A rapid visit

One mist net for an hour produced a greenfinch ringed elsewhere. No moths. Pretty good vis in the hour covered with 175 chaffinch , 18 wood pigeon, one field fare, 35 goldfinch , 36 greenfinch. No chance to check grounded other than round office but this produced the highest nos of blackbird this autumn with c40 also at least 3 goldcrest. North wall sightings included Machrihanish ringed twite and a load of unringed linnet

virtually no coverage

A few Chaffinches moving in the weather breaks early morning and at least 3 Goldcrest by the office the only things of note today

Yellowhammer and six corvid species top a decent late autumn vis mig morning

Heysham Obs
A cool morning with the hitherto active wasps nest near the office all on their laptops ordering zimmerframes.  Zero moths and very few other insects seen this morning.  Birds were mainly limited to quite high vis mig, other than a few Blackbird gangs passing through the bushes

Vis mig rather too late (0720) to 0930
Chaffinch - 124
Greenfinch - 120
Goldfinch - 115
Woodpigeon - 26+14+6+1
Bullfinch - notable this morning were the following southbound high-flyers: 4+2+1+2
Carrion Crow - at least 8 migrants
Raven - 2 singletons south
Rook - 2 singletons south
Jackdaw - 11+13 south (& 2 Jay and several Magpie round the office)
Brambling - heard early on (singleton?)
Siskin - 2 singletons - scarce this autumn
Whooper Swan - flock of 7 really high on NE-SW heading - structure seemed to rule out Bewicks
Sparrowhawk - one male appeared to come 'in-off' from NW and spiralled off to the SE until a tiny dot in the sky.  Undoubtedly a late migrant!
Meadow Pipit - 1
Linnet - 2
Yellowhammer - male flew from the NE, and appeared to land in the direction of the power station

Grounded by the office
Blackbird - 23
Redwing - 1
Song Thrush - 2
Goldcrest - 3 early on

Miscellany
Sunlight prevented assessment of finches on the north wall but at least 8 Goldfinch and a male Chaffinch
Guillemot - 1 harbour
Med Gull - adult north wall
Twite - Machrihanish autumn 2013-ringed bird seen mid afternoon

Ringed Twite

Rusty Dot Pearl tops some late autumn migration

Heysham Obs
Missed a probable Snow Bunting flyover due to being in an enclosed space extracting birds from a mist net (just a single 'teuk' call), so a small migrant moth headlines - the only moth in the trap!   Southbound Chaffinch and Goldfinch were the order of the day with quite a few grounding themselves on the tank farm.  The main reason for getting up early - the possible thrush fest - was conspicuous by its absence, but was certainly (Fieldfare 500+) reaching my house in the first two hours after dawn (but not Bryan's vis site at Burton)

Vis mig dawn to 0930hrs
Chaffinch - 156 SW with several almost certainly missed
Goldfinch - 97 SW with comment as above
Greenfinch - at least 25 migrants but difficult to be certain about status
Brambling - 1
Meadow Pipit - 1
Redwing - heard high in the sky early on

Grounded around the office
Blackbird - conspicuous first thing with 26 moving through the bushes
Song Thrush - 3 as above
No evidence of Goldcrest other than one with a long-tailed Tit flock mid morning

Miscellany
Chaffinch - one grounded on the south harbour wall - unusual
Guillemot - one in the harbour
67 finches seen on the north harbour wall including a reflection of the Goldfinch arrival (c8) and at least 32 Linnet
Meadow Pipit - at least two north wall
Rock Pipit - one north wall
Green Woodpecker - a very welcome highlight of a wet power walk around Middleton - seen within the EDF strip
Snipe - 4+ Middleton

Moth
Single Rusty Dot Pearl - classic 'quality not quantity' as the only moth

Quick I phone posting
Med gull - at least one north wall, 2cy following ferry
Twite - c14
Linnet - c30
Chaffinch - m and f north wall
Rock pipit - one north wall
Meadow pipit - 2 north wall

Moth
Mottled umber

Skies of blue, red foxes too.....

Heysham Obs

Vis 0745-1000 in skies of blue:
Chaffinch 47
Brambling 6
Collared Dove 4
Woodpigeon 15
Sparrowhawk 2
Blackbird 1
Carrion Crow 3
Raven 1 east
Jackdaw 6 west
Bullfinch 1
Meadow Pipit 1
Siskin 1

Heysham Heliport:
Red fox too.  A fox appeared on the edge of the heliport and seemed bemused by the 2 Magpies which danced around it.  Instead it appeared to be concentrating on a small mammal in the grass.

North Harbour Wall
Early visit to check feeding area found this mixed bunch :

Twite  1    Late in the season for arrival of this species.  More to come any day now surely?
Linnet 15  (more in vicinity)
Goldfinch  1
Chaffinch  1
Robin  1
Wren  1

Early morning seabird flurry

Heysham Obs
Fell a bit between two stools this early morning and missed what could have been 30 minutes of rather good seawatching whilst diverting to the office for Twite food (and washing up liquid/water 'screenwash'!).  The action started as soon as I arrived at 0745 but by 0845 it had reduced to a trickle of tidally-readjusting inshore Guillemot and a few Common Gulls heading south

Vis by the office for 5 mins 0730-0740
Chaffinch - 6
Brambling - heard call once

Sea 0745-0845
Bonxie (Great Skua) - one flew in at 0800 and seemed to land on the sea
Red-throated Diver - 3 out - two adults, one 1CY
Common Scoter - female out
Kittiwake - flock of 16 adults 'out'
Common Gull - a constant trickle of mainly adults south
Razorbill - 5+3+6+2+4+2+2 out (24)
Auk spp - at least 31 which were mainly in small groups further out than the Razorbills but looked likely to be that species.  Offshore auks stopped moving after 0815hrs
Guillemot - at least 5 inshore plus two in the harbour, at least 5 heading out further out with the close Razorbill line

Miscellany
Purple Sandpiper - showing well on the near naze on the incoming tide
Med Gull - 2 adults and 2Cy following the 'Arrow' into port
Twite - There was no available seed at all first thing and 5 Twite were sitting around and trying to 'dig' food out of the ground whilst 29 Linnet sat on the fence.  At least two were ringed (by us) one a split ring involving orange above pale blue, the other pale blue over green/white split.  Provision of seed resulted in two Twite and 29 Linnet during a quick check
 

Headline House Sparrow and Autumnwatch request

Heysham Obs
**Did anyone use ?301 and record any of the Red Button Autumnwatch yesterday late afternoon/early evening, please, especially the Med Gull sequence please?   Please get in touch with PMrsh123@aol.com otherwise its apparently lost in the ether.  Thanks.

A decent late autumn migration morning in what was always going o be a very narrow window prior to the mid-morning 'hooley'.  A surprising 40 or so birds were caught including two for the first time this year; House Sparrow and Treecreeper.  The former are common on the nearby estate but most records from the Obs are considered to be and certainly behave like migrants rather than wanderers from 'over the road'.  Treecreeper have been thinner on the ground than usual this year, perhaps because their "vehicle", dispersive tit flocks, have similarly been conspicuous by their absence

Vis mig dawn to c0930
Chaffinch - 236
Brambling - 13
Goldfinch - 16
Meadow Pipit - 3
Redwing - group of 4
Jackdaw - 4+1
Carrion Crow - 6+2 respectively with the above
Rook - adult on its own heading purposefully south - very unusual
Woodpigeon - flock of 14
Starling - 20+13
Great-spotted Woodpecker - the only strong candidate for a migrant this autumn was one heading south about 1.5 times the height of electricity pylon  
alba Wagtail - 2
Greenfinch - not counted as no obvious high-flying pattern to today's birds c/f nearby feeder
House Sparrow - see below

Grounded
Chiffchaff - one calling for a time next to the office but not seen - collybita calls
Blackcap - one female with an enormous amount of fat and weighing 22.3grams
Goldcrest - definitely many fewer than yesterday after a clearish night and only two unringed ones caught and possibly no more than 5 migrants around
Blackbird - c10
Song Thrush - 2

Miscellany
Treecreeper - one ringed
House Sparrow - one heard calling overhead, then perhaps the same (male) found in the net on the next mist net round
Linnet - 25 north wall
Meadow Pipit - just one north wall
Guillemot - one in the harbour

Moth
Mottled Umber

Red button Meds

Heysham Obs
Vis 0730-0900
Chaffinch 55
Greenfinch 18
Goldfinch 27
Redpoll sp 1
Song Thrush 1
Carrion Crow 4
Mistle Thrush 2
Redwing 1
Linnet 1
Starling 10
Siskin 1
Pink-footed Goose 20

Grounded
Lots of Goldcrest, but unfortunately no time to give the place full coverage
Blackcap - one female

Miscellany
Little Egret - one Red Nab
Red Nab most unfortunately disturbed by ?bait diggers just prior to the Autumnwatch filming so there might not be any footage from there.  The filming took place from Ocean Edge - thanks for the permission
Med Gull - two north harbour wall including Czech-ringed bird performed well for the camera
Linnet - 25
Goldfinch - 3 on seed
No Twite - getting later than usual (esp c/p 2011 and 2012) but not unprecedented c/f posting on another blog.  Similarly the Linnet are rather slow to depart.  Too warm and too much natural food?
Meadow Pipit 3 grounded
Guillemot 1 flew out of the Bay

Moths
Very good again, given the weather during a chunk of the night: Silver Y, Feathered Thorn, Brick, December Moth. Angle Shades and an amazingly late Pink-barred Sallow

Couldnt stomach the Gem

Heysham Obs
Waded into the moth trap a bit too quickly today thinking a repeat of yesterdays zero.  Instead there was an excellent catch with the best, a Gem flying from an egg packing on to my stomach but, as I had to move the get a specimen tube and eventually a pic, it flew out of the window!  Hopefully the 'field description' will be adequate.  Sorry cant upload pics on this computer.

Vis mig strictly 0745-0845
Chaffinch - 66
Brambling - 11, including flock of 7
Goldfinch - 20
Starling - 21+38
Redwing - 5
Greenfinch - 16
Fieldfare - one noisy one
Skylark - 3

Mound/north wall
Twite - 5 but flew off south
Linnet - 37
Meadow Pipit - 6
Rock Pipit - 1
Med Gull - ad
Chaffinch - 1

Red Nab
Wigeon - 126
Little Egret - 1
Med Gull - ad

Moths
Juniper Carpet and Gem new for year here - the latter may be new for the site.  Also Silver Y - 2, Light Brown Apple Moth - 1, Angle Shades - 2, Spruce Carpet - 1, Epirrita - 1, Feathered Thorn - 2, Red-green Carpet - 1