More Greenfinch pile through

Heysham Obs
The unexpected phenomenon last back end of July - the significant Greenfinch influx/passage - is happening again.  A few sunflower heart feeders were put up at the office net site about a week ago and 85 Greenfinch have been caught in two sessions in the last three days.  This morning was also not without its new warbler arrivals although my arrival after emptying loaded moth traps elsewhere (0930) was hardly "standard obs coverage" for migrant passerines

Office area
In addition to the Greenfinch, the following new birds were caught in a short session: 2 Lesser Whitethroat, 3 Blackcap, one Chiffchaff, 2 Willow Warbler, one Robin, one Goldfinch & one Dunnock
Swift - 4 south together

Ocean Edge/Red Nab
Tide far too high and there were several teenage girls on the remains of Red Nab - they seemed to be texting or tweeting the fleeing Oystercatchers
Med Gull - adult sat on the sea

So endeth a July which was perhaps the best ever for warbler passage/ringing - a fair proportion of the 600 or so birds ringed during the month were warblers with Grasshopper Warbler and Whitethroat notably productive but, as posted on other ringers blogs, a fair proportion of the Willow warblers were moulting adults with juveniles relatively scarce.  So far, therefore, mixed messages re-the breeding season for 'open' nests, with the Grasshopper Warbler success perhaps rather surprising for those of us experiencing the rain and windswept habitat during late May/June

Moths
Quite a lot, but no 'show-stoppers' to rival the SD66 mega, Athrips mouffetella, gracing my home trap!   Writing this post after one of the worst (and truncated) sheet and light nights I've had in "promising weather".  It was very hard to find anything amongst 150 Antler, 200 Large Y Underwing and c100 'grass moths'.................and several hundred midges.  Plenty of Catoptria margaritella around at the moment and seemingly spreading to lowland sites, as the moorland stuff often does in years of abundance and winds which are vaguely easterly

Early start for the Sedge warblers...and a new moth

Heysham Obs
Anyone who rose at a sensible hour this morning would find it hard to believe that my hands were almost too cold to ring birds after setting the nets at Middleton at 0500hrs in a very heavy dew.  You have to be ridiculously early to monitor wetland warbler species at this time of year as they can soon melt away once the sun has popped its head over the horizon.  However, you usually get a bit of secondary movement of the likes of Whitethroat out of the drier vegetation surrounding the site.............and sometimes tit flocks, but the latter have been conspicuously absent this autumn.  A few Swallows were caught and these provided good extraction practice for a trainee ringer

A very "average" morning by recent high standards with the sun and a bit of a breeze soon curtailing activities

Middleton NR
Green Woodpecker - one seen and heard
Kestrel - 3
Swift - 2 south
Ringing:  Grasshopper Warbler (2), Sedge Warbler (7), Whitethroat (4), Reed Warbler (2), Lesser Whitethroat (1), Reed Bunting (1), Goldfinch (4), Blackbird (3), Willow Warbler (6), Blackcap (1), Dunnock (1), Chaffinch (2), Blue Tit (2), Swallow (19), plus 13 retraps which included a Great Tit ringed as a 2011 nestling on nearby Heysham NR

Ocean Edge/Red Nab
Med Gull - adult
Little Gull - adult summer
Whimbrel - 3
Missed most of the gulls as the tide was well-in

Moths

This thing was the belated highlight of the morning - identified from the Hey Nat Res office trap catch by John Girdley as Agonopterix angelicella, new for SD45 and one of very few records in VC60.  Thanks John

Otherwise, nothing dramatic, although that 'urban' species, Marbled Beauty, is not common here

A trickle of birds whilst working?

Heysham Obs
The nets next to the office were set today to monitor any movement during a vaguely promising cloudy morning with a north-east wind and a slight shower/fret soon after dawn........and also get on with some work. The net rounds were predicted to consist of a trickle of migrants and perhaps a few Greenfinches on the sunflower hearts, ideal for multitasking with work

Office area 0630-mid-afternoon
The first round of the mist nets produced 42 birds, a mixture of migrants and finches attending the feeder - a quiet 'trickle' indeed!  The ringing continued to be productive with two pulses of migrants - early on and around lunchtime - the latter is supposed to be the classic west coast rarity time-slot, but it is a bit early in the autumn and we had to make do with two 'out of habitat' Reed Warbler

Ringing by the Heysham Nature Reserve office:  Greenfinch (57), Goldfinch (3), Chaffinch (8), Linnet (3), Blue Tit (4), Great Tit (1), Long-tailed Tit (2), Chiffchaff (2), Willow Warbler (4), Common Whitethroat (5), Reed Warbler (2), Sedge Warbler (1), Blackcap (2), Dunnock (1), Robin (1), Swallow (1), Wren (1), plus just FOUR retraps.  All but two of the Greenfinches were this year's young, indicating excellent local productivity.  It was also quite windy for the first two hours and many birds were missed due to the higher shelves being a bit obvious

Coal Tit - dispersing juvenile flew through (do not breed in immediate vicinity)  

Absolutely no chance of checking the morning tide!

Moths
Highlighted by Bordered Beauty and Dingy Footman with a Bedstraw Hawk-Moth just up the road at Betty and John Holding's trap on Heysham road about 50 metres outside the recording area in SD46B! (didnt have time to see that either!)

The Old Lady of Middleton NR

Heysham Obs
Outfalls/Red Nab/Middleton foreshore
Med Gull - 4-5 adult, one 3CY, 3 of the adults miles away on the tideline opposite Potts Corner (seen in flight when the flock was flushed)
Little Egret - one OE saltmarsh channel
Sandwich Tern - separate adults (2) & juvenile scattered amongst the Black-h Gulls

Moths
An Old Lady came to light on Middleton NR last night during a sheet and light session (thanks John).  There was something vaguely interesting in the trap but cant remember what it was.  All will be revealed tomorrow.

Humming-bird Hawk Moth YESTERDAY by the reserve car park

Mixed bag of odds and ends

Heysham Obs
Ocean Edge/Red Nab
Sandwich tern - 4, including begging juvenile
Med Gull - just one adult

Middleton NR
Another reasonable 60ish birds ringing session but very different to yesterday with the theme being Swallows plus a few wanderers from nearby scrub/woodland and warblers were in short supply compared to yesterday: ['new' birds comprised: 4 Sedge Warbler, 1 Whitethroat, 1 Lesser Whitethroat, 2 Grasshopper Warbler, 1 Garden Warbler, 3 Blackcap, 5 Willow Warbler, 1 Chiffchaff, 2 Reed Warbler, 1 Wren, 1 Treecreeper, 3 Blue Tit, 1 Robin, 3 Chaffinch, 1 Bullfinch, 23 Swallow]
Treecreeper - one ringed
Green Woodpecker - one - first for a bit
House Sparrow - two briefly in the western marsh
Garden Warbler - juvenile caught (do not breed locally)
Grasshopper Warbler - unringed adult and juvenile caught
Swift - 14 south
Meadow Pipit - 5 south (very early!)
House Martin - 7 south(ish)
Swallow - c50 seen & about 18 ringed
Reed Warbler - two unringed adults were a bit of a surprise, plus a retrap female with a large brood patch (4-5 breeding pairs here)

Moths
Six-striped Rustic & Drinker were new for the year with Grass Emerald the highlight

Nicely-placed cloud cover

Heysham Obs
A nice layer of cloud to the east covered the sun up for lengthy period of the Middleton CES, bringing into play the best of the mist nets, the sun-prone Net 3.  An interesting morning with an early flurry of especially Grasshopper Warblers, then it seemed to die a bit of a death until a light rain shower at 0735hrs seemed to trigger quite a lot of activity

Middleton CES
Swift - 11 south
Common Sandpiper - one south
Grasshopper Warbler - 6 singing males still, two unringed adult female, 3 unringed juveniles and one very recent nest departee (a 1J in ringer's terms)
Lesser Whitethroat - 6 ringed - a high number for here

Newly-ringed birds this morning comprised:  6 Grasshopper Warbler, 6 Lesser Whitethroat, 1 Robin, 9 Common Whitethroat, 10 Sedge Warbler, 1 Chiffchaff, 4 Willow Warbler, 1 Blackcap, 1 Bullfinch,  4 Goldfinch, 10 Swallow, 1 Reed Bunting, 2 Greenfinch, 2 Dunnock, 2 Blackbird and a single Great Tit.  There were just 10 retraps, mainly Sedge Warbler, Whitethroat and Blue Tit

Moths
An early Copper Underwing plus Barred Rivulet and Bordered Beauty were the stars of a smallish show

Butterflies
22 Gatekeeper but 'only' 21 Meadow Brown on a walk round the reserve - how times have changed!

Redshank meet rust bucket and a couple of baby Whitethroat from this morning.  Thanks Janet

Purple amongst Early (Thorns, that is)

Heysham Obs
Little evidence of any migration through the site this morning with CES and supplementary nets set at Heysham NR.  A pair of 'new' adult Bullfinch were a surprise as was a visit from a noisy House Sparrow which narrowly failed to become the second ringed here this millenium!

No shore coverage today
Moths
A very varied list (of around 30 species) this morning, although not large numbers of any one species, included a Purple Thorn with 3 Early Thorns.  Although not particularly rare elsewhere, this is a first for the Heysham Hut trap.  White-line Dart was also notable

useless nice day with a northwesterly breeze

Heysham Obs
Ocean Edge late afternoon
Med Gull - 2 x Ad, 1 x 3CY

Moths
Nondescript

Dunno...but possibly a Robin

Heysham Obs
A well-deserved lie-in after last night's moth-trapping on Carnforth Slag Tips which turned into a virtually mothless puffball/horse & field mushroom-picking session.  If only a small area of this could be fenced off from the rampaging woolly maggots, we could see some interesting vegetation, possibly followed by some good coastal moth species.  At the moment it is too overgrazed and nitrogen-rich. 

Most of the day was spent in Heysham NR office sorting out the 2010 county ringing report - this takes ages these days for a very good and welcome reason - all the 'read in field' sightings from various birders with an assortment of videograbs and digiscopings at their disposal.  Thanks very much for these and please keep them coming

Outfalls/Red Nab
Med Gull - two adults in wing moult, along with a single juvenile

Moths
The moth-trap check saw a rotund brown thing disappearing out of the window which was 'probably a Dunnock but might have been a Robin'. The behaviour seems a bit 'brave' for a Dunnock.  Acleris hastiana was the highlight with Dotted Clay taking over pole position (just) from Straw Underwing

Little reward, lot of effort

Heysham Obs
Mist-netting at Middleton and Heysham
Rogue shower(s) seriously affected play at Middleton this morning whilst amazingly avoiding Heysham NR.  Very little around with the 'highlights' being an out of habitat juv Reed Warbler by Heysham NR office and a smattering of both Whitethroat species.  Willow Warblers were conspicuous by their absence at both sites

No time to look at the sea. 

Mothing was a disaster with the HNR moth trap bulb giving up the ghost during the night...........and missing out on a new moth species having "farmed out" my usual trap check at Millhouses in favour of an early start at Heysham - the first VC60 Beautiful HOOK TIP (not Snout as originally posted)