Trickle morning

Orange Tip, Speckled Wood, Blackcap & Swallow at Middleton today (thanks Janet)

Heysham Obs
A few bits and bobs this morning, including two sizeable northbound redpoll flocks, one of which joined a singleton we had just released (!) and the other entered the mist net.  This latter flock of 13 were all 2CY, probably female on wing length, and this maybe hints at how early the migration is this year, as this should theoretically be the last age/sex class to be on the move

Heysham NR office area (vis a bit intermittent)
Lesser Redpoll/redpoll spp - all caught were undisputed Lessers (25).  c70 north including flocks of 15 (avoided the net, see above) and 13 (all caught and ringed), but otherwise just ones and twos, in contrast to yesterday when almost all were in small flocks
Blackcap - male ringed
Willow Warbler - at least 5 passed through
Meadow Pipit - 13 north
Goldfinch - 36 north
alba Wagtail - 11 north
Chaffinch - 1 NE
Linnet - 27 north

North harbour wall
Meadow Pipit - 26 north
Goldfinch - 13 north
Linnet - 13 north
alba Wagtail - 5 north
Redpoll - 2 north
Purple Sandpiper - 1
Turnstone - 155
Common Scoter - 3 in
Sandwich Tern - 11 in

Butterflies
Plenty of Orange Tip and single Speckled Wood on the wing

Elsewhere
Great White Egret still Lower Hide area Leighton Moss & 2 Garganey Griesdale

Mealy amongst the minions

Mealy Redpoll taken by phone being charged up!

Heysham Obs

Decent migration morning despite the best efforts of the sun on all the mist nets.  Whilst phylloscs were seeing the net and bouncing out, the Lesser Redpolls were in such large numbers that a reasonable total was ringed.  Two controls: X546179 and X948530 and a nice Mealy (pics above)

By the HNR office
Brambling - late singleton NE
Redstart - male passed through
Blackcap - at least 7 males passed through, singing intermittently, then moving north (2 ringed)
Willow Warbler - at least 20 migrants
Chiffchaff - at least 15 migrants
Lesser Redpoll - minimum of 135 heading north pre-0930hrs (when ringing ceased due to wind), some via the mist net, plus another 17 casually noted whilst at Middleton for 30 minutes late morning
Mealy Redpoll - 2CY male ringed
Tree Pipit - one north
Goldfinch - c35 north
Meadow Pipit - 17 north (possibly more)
Linnet - 16 north
alba Wagtail - 5 north

Middleton NR
Grasshopper Warbler - singing male eastern marsh
Common Whitethroat - one singing by no-swimming pond
Reed Bunting - 7 males on territory
Wheatear - 4

North harbour wall (one hour)
Sea dead
Linnet - 9
alba Wagtail - 6
Goldfinch - 6
Meadow Pipit - 10
Greenfinch - 1
Redpoll spp - just 4

Mammals
Grey Seal off harbour

Moths
Eventually got round to doing them and Diurnea fagella x 4 was more than a little surprising, given an average of under one per year until this year!   In general, there have been far more Clouded Drab and Common Quaker than usual, especially in proportion to Hebrew Character which has been in 'normal' numbers.  Shoulder Stripe has also been much commoner than usual

Butterfly
Male Orange Tip reported by a visitor just as I was leaving - this is really early

Elsewhere
1+ Lesser Whitethroat Aldcliffe area.  Great White Egret Leighton Moss & the Great Grey Shrike still on Dalton Crags

There's only one Twite

Heysham Obs
North harbour wall very brief visit
Twite - two flew NW out to sea leaving a white/red c.r. adult female in splendid isolation on the seed

Nature reserve office area intermittent vis 0700-0900
Meadow Pipit - 47 N
Lesser Redpoll - 7 grounded briefly, then NE
Willow warbler - migrant male ringed
Goldfinch - 4 NE
Swallow - one NE
alba Wagtail - 5 N

North Harbour Wall vis 0815-0915
Meadow Pipit 4
Goldfinch 1
alba Wagtail 2

Turnstone 67


Middleton NR

Unwelcome visitors photographed above!

Welcome Reed Bunting on an unwelcome plant (thanks to Janet for the pics)

Butterflies
The earliest ever Orange Tip and Speckled Wood out on the reserve along with what may also be the earliest Small White

Two lingering Twite but little else

Heysham Obs
The wind was a problem today - far stronger than forecast (especially late afternoon) and not from a particularly helpful direction (WNW).  Not a lot happened!

North harbour wall
Gannet - one very distant
Red-throated Diver - 3 seen
Twite - two with this year's colour-rings still on the feeder
White Wagtail - 2 Ocean Edge foreshore (& 6 Pied)

Moneyclose Lane by dog walk track
Two singing male Willow Warbler & singing male Blackcap

Moths
Decent numbers for here but nothing new.  Third Diurnea fagella of the year is some kind of record!

Dead and deader

Heysham Obs
North harbour wall
Dead first thing, even deader by 1000hrs
Gannet - two crossing the outer bay somewhere in Cumbria!
Twite - no sign
miniscule trickle of Meadow Pipit & alba Wagtails

Twite marking time

Heysham Obs
North harbour wall
Twite - 6 still around the food (3 unringed)
Linnet - 2 with above
Wheatear - 1
Little Gull - 2 distant adults the only things seen on 30 min seawatch 1000-1030hrs

Ocean Edge/outfalls
Common Gull - 220+ but nothing of interest seen with them
Wheatear - 2

Blogging distant Bonxie and inshore seagulls

Heysham Obs
North harbour wall
Bonxie - one distantly blogging, then sat on the sea
Kittiwake - flock of 7

more later

Ocean Edge
Influx of Common Gulls & 2 Meds on to the shore:
Common Gull - at least 224 (5 adults)
Med Gull - 2 unringed 2CY
Black-headed Gull - 88

Elsewhere
Very short window of ringing/vis weather at Higher Thrushgill saw 12 'new' Lesser Redpoll caught (one bearing a ring from elsewhere) and a flurry of birds heading north-east ahead of the approaching cloud:  16 Brambling (leaving just 2-3 in the plantation), 11 Chaffinch, 4 Linnet, 8 Siskin, 37 Meadow Pipit, 5 Redpoll, 3 alba Wagtail,  2 Fieldfare, 4 Goldfinch (0715-0745), then it completely died-off as the cloud reached overhead with just the occasional Meadow Pipit in strengthening wind.  Two singing Willow Warbler Ashleys Farm plus the solitary House Martin

A few more seabirds

Heysham Obs
The following were seen by Mark Prestwood early morning
Arctic Skua - 2
Kittiwake - 35
Common Scoter - 1
Red-throated Diver 1

Vis
Meadow Pipit 5
On the ground
Twite 6, Linnet 1, Meadow Pipit 3, Pied Wagtail 2


Elsewhere
Probable Iceland Gull immature flew south over the upper Hindburn with 5 LBBG mid-morning.  c10 Brambling, 4 Fieldfare, but no sign of any Mealy Redpoll Thrushgill (17 'new' Lesser Redpoll ringed & about same number of retraps).  Family party of Crossbills seen again (2 juvs being fed) and at least another 10 individuals around.

Superb summer plumaged male Snow Bunting heads north

Grounded Meadow Pipits have been a regular feature on the 'mound' in recent days (thanks Janet)

Heysham Obs
Nice morning's birding, Jean!

North harbour wall
Red-throated Diver - 6 out
Bonxie - one in at 0910
Arctic Skua - two dark morphs in at 0920
Gannet - 4 in, 9 out
Common Scoter - one in
Fulmar - one out
Kittiwake - 3 in
Snow Bunting - full summer plumaged male flew low to the north at 0950hrs just as the sky cleared, almost certainly lifted off the Twite feeding area
Linnet - 4 north
Wheatear - one
Meadow Pipit - 6 north
Twite - 13

Elsewhere
'Fall' of 5 Chiffchaffs Thrushgill, but no sign of yesterdays pale redpoll which was probably a very pale Mealy, but unfortunately avoided capture/scrutiny.  Big clear-out of migrant finches here in the afternoon (52 Lesser Redpoll, 1 Mealy Redpoll and 4 Lesser Redpoll with other people's rings on were caught yesterday in an old 18 foot Bridport net which was just about sheltered enough!)

Early morning bits on the sea

Heysham Obs
North harbour wall 0735-0835
Little Gull - gang of 5 adults blogging, then gradually moved towards the windfarm
Pochard - 2 males 'in' - very unusual here!
Pintail - pair 'out'
Red-breasted Merganser - flock of 5 out
Red-throated Diver - 2+4 out, last group very high, one 'in'
Linnet - 3
Meadow Pipit - 2 grounded

14.30
Twite - 6 (1 unringed)
Linnet - 3 with  twite.

Ocean Edge/outfalls 0840-0855
Common Gull - 43
Black-headed Gull - 75
Meadow Pipit - 16 grounded
Wheatear - just one

Middleton NR
Little Ringed Plover - male on newly scarified area model boat pond, then flew towards sewage wotks

Mammal
Grey Seal off north harbour wall