Trickle of vis, a few grounded Wheatear and a gull-check

Heysham Obs
After going a bit Ainsdale yesterday (apart from diver species), the early morning saw very little on the sea but a mixture of Goldfinch-dominated vis rushing through ahead of the cloud edge.  A bit of grounded stuff, but no mist netting today as no time to cover the sheltered bits below the Obs Tower & the office net area was too windy.  Perhaps surprisingly, no Arctic Tern seen during albeit intermittent seawatching (apart from early morning)

Office/north wall vis
Tree Pipit - 2 NE
Siskin - 1 NE
Goldfinch - 25 NE
Meadow Pipit - 15 NE
Lesser Redpoll - 2 NE
Swallow - 6 NE
Kittiwake - flock of 9 the 'highlight' over the sea
Sandwich Tern much reduced c/p yesterday with c35 out

Grounded
Wheatear - 10 - 4 north wall, 6 Ocean Edge
Willow Warbler - at least 3 migrants by office

Ocean Edge high tide
Common Gull - 327
Black-headed Gull - 19
Med Gull - unringed 2CY with peppered rear crown & no obvious mask, very washed-out pale straw bill with dark tip
Kittiwake - 2CY, probably the one seen on and off recently
Whimbrel - one Red Nab

Pomarine Skua heads an impressive early morning on the sea

Heysham Obs early morning

One of the Middleton Grasshopper Warblers this morning.  Thanks Janet.  Note it appears to be unringed and this is the norm here, despite e.g. 44 ringed last year, we have only ever had one known returning breeding bird.  Very odd, as we seem to ring a fair percentage of adults and young each year - maybe there are a lot more than we think there are!

Office area
Redstart - male - also gave two bursts of subdued song before moving on (0615ish)
Tree Pipit - 1 NE
Meadow Pipit - 5 NE (one ringed)
Linnet - c25 NE
Lesser Redpoll - 1 ringed, no others recorded
Robin - orange/grey bird ringed - notably dark-legged
Chiffchaff - one ringed with a lot of forehead pollen
Willow Warbler - one ringed

Migrants of this species have been very thin on the ground so far this spring, unlike, for example, Goldcrest.  Thanks Janet

Song Thrush - olivey probable migrant ringed
Bullfinch - unringed 2CY female caught

Sea intermittently 0630-0850
Pomarine Skua - first of the year - a light morph ad in at 0814hrs, started climbing then someone stood right in front of car window and I lost it!
Arctic Tern - flock of 55 'in' 0805hrs were the only ones seen - didn't gain height up the channel and may have landed further in the bay
Gannet - 17 in (all 0630-0655)
Common Scoter - flock of 9 u-turned 0640hrs
Arctic Skua - blogging dark morph, last seen heading in and seeming to gain height c0635hrs
Sandwich Tern - 63 'out', then a sweep revealed circa 165, many sitting on sandbanks, most had moved out of the bay by 0850hrs.  Perhaps up to 100 additional birds, presumed to be this species, in channels further towards the Cumbrian side
Little Gull - flock of 5 adults spiralled up and headed inland to NE as soon as they reached the sandbanks 0650hrs
...............plus an extremely unconvincing attempt at a white-winged gull miles out - a larger than Herring Gull  thing - possibly the recent G x H hybrid or similar from Preston?  Just too far for details.  Flew even further away towards Walney.  Couldn't find it amongst subsequent gull checks

Insects
Moths included Shoulder Stripe and Early Thorn
First damselflies of the year - 2 Large Red at the dog walk pond:

Thanks Janet

Record flock of Arctic Skua

Heysham Obs
By far the best sighting this morning was a flock of 12 Arctic Skua at 1030hrs (10 dark morph and one light morph) which spiralled high into the sky and "disappeared" to the north!

Next best was two Garden Warbler in Smithy Wood.  As for the rest, it was progressively worse the earlier in the morning i.e. could have had a lie-in

Office area
Dead first thing with a huge wadge of cloud to the south
Lesser Redpoll - 1 ringed
Chiffchaff - two ringed
Willow Warbler - NO migrants!!
Meadow Pipit - 1+6 NE

Other landbirds
Siskin - 3 Smithy Wood, then NE
Garden Warbler - 2

North harbour wall
Sandwich Tern - 27 first thing (no Arctic Tern this morning)
Arctic Skua - 12 as above
Gannet - 4
Kittiwake - 2 on sea
Shag - one 2CY still around
Turnstone - 117+

Middleton NR
Nothing new

Thanks for these, Janet (from Middleton)

Moths
That epitome of evolutionary mediocrity, Brown House Moth, opened its account

Earliest ever Reed Warbler

Heysham Obs
Shot our bolt on the sea concentration/motivation-wise this morning and had to rely on a conscientious and very patient observer at JBP for the seabird records!

Sea early morning
Completely dead as regards movement
Sandwich Tern - c27, c25 of these on a sandbank offshore
Lots of large gulls on skeers/sandbanks

JBP records later in the tide (mainly over lunchtime)
Red-throated Diver - 17
Arctic Skua - 2 dark morph together and possibly one of these c30 minutes later
Great Skua - one having altercation with Arctic Skua.

Outfalls
Dead, with much reduced Common and large gull numbers

Office area
Dead other than the singing Lesser Whitethroat

Middleton NR
Reed Warbler - singing male the earliest record for Obs area as far as I am aware
Whitethroat - 2 singing males along golf-course edge
Grasshopper Warbler - at least 2 singing males
Linnet - nest building central marsh

North-westerly rubbish and Meadow Pipitless mystery

Heysham Obs
Quite a bit of effort today as per the time of year but little of any real interest

Middleton NR
Grasshopper Warbler - now 3 singing males

Sea on and off 0645 to lunchtime
Gannet - 7
Kittiwake - 13+10+1 in high, the latter a 2CY
Red-throated Diver - 7
Shag - 2CY still around
Whimbrel - 3 NE
Sandwich Tern - 42 out and 25-30 inshore early on, as usual these had disappeared by mid-morning
No Arctic Tern, as is usual in NW winds
Swallow - c11 NE
Linnet - 4 NE
Having just read the Fylde blogsites, it seems we were on a different planet.  Two regular 'vis miggers' put in time on the Heysham north wall between 0645 and about 0835 and recorded no Meadow Pipit c/p 500+ over Rossall and small numbers from Pilling Lane Ends 'heading towards Heysham'..  This assumes they headed over the Bay to the south of us?

Office area
The only evidence of any migrants were single Lesser Redpoll and the first female Willow Warbler of the year caught and ringed.  There was no systematic vis mig coverage at the office this morning.but I doubt if significant numbers of Meadow Pipit would have been missed

Gullwatch
300+ mainly Herring on Fisher's roof near high tide

Quality but no quantity

Heysham Obs

Smithy Lane wood
Redstart - male (IOY)
Tree Pipit - grounded individual

Seawatching early morning
Bonxie (Great Skua) - one 'in' at c0800 .
Arctic Skua - appeared at JBP at lunchtime but again no other sign of seabird movement (all skuas from "our area" will be posted on here, irrespective of whether they were actually seen at Heysham)
Sandwich Tern - 51+
"Commic" Tern - 3-4 very distant
Razorbill - 1
Guillemot - 2
Swallow - 7 NE

Office area rather too late (0700 onwards)
Lesser Redpoll - 12 NE, 9 of these before the mist nets were set!
Willow Warbler - 4 ringed and a retrap ringed at nearby Middleton late July last year
Coal Tit - scarce at this time of year and an unringed bird was caught
Linnet - c20 NE
Goldfinch - c15 NE
no pipits or wagtails recorded!

Middleton NR (Note: this site is dangerous away from the concrete roads and formal paths)
Canada Goose - 2 - first of year!!
Grasshopper Warbler - 2 singing males
Stock Dove - one by the model boat pond - first of year
Lesser Whitethroat - 1
Common Whitethroat - one - first of year
Sedge Warbler - one - first of year

Moth
Single Herald

Gullwatch
Slightly fewer today in the calm weather and nothing to raise the adrenalin level

More Arctic Terns on the move and a single Bonxie

Heysham Obs
A quieter morning, but Arctic Tern numbers increase & a Bonxie appeared at about 1020hrs

This 2CY Kittiwake was the only obvious 'oddity' amongst the masses of gulls on both the outfalls and round the harbour waterfall.  There has to be something good soon - please keep checking as the 'something good' may only stay for a few minutes....!  Thanks for the pic Janet

Typical of the airspace around the harbour/outfalls at the moment.  Thanks Janet

Seawatch north wall 0700-0900 all 'in', c1000 onwards
Sandwich Tern - 80
Arctic Tern - 71 (largest flock 24)
Gannet - 22
Auk spp - 16
Razorbill - 8
Guillemot - 1
Kittiwake - 1 2CY
Common Scoter - 1
Tufted Duck - 3 in and across (rare here)
Meadow Pipit - 3
Swallow - 1
alba Wagtail - 1
Bonxie (Great Skua) - one in, then on sea 1020ish
Shag - 2CY still around close inshore
no divers


Heysham 2 outfall
Large number of gulls.  Well worth someone grilling these.  Just time for a quick scan from Ocean Edge:
Common Gull - 440-460
Large gulls - 250
Black-headed Gull - c50
Kittiwake - 1 2CY

Office area
The male Lesser Whitethroat continues to sing to itself

Good variety on the sea

Heysham Obs

This early Little Grebe chick was photographed last Friday on the reedbed pond at Middleton.  Thanks Janet

Pretty decent amount of stuff on the sea today but land-birds dire

North harbour wall 0615-0930hrs (Pete C throughout, Jean and Pete M for shorter period)

Shelduck - 15 out

Common Scoter - 4 in

Velvet Scoter - 3 out (2 males) - out, close inshore, 0810hrs

Red-throated Diver - 3 in

Gannet - 8 in

Kittiwake - flock of 12 in then on water

Auk spp - 83 in (max flock 18)

Razorbill - 10

Guillemot - 8

Sandwich Tern - 26 in, 130 out

Arctic Tern - 43 plus c10 very high-flying, poss more

Whimbrel - one in

Linnet - 5 NE

Meadow Pipit - 8 NE

Swallow - 1 NE

alba Wagtail - 3 NE

Arctic Skua - two dark-morph blogging in outer bay from 0845 to at least 0930, gradually floating into the Bay

Office area

20 mins of vis/assessing grounded stuff 0600-0620 by the office saw just 4 Siskin, 3 Meadow Pipit,  but no evidence of the (localised) easterly producing the goods night-migrant-wise with no obvious corridor from the south overnight

Ocean Edge area

Pale-bellied Brents - two flew along the tideline towards the Lune as viewed from Ocean Edge 0920 - may have come off Red Nab.  

Loads of large gulls on Heysham 2 outfall again but nothing coffee-coloured - did include 2CY Med Gull

Seawatching conditions improve as the squalls kick in

Heysham Obs
Please note that I have enabled comments for the spring seawatching season.  Please let us know what you have seen, either via the LDBWS site or by posting a comment on here.  Thanks very much.

Not a lot of time today (still havn't) but the seawatchers had fun over the lunchtime in 'improving' conditions with some spicy squalls

North wall 0725-0755 in the rain & intermediate 'half way across the bay' visibility
Sandwich Tern - 31 out
Razorbill - 4 in together
Gannet - 2 out

North wall & Ocean Edge 0910-0930 as weather cleared & full cross-bay visibility
Lots of large gulls on Heysham 2 outfall (200+, including 2CY Common) - this usually happens this time of year and it has provided a majority of the white-winged gull records over the years
Sandwich Tern - a further 5 out
Red-throated Diver - one in

Seawatching for about 3 hours over lunchtime (Tom and Jean)
Arctic Skua - 1 in about 1200hrs +2 'in' about 1235 - all appeared dark morph
Little Gull - adult out
Red-throated Diver - 4 in
Fulmar - one out (first of year?)
Gannet - 20
Auk spp - 1 out
Sandwich Tern - just 2 out
Kittiwake - 73, biggest flock 45

Slack unremarkable weather produces a trickle

Heysham Obs
By this April's standards so far, this was a 'good' migration morning!

Mid-morning Middleton fare.  Thanks Janet

Sea/north wall vis 0600-0700
Tree Pipit - 1
Meadow Pipit - 5
Linnet - 7
Wheatear - 1
Sandwich Tern - 60-80, possibly more
Red-throated Diver - 2 in
Common Scoter - flock of 5 'out'
Kittiwake - flock of 15 on the water, then flew high to NW
A few small groups of Eider whizzing about and a large darkish bird, being mobbed by large gulls as it flew fairly low to the north; always "in the heat haze" and impossible to gauge shape, but it looked more raptorial than Grey Heron, leaning towards Marsh Harrier/Buzzard spp.  Anyone see it from Rossall/Walney? (c0615-0620)

Ocean Edge foreshore
Wheatear - 4-5

Office area
Lesser Redpoll - 3+1+7+5+1+1+3 NE, 9 of them via being ringed
Meadow Pipit - just 7 NE
Linnet - 6 NE
alba Wagtail - 3 NE
Goldfinch - 6 NE
Siskin - flock of 4 NE
Willow Warbler - at least 3 migrants (2 ringed)
Chiffchaff - two ringed, possibly migrants
Sparrowhawk - four north-east together after gaining considerable height mid-am
Sand Martin - 2 NE
Long-tailed Tit - unringed singleton was most unexpected
Lesser Whitethroat - singing male still in the tank farm

Insects
First Green-veined White of the year