China Marks, a Rusty Dot and reasonable coastal fare

Heysham Obs
A wander round the reserve to check for wasps nests prior to a moth trapping event this week (I've lost my best overnight moth trapping site at Millhouses due to excessive numbers of wasps from a nearby nest) included a quick look along the boardwalk.  The horsetails were full of fluttering white moths - a mass emergence of Small China Mark

Ocean Edge/Red Nab late incoming tide
Med Gull - slightly awkward viewing angle of the sleeping gulls saw 2 x 1CY, 1 x 3CY and 2 x adult, but it took four sweeps to pick them all up!
Little Gull - 2CY & Ad
Sandwich Tern - increase to 13
Common Gull - 2 adults
Redshank - 475
Whimbrel - 1
Knot - 6

Tideline off the old Pontins site
Grey Plover - 81, including several in full-summer plumage
Bar-tailed Godwit - 185, including 3 in full summer plumage

Moths
A migrant Rusty Dot Pearl was a bit of a surprise amongst the small catch of dross.  A worn Straw Underwing was late

Routine

Heysham Obs
Despite a strongish NW wind at height (e.g. Caton Moor turbines), there was a pocket of calm air covering the lowland sites until rather later in the morning than forecasted (c0900hrs).   Middleton was covered with a few mist nets by Alan, but a bit of vis migging and early morning stuff at Heysham NR might have paid dividends

Middleton NR
Garden Warbler - one ringed - always a sign of 'some' movement here
The remainder of the catch included Blackcap, Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler and both Whitethroat species, but Sedge Warbler limited to just one new bird

Outfalls/Red Nab late afternoon tide
Redshank - c480
Turnstone - 53
Med Gull - 3CY (legs not visible) & 1CY
Little Gull - ad
Sandwich Tern - 3 ads
Oystercatcher - 3,200

Moths
Another tedious catch, mainly counting Flounced Rustic and separating worn Six-striped Rustic from less-worn Square-spot Rustic.  6 Willow Beauty graced the walls and there was another Agriphila geniculea

Bumbus terrestris

Heysham Obs
A rather ignominious start to the Middleton CES with a dozy worker bumble bee unknowingly attaching itself to my rear. Then I sat down in the car......................... The accident book has been duly filled in. It was a worker Bombus terrestris. It was a strange CES - over half the birds were caught on the final round of the allotted time-period, the first time this has happened here. This undoubtedly reflects the absence of any overnighting local birds or off-passage migrants (also the impression yesterday afternoon when checking the m.n. rides) and a decent arrival of new migrants gradually filtering through to the site with their mobility "helped" by the presence of small tit flocks. Shame we could not cover the Heysham N. Reserve as well as it was a nice migrant synopsis and a short visit revealed yesterday's absentee, Willow warbler, 'hoeeting' from at least two places by the office

Middleton NR CES & supplementary nets from 0545hrs
Tree Pipit - 5 SE early morning plus one SE mid-morning
Grey Wagtail - first of the autumn SE
Swift - one SE
House Martin - 6 SE
Swallow - c35 SE
Linnet/Goldfinch - mixed flock of c70
Grasshopper Warbler - male singing in the western marsh first thing, adult trapped in the central marsh and retrap juvenile trapped in the western marsh
Sedge Warbler - all migrants - none first thing but 6 caught, including control Y223110
Whitethroat - 5 ringed
Lesser Whitethroat - one ringed
Willow Warbler - probably c15 around with 8 ringed
Chiffchaff - 2 ringed
Blackcap - 2 ringed
Reed Warbler - 3 ringed

Ringing recovery
A Med Gull first seen here in 2009 was seen by Mike Baron on 14th August. The accompanying blurb from the Germans includes a fascinating account of the birds transferring from the original island, probably due to the presence of a raccoon dog and nesting on "eco-friendly" rooftops! See

http://mail.aol.com/34047-111/aol-1/en-us/mail/get-attachment.aspx?uid=1.31742354&folder=OldMail&partId=6&saveAs=Pionierinsel_July_2011%5b1%5d.pdf

Heligoland 5352010 & green darvic AHTJ
Ringed: Pionierinsel, Elbe Estuary, Hamburg, Germany: adult: 23/5/09
Seen: Preesall Sands, Knott End:          6/8-12/8/09
Seen: Heysham Power Station outfalls:   30/8 & 6/9/09
Seen:  Red Nab, Heysham:     14/8/11

Please note that the French-ringed bird seen on 3/8 was also a green darvic. Thanks for this, Mike

Marsh harrier
Juvenile south along the eastern boundary of the recording area (over the new waste centre roundabout) at 1320 (thanks Pete)

Heysham NR
Garden warbler - one seen (thanks to another Pete)

Unfortunately no known coverage of the shore today.  Anyone able to contradict this, please?

Moths
Unremarkable small catch; highlighted by Agriphila geniculea (perhaps something to do with 6.5 degrees C at 0515ish!)

Autumnal ticking Robins and a Southern Hawker

Heysham Obs
Again a sign that the autumn may be two weeks or so ahead of itself with a small arrival of Robin, Chiffchaff and Blackcap along with a single Garden Warbler and Whitethroat.  Willow Warblers were conspicuous by their absence with just a single retrap encountered

Visiting by large groups
Whilst we can always facilitate small numbers of visitors as part of the usual public relations, it can be very tricky when a large group suddenly descends on you.  This was exacerbated this morning by LWT staff being occupied or elsewhere and the three (later four) volunteers fully occupied in a bird ringing programme.  The latter included a need to continuously watch over the nets set by the office as a precaution due to the recent presence of a cat.  This was over and above the usual paramount consideration for the welfare of the birds. 

Therefore any facilitation with the large group of Fylde Naturalists was inevitably sporadic and rather unsatisfactory, especially when the toilet facilities are very limited, as befits a non-public building and the visit included an 'out of the blue' request to look at the moth trap!   We apologise to Fylde Naturalists for any shortfall in attention to public relations detail, but emphasise this would have been sorted out much more satisfactorily if we had some form of prior notice of the visit.

Heysham NR
Tree Sparrow - at least one heard in the tank farm, but rather distant
House Sparrow - at least 6 around early on
Treecreeper - one ringed - most records are either in July or later in the autumn accompanying tit flocks
Garden Warbler - one ringed
Blackcap - 5 ringed
Chiffchaff - 3 ringed, others heard calling
Robin - just two ringed, but at least 5 ticking birds by the office as the nets were rather belated set
Whitethroat - just the one ringed/seen

Ocean Edge/Red Nab
All observations were a bit late in the tide cycle with just single adult Little Gull, single adult/3CY Med Gull and 2-3 Sandwich Tern seen

Insects
A Southern Hawker was seen by the Fylde Naturalists Group around the dog-walk pond - about the fifth record for here.  Agriphila geniculea topped a routine moth catch.

Coastal selection

Heysham Obs
Peter Golborn informed me that he had seen a distant Bonxie and a pale morph skua which appeared to be a Pomarine during a pre-lunch seawatch

Outfalls/Red Nab/Ocean Edge late incoming tide
Common Tern - adult
Sandwich tern - adult
Little Gull - adult and 2CY
Med Gull - 4 x adult, 2 x 3CY and one x juvenile.  Many of the gulls were heading off towards Middleton when I got there

Very poor for waders c/p yesterday with just 2 Knot seen amongst the usual Redshank etc.

No Meds hanging around anglers along the north harbour wall as yet

Moths
Latish Least Yellow Underwing and Canary Shouldered Thorn the best of a small catch

Late season Turnip and small wader influx

Heysham Obs
A Turnip Moth was a mild surprise in the moth trap - most are in early summer here.  Also a dark form of what seems to be White-line Dart.

Red Nab/Ocean Edge mid-morning
A pre-tide visit saw a few bits and bobs but no comprehensive check made
Med Gull - 2 juvs, 3 adults, 2 3CY
Little Gull - ad
Sandwich Tern - 3
Kittiwake - 2CY

Red Nab near high tide
Decent and rather unexpected arrival of good numbers of Dunlin, Ringed Plover plus a few Knot.  Will count tomorrow - here are some pics from Janet:

On Heysham NR, some moth spp. eggs found on a grass stem were in the process of hatching.  Thanks Janet:

Anyone any idea which species, please?

From routine to notable

Heysham Obs
Varied activities this morning included the Heysham NR CES & supplementary Greenfinch ringing, the moth trap and a check at Red Nab on the incoming tide.  The notable sighting was Tawny Speckled Pug in the moth trap, a formerly common moth which, like the Wall Brown butterfly, has completely 'crashed' in the last few years after a previously slow decline

Heysham NR CES
Unringed birds included a juvenile Bullfinch, single Chiffchaff & Willow Warbler and two Blackcap.  12 more Greenfinches were ringed.

Red Nab
Sandwich Tern - two
Little Gull - usual Ad & 2CY
Med Gull - 3, possibly 4 unringed juvs, 5+ ad & 4 3CY 

Moths
Tawny-speckled Pug and 10 T. advenella

The bottomless pit

Heysham Obs
More Greenfinch ringing this morning with another 26 unringed birds, one of which escaped.  Only two retraps from previous occasions.  This is about 170 new birds since the feeding station as set up at the end of July - where have they come from as there is no obvious 'vis mig' at this time of year?  Most of them are birds of the year.

The outfalls were visited very briefly, but too late in the tide cycle. "Inevitably" there were four birders there wondering where everything was.  Maybe we need to continue to keep repeating that this site is no good on high 'spring' tides unless you are doing some 'pure' seawatching/landbird searching/waiting for Jack Snipe being flushed off Ocean Edge in winter

Little Gull - Ad on sea by Ocean Edge saltmarsh
Redshank - now 475 roosting on Ocean Edge saltmarsh
Turnstone - 17 roosting on Ocean Edge south shore

Insects
First Migrant Hawker (noticed) this autumn by the office during a small amount of afternoon sun which also produced a Comma and two Red Admiral on the buddleia.  No moths of interest. 

Two Trees top the bill

Heysham Obs
This morning was all about hard work and ekeing as much as possible out of some dodgy weather, including some ringing at the two sites, checking moths and completing the WeBS count.  The forecast suggested that Middleton would be possible early on providing it was not already raining!   However, a significant number of warblers (yesterday) and the Greenfinch hordes also suggested a ringing session by the office at HNR was on the cards.............all before the deteriorating weather.  Thanks to John and Jean for help - it would have been too risky for a single ringer this morning

Middleton NR 0530-0800
This visit revealed that the vast majority of the Sedge Warblers had moved on and, as the tit flocks are still stubbornly absent (and therefore also the entourage of off-passage warblers), this left a bit of a void with a few odds and ends of migrants in the nets before the wind put paid to proceedings
Tree Pipit - one flew south at some unearthly hour
Tree Sparrow - one around
Sedge Warbler - probably no more than four birds encountered with an unringed adult the only capture
Reed Warbler - at least one in the central marsh reedbed and a juvenile retrapped
Garden Warbler - two ringed (do not breed in Heysham area)
Willow Warbler - a trickle around with three ringed
Grasshopper Warbler - two singing males first thing, then no obvious sign
Chiffchaff - two ringed
Blackcap - one ringed
Lesser Whitethroat - one ringed

Heysham NR office
A very short session included ringing the following: 22 Greenfinch, two Willow Warbler, single Whitethroat & Sedge Warbler and, perhaps surprisingly, two juvenile Coal Tit.  Then it rained!

WeBS highlights
Little Gull - ad & 2CY Red Nab
Med Gull - 2 ads & 1CY Red Nab/OE foreshore
Redshank - the well above average roosting numbers at Red Nab/Ocean Edge saltmarsh continued with 308 counted     
Whimbrel - one Red Nab

Moths
Square Spot Rustic opened its account and other notables included a melanistic Dart spp (White-line/Garden/Coast) which needs a good look at, late Wormwood Pug, Pebble Prominent and another Mouse Moth

Elsewhere
Just to the north of the area there were 10 Sandwich Tern roosting on the Sunny Slopes Groyne and a further three by the Battery groyne

Gulls
I was shocked to find that more gulls had successfully nested on roofs in the Heysham area than on South Walney - the Walney Obs blogsite (as well as indicating more skuas flew out of the Bay yesterday!) revealing a total breeding failure

Mystery pic from Janet - how many species involved here!

Irish Sea mist

Heysham Obs
The sort of weather which can produce Great Shearwaters trailing past Blanan on Cape Clear (and three days of drying out your scope), but hardly the top recipe for Morecambe Bay.  Should have had a seawatch last night whilst the wind was strong!

Red Nab/outfalls
Little Gull - ad & 2CY
Sandwich Tern - ad
Med Gull - just single juvenile and adult
Ringed Plover - 11
Redshank - 266
Whimbrel - 1

North harbour wall 1100 onwards
Kittiwake - 5 adults behind IOM ferry, then blogging around harbour mouth, then flew out
Wheatear - one
tern spp - one distantly

Moths
A Lesser Swallow Prominent, very scarce here, mysteriously appeared on the wall after the main catch had been checked - this does happen here with plenty of nooks and crannies

Cinnabar caterpillar, thanks Janet