton NR, at least some of these being Carrion Crow
Coal Tit - flock of 23 SE over NR & at least 10 other birds in three groups

Ringing
Quite a decent ringing morning, despite the breeze and incessant sunlight.  Totals:  Redwing (23), Blackbird (3), Chaffinch (6), Greenfinch (10), Goldcrest (4), Firecrest (1), Chiffchaff (2), Reed Bunting (7), Blue Tit (9), Coal Tit (1), Great Tit (2), Robin (2 - both Middleton & no sign of any grounded migrants in the reserve/dog track/Red Nab area), Wren (1), Long-tailed Tit (3), Dunnock (1)

Miscellaneous

Treecreeper by dog pond

Linnet - 15 OE foreshore

Lapland Buntings at last!

Heysham Obs
Highlight this morning was two Lapland Buntings 'in-off' at 0950hrs on Ocean Edge foreshore along with lots of Meadow Pipit, alba (a lot of White on call) Wagtails and one or two Rock Pipits.  They remained for about 15 minutes before being flushed by dog walker (Tom Wilmer). 

A pile-driver type thing (apparently a 'pecker') made vis mig very difficult to record this morning, in conjunction with a clear sky and quite high birds.  Much better for Tom at Ocean Edge!
Main grounded theme of the morning was a smattering of orange-breasted Robins with two being caught in a mist net as it was being set pre-dawn and a further 6 unringed birds caught in a limited amount of ringing as dictated by the wind.  There were also 6 along Ocean Edge foreshore - at least 5 more than usual!

Specific grounded highlight was a calling Ring Ouzel on the edge of the tank farm first thing

Grounded
Goldcrest - 3
Blackcap - 2 (& one Red Nab)
Chiffchaff 1 (& one Red Nab)
Robin - 20+
Redwing - 5 (& 2 Red Nab)
SongThrush - 6 (& 3 Red Nab)
Blackbird - 10
Coal Tit - low single figures (2 ringed)
Jay - one Red Nab possibly not local
Ring Ouzel - one

Vis mig 0700-1000
There were two flightlines recorded this morning - over the reserve (with the same birds coming across the Bay over the north wall mound) and along Ocean Edge foreshore - the vast majority different birds coming in-off to the south of the power station.  Many of the latter birds, including the Laps, landed for a short time before moving on

Redpoll agg - one over Ocean Edge
alba Wagtail - 38 SE & 14 grounded Ocean Edge (4 White, 10 Pied)
Meadow Pipit - 92 SE over the mound/reserve, 105 SE over Ocean Edge (25 grounded)
Goldfinch - 6 S reserve, 20 Ocean Edge
Redwing - 29 first thing over the reserve, 12 over Ocean Edge, then the next birds were at least 60 arriving from the east at 1100hrs
Song Thrush - 5 S reserve, 2 S Ocean Edge
Siskin - 10+ S reserve, 6 S Ocean Edge
Bullfinch - 1 S reserve
Chaffinch - grossly underestimated over reserve with just 45 SW (see above re-racket), 27 Ocean Edge (not on main flightline)
Greylag - 3 S over golf course
Pink-footed Goose - 4 S Ocean Edge & 46 NE
Reed Bunting - 1 S reserve, one S Ocean Edge
Skylark - heard once over reserve, 5 SE Ocean Edge
Carrion Crow - 6 in-off, then east Ocean Edge
Coal Tit - 5+3 south over reserve
Lapland Bunting - 2 in-off at 0955hrs, then flushed & last seen 1010hrs (see elsewhere)
Rock Pipit - 2, one a dark petrosus-type
Grey Wagtail - 3 SE Ocean Edge
Greenfinch - impossible to work out on reserve, 3 S Ocean Edge
Cormorant - one high to south over the reserve
Yellowhammer - 1 SE, apparently taking off from below the Obs Tower (after probably being heard calling earlier) c1145hrs

Miscellaneous
Little Egret - 2 Ocean Edge
Linnet - 18 grounded on mound area, 24 Ocean Edge with no obvious movement

Insects
At least 6 Red Admiral flew purposefully south

Elsewhere
Great Grey Shrike Thrushgill in area with no public access this evening.  Lapland Buntings: 2 independently located on the west shore at Sunderland late morning perhaps the Heysham birds, 3 along the seawall between Pilling Lane Ends and Pilling Water.  Richard's Pipit SE along Silverdale shore along with other 'vis'. Two Lapland Buntings just outside the area near Kents Bank.  Garganey - two between Pilling Lane Ends & Pilling water