Spanish plume brings a bit of a damp squib

Yesterdays Reeve's Pheasant (no news either way today!).  Thanks Brian

Heysham Obs
The sort of morning where the amount of vegetation at this site mitigates against the possibility of just one decent bird being found somewhere (as does the usual Saturday lack of observers!).  We await the reports from the more vegetation-friendly likes of Hilbre, the Calf, Bardsey and possibly Walney to see if they have a Subalpine Warbler each nestling in a Heligoland trap (or Rossall?!)

North harbour wall 0710-0730
Arctic Tern - 22 'in'
Black Tern - one 'in' (with above)
Swallow - 47 'in'
Whimbrel - 2 'in'

Outfalls/Ocean Edge
Arctic Tern - 84
Common Tern - 4
Black Tern - 2
Dunlin - 36
Ringed Plover - 9
Whimbrel - 7

Belated ringing by office
Got what it deserved with a start as late as 0730 with new-ringed birds amounting to two Whitethroat and a Lesser Whitethroat plus a Whitethroat male first ringed in 2007.  Then the wind got up.

Elsewhere
Great White Egret Griesdale Hide Leighton Moss

A tale of two supercilia and a Reeve's Pheasant twitch

A couple of pics from yesterday at high tide (thanks Janet).  The photo ops were flagged up on the LDBWS site and apparently there was quite a turn-out of long lenses, but havn't seen any pics from anyone else.   Any photo blogs with any on, please?

Heysham Obs
Donald Sutherland's 'negative waves' utterances came to mind as Plan 'B' was set in motion on the north harbour wall in the (unforecasted??) rain.  No chance of any ringing and nothing on/passing over the 'offshore' sea.   To pass the time, I wondered how the RSPB would brand this morning and during the struggle with my limited vocabulary, it all started to 'go positive' closer inshore.  Must try this strategy again!

North harbour wall & area 0555-0655 & 0900-0930
Swallow - 27 north in first hour, 241 0900-0930, mainly 'in-off(ish)' over the red buoy, then along the harbour
Sand Martin - 6 north in second period (5 together)
House Martin - 3 north plus 3 north in second period
Sedge Warbler - on 'in-off', landed on the railings, then on to the mound
Whinchat - male by the twite feeding station - excellent bird to brighten up the morning!
Wheatear - 2 heliport area
Blackbird - male with food alongside the mound - the ONLY confirmed breeding species in SD36!!! (its somewhere in the gorse clump)
Black Tern - 5 on the seaward end of Heysham one outfall, 4 (of these) on Heysham 2 outfall early afternoon
Common Tern - 3 as above, at least one Heysham 2 early afternoon
Arctic Tern - c65 on Heysham one & two outfalls, assuming none are out of sight on the beach

Ocean Edge foreshore (low tide)
23 Dunlin and 6 Ringed Plover.  Memo: check the high tide for displaced Kentish - think positive!
Whimbrel - minimum of 7

Below the Obs Tower
Reeve's Pheasant - one roadside along with ordinary Pheasant for comparison.  Apparently a "pheasant release" on the nearby golfcourse recently

Non-operational land
Nesting Ringed Plover plus 2+ eggs

General
This seemed to be the first 'big' day' for gull nest-building with material being gathered over a wide area by the whole roof-nesting population!

Large Swallow movement and terns in situ

Heysham Obs
Outfalls/north harbour wall
Arctic Tern - just 12 heading off NE but a gradual build-up on the outfalls from 55 first thing to 272 at 1000hrs
Black Tern - as above; just one first thing building up to 9 by 1000hrs
Common Tern - 4 on outfalls
White Wagtail - one
Swallow - sample counts gave 170 0700-0730, then 41 in just 5 minutes c0900hrs
House Martin - 2 north-east
Gannet - one distantly

Heysham NR
Two mist nets were only set for two rounds to see what was happening.  Seemingly not a lot, with the only migrant capture being a Lesser Whitehtroat.  No evidence of Wheatears at any of the coastal sites - usually a good indicator of passerine 'action' 

By no means running out of steam

Heysham Obs
...........unlike Heysham One Power Station during a big chunk of the early morning!!  Another good day today, but suffered numerically in comparison with yesterday, although the species range was pretty good!

Heysham north wall 0530-1030, then intermittent to midday +/- outfalls side
Little Gull - flock of 4 2CY flew in-off at c1050hrs, then fed on outfalls
Bonxie - one 'in' pre-0630
Arctic Skua - dm 'in' 0730, d(ish)m in 0757hrs
Arctic Tern - 466 'in'/NE with 156 still on the outfalls (1050hrs) & similar numbers mid-afternoon
Black Tern - just the one seen migrating, with a maximum of 11 still on the outfalls late morning, still 10 mid-afternoon
Common Tern - 3 on the outfalls and area late morning, 8 in afternoon
Little Tern - one 'in' very early on
Redpoll spp - 2 north
Swallow - 55 north
White Wagtail - 3 north (also 3 Pied of unknown status seen)
Blackbird - female seen gathering food alongside the mound
Common Sandpiper - 2
Wheatear - 1

Middleton NR
Marsh Harrier - probably a 2CY male flew high to the north on a line east of Middleton NR at about 0935hrs
Tree Pipit - one north
Shoveler - male flushed from the 'fence' pond - flew east
Reed Warbler - 2 singing
CES ringing revealed a few Willow Warbler moving through 0600ish as the nets were being set and a small influx of (still migrating) male Sedge Warblers (7 ringed), much to the annoyance of the established locals!

Moth
One, but a good one, by no means annual:  Male Muslin Moth

Mammal
Grey Seal inshore

One of those great days..........

A really nice selection for Janet during the afternoon in the Red Nab area  Thanks Janet

Heysham Obs
North harbour wall and outfalls area, coordinated, almost exclusively 'inshore', watch 0600-1030
Arctic Tern - 8,153 seen in total, with all but 195 heading of north-east or east prior to 1030hrs.  About half of them headed off in situ, the rest flew in over the sea past the north wall.  c195 remained on the outfalls at 1030hrs as the tide dissipated the feeding area.  Arrival at 0600hrs saw an absolute minimum of 1,000 already in situ resting on the beach or feeding on the outfalls and observation from the south of the harbour suggested many birds either cascaded down out of the sky from the SE (including a flock of 7 Black Tern) or flew in along the tideline from the south
Black Tern - 50 recorded, mainly later in the morning as the wind went more round to the south-east:  4 'in' 0700hrs, one 'in' 0758, 5 'in' 0919, 6 'in' 0934, 7 inland 0938hrs, 4 'in' 0945, one 'in' 0955, 8 'in-off' then 'in' 1012hrs.  This left 11 on the outfalls at 1030hrs which seemed to just 'appear' in the latter half of the morning.  The number on the outfalls increased to 14 early afternoon
Little Tern - probably the same two blogging for at least an hour
Common Tern - about 13 seen, mainly blogging, but also 3 loosely attached to Arctic flocks flying 'in'
Sandwich Tern - 2
Little Gull - adult and 2CY tigether 'in' 0925
Arctic Skua - very little time to actually watch any offshore 'lines' and stuff may have been missed (e.g. Scoters and Gannets) - dm & lm 'in together 0613, dm 'in', then landed on the sea 0920.
Swallow - minimum of 84 north-east
alba Wagtail - 11 north-east (4+ White)
House Martin - 2 north-east

Heysham NR CES
No evidence of massive migration (c/f Hilbre yesterday) with 4 Willow Warblers caught

Red Nab high tide
As well as roosting terns, the following were seen:
Dunlin - 270
Ringed Plover - 25
Sanderling - 1
flava Wagtail - 1
Whimbrel - 6

Moth
Just the one, new for the year in the form of May Highflyer (the one the other day was confirmed as Ruddy)

Heysham one outfall soup kitchen pulls in the terns

Plenty of singing birds today (thank Janet)

Heysham Obs
Everyone's 'eggs were in the seawatching basket' this morning, when the much reduced wind did not get up as anticipated until after 0800hrs and landbird coverage might have been a better option for some of us, plus early morning mist nets.  Even more difficult than yesterday to count the terns and the figure of c500 could have been an underestimate by at least 200, based on perceived numbers on the outfalls which 'melted away' instead of flying north-east over the sea.  In this respect, one gang of 17 Arctic Terns flew inland over Ocean Edge during a brief visit; no chance of logging these from the north harbour wall

North harbour wall 0615 onwards
Arctic Tern - c500 during the morning stint with many flying inland and overland to the south of the harbour, therefore very difficult to keep tabs, especially as many were lingering on Heysham One outfalls which seemed to be churning out a lot of invertebrate soup! A further influx early afternoon involving about 200 birds and 110 were still on the outfalls when observers left mid-afternoon
Marsh Harrier - ad male-'type' (in the absence of close views and feather scrutiny) flew rather laboriously low over the sea NE at 0706hrs (just east of Clarke's wharf sandbank)
Med Gull - 2CY with 'blackish' head - surprisingly the first for a few days - didnt linger
Black Tern - one lingering on the outfalls and area for at least 2 hours and almost certainly another with a further influx of Arctic terns early afternoon
Common Tern - one-two Heysham one outfall
Common Scoter - 8+16 distantly
Gannet - one on/over horizon!
Whinchat - male by centrica
Swallow - c50 NE
House Martin - 1 NE
Sandwich Tern - just one offshore and 2-3 on a buoy
Greenfinch - one overhead was rather unexpected this late
Red-throated Diver - one in
Willow Warbler - one singing by Gate 38 in SD35Z!

Heysham Nature reserve
Wheatear - 2 by office & one north wall & 2 Ocean Edge
Garden Warbler - singing male by obs tower pond 0800hrs

Red nab
Dunlin - 670
Whimbrel - 12 (also 9 flying NE north harbour wall)

Arctic Tern feeding station

Heysham Obs
Same weather, different behaviour by Arctic Terns this morning and a bit of a nightmare to count!  However, the plus side was excellent views had by all, as birds often fed very close to the north harbour wall, even in the harbour entrance.  Apologies if anyone turning up for an 'event' felt neglected (as per 0700-0900 LDBWS site advert) - there were so many birders around, it wasnt possible to be certain what 'category' people were in!  There was also very little 'instruction' required as it was a choice between very close Arctic Terns, even closer Swallows and not a lot else.

North harbour wall
Arctic Tern - at least 990 passed through, with counting stopped for over an hour whilst a "pool" of up to 500 birds fed in the channel between Heysham one outfalls and Heysham Head, with some backtracking.  Many of these birds headed overland above Heysham Barrows/Head, confirmed by Tony from a birdless JBP where the highlight was Mike Harding in a camper van!
Arctic Skua - l/im in at 0850hrs, dm out 0945
Gannet - 4
Sandwich Tern - c13 only
Common Scoter - c60 distant birds in at least two groups
auk spp - one
Red-throated Diver - one in, one out
Swift - 1 in - first of year for here
Swallow - minimum of 234 in by 0930hrs
House Martin - 4 out
Whimbrel - 1
Mute Swan - 3 in
Linnet - 3 in
alba Wagtail - 1 in

Red Nab
Dunlin - 790 - all in summer pluamge & a very high count for there
Ringed Plover - 22
Whimbrel - 14
Curlew - 7
Oystercatcher - c270

Spectacular!

Heysham Obs

Heysham north harbour wall to 0545-1130hrs
Arctic Tern - 3,133, including 120 which flew inland over the 'wheel' and headed NE and another two flocks behaved similarly later in the movement
Little Tern - 1 in with the first big lot (302) of Arctics at 0620hrs
Common Tern - one blogging
Arctic Skua - 1 dm 0555hrs, one dm late morning and 2 distant probables (one lm) - probably the four seen off Rossall
Gannet - 5
Sandwich Tern - very few, just 15 seen
Common Scoter - 9, but little observation early on of the usual distant line
Red-throated Diver - just 1
Whimbrel - 13
Swallow - just 18 north

Heysham N Reserve area
Pheasant - 'the' male flew down the road ahead of the car at 30mph

Mammals
Grey Seal early morning, 2 Harbour Porpoises near high tide

Moths
Shuttle-shaped Dart (2) new for the year

Arctic Tern passage in full swing....and a 'large dragonfly'!

A very early 4-spotted Chaser at Middleton this morning (thanks Janet)

Heysham Obs
At lunchtime, Janet indicated that she had just photographed a large dragonfly at Middleton!  "Unfortunately" this turned out to be by far the earliest ever record of 4-spotted Chaser for this area, not the hoped for Hairy Hawker or 'ridiculous' Vagrant Emperor long-shot.  Pic later.  Good coverage this morning by Pete Cook, John & Nick from 0600 to about 0945hrs.  Decent numbers of Arctic Tern with many on a close-inshore line, but others a long way out and some may have been missed along this line.  An accompaniment of four Arctic Skua was par for the course

North harbour wall 0600-0945 & three short sessions pre-1330hrs
Marsh Harrier - what was probably an imm male flew high to the north-east 'over' the sea at c1100hrs, gradually getting closer to this side.  Almost missed due to height!
Arctic Tern - 543 'in' (not 453 as per pager!), largest flock 64
Arctic Skua - one early on, one about 0800hrs and two together about 0830 (the latter were, on timing, not those seen off JBP) - all dark morph heading 'in'
Sandwich Tern - c12 in/blogging
Common Scoter - 10+4+16 out
Gannet - 3 in
Swallow - at least 104 in, many missed as they flew through the inner wooden jetty gap and then through the harbour!
Linnet - 6 in
alba Wagtail - 4 in

Ocean Edge foreshore
Dunlin - 360
Grey Plover - 38 with 7 in full summer plumage
Whimbrel - just one
Mallard - pair Red Nab

Middleton NR
4-spotted Chaser photographed at lunchtime.  Azure damselfly and Blue-tailed damselfly both seen singly during mist-net ride maintenance

Elsewhere
No terns visible from JBP pre-0930 but two different (on timing) dark morph Arctic Skua passing through together (up the Kent estuary).  After seawatching had ceased at Heysham, there was a trickle of Arctic Tern (c30) and an influx of Arctic Skua with a further 7 individuals (3 light morph) giving a total of 9 for the morning

Terns and blue seas

Selection of breeding or prospective breeding birds at Middleton NR the last three days (thanks Janet)

Heysham Obs
So the Ocean Edge advertisement is accurate!  The sea was bluer than I've ever seen it off here this morning with presumably not a scrap of turbulence and sediment in flat-calm conditions on a gentle neap tide and low feeder-river levels.  Rather like overhead vis mig, the blue didnt help when trying to pick out birds flying past, the large Arctic Tern flock was nearly missed!  Was anything missed earlier in the morning?  Sometimes it appears that Walney and Heysham are on different planets, even in clear conditions when in theory you can see "anything that flies into the bay past Walney".  They had 42 Red-throats, including a flock of 13 flying into the bay and no Arctic Terns in just about the same hour as us (0715-0815).  On the seaward side, a double-figure count of Manx S.

North harbour wall & Ocean Edge 0730-0900
Arctic Tern - flock of 64 in, then gaining height at 0735 (what was missed prior to this?)
Sandwich Tern - 'dribble' in, totalling 39 individuals, largest group 5
Sand Martin - one NE, the only hirundine seen!
alba Wagtail - 3 north
Linnet - 2 north
Dunlin - 27 Red Nab
Turnstone - 138 wooden jetty
Purple Sandpiper - one wooden jetty

Moth
Scalloped Hazel new for the year