Unseasonal and rather painful day

Heysham Obs
No often you deal with a moth catch of 250 (120 December Moth) at Millhouses and then ring a Chiffchaff at Heysham at this time of year.  The Heysham moth trap was more seasonal after yesterday's bonanza (one Mottled Umber)

North wall
Med Gull - Czech adult
Linnet - 19
Goldfinch - 17
Twite - 1

Office area
Chiffchaff - one collybita heard calling and later caught
Kestrel - one female stuck its claw right in the finger next to the nail - supposed to be playing music tonight - hope it doesn't stiffen.  Already ringed - EX11 sequence
Pink-footed Goose - migratory 'in-off' and high flocks SE of 120 and 150 at 1030 & 1032
Long-tailed Tit - the first unringed one for a bit in what has been a "nil movement" autumn
Goldcrest - 2

November December Moth bonanza continues

Heysham Obs
Offshore
Guillemot - 1

North wall on seed
Starling 12
Twite 3
Linnet c15
Goldfinch c10
Robin 2
Dunnock 2

Moths
December Moth (6), Mottled Umber, Winter Moth (4), Feathered Thorn (2), Blastobasis lacticolella, Light Brown Apple Moth.  Record single-night count of December Moth and a really good catch for late November for here.  An actinic set in the SD46A part of the reserve contained a Scrobipalpa costella, only the second record for the reserve along with a Winter Moth female on vegetation close to the trap and an unidentified as yet micro.

Twite Numbers Slow To Build Up

Heysham

N Harbour Wall

Three whoosh net operations early this morning resulted in:
16 Twite (11 new birds,  5 Retraps)
1 Linnet retrapped
1 Goldfinch ringed plus 1 retrapped.

Smaller numbers than recently of Linnet and Goldfinch at the feeding area, perhaps a result of the small neap tide allowing plenty of access to natural saltmarsh food.

ajd

Motorised para'glider' clears out the foreshore

Heysham Obs
I'm not sure what motorised para'gliders' are supposed to be called, especially noisy ones which can be heard over a mile away.  This was weaving about c10 metres above the surface of the mudflats at a neap high tide and it was amazingly effective at scaring birds.  This relates to the drip-feed of disruptive activities which sneak on to the shore via the access point at Potts Corner.   The owner has attended meetings re-establishing good practice on the foreshore along this very important and often spectacular stretch of coast with its large internationally important flocks of waders and therefore this activity was presumably not with his blessing.  So why were these people on the foreshore with two large vehicles - I'm assuming they simply drove on via a seemingly unrestricted access?  Vehicles registrations have been taken and will be passed to NE.  Any continuation of this level of disturbance makes a mockery of the carefully worded information notices put up by Ocean Edge and Shorefields Caravan parks

Ocean Edge foreshore late afternoon
Fleeing birds included 3 Little Egret and perhaps the flock of c3900 Knot which ended up on the beach to the south of the Stone Jetty plus the usual Bar-tailed Godwit, additional Knot etc etc

Pink-footed Goose
It seems that 800-900 are utilising a morning flightline via a (brief?) landing on Middleton Sands and then over Middleton NR area en route to Lune side fields/saltmarshes.  This evening, they returned via the 'usual' Lune estuary flightline at 1600-1604hrs

Others
Twite number 6 (from this autumn's ringing) was on the seed along with 4 others and 23 Linnet (at least 17 unringed) and 14 Goldfinch (mainly ringed)

Usual 2 adult Med Gulls around north wall

Harbour Dunnocks

North Harbour Wall

Visit at 8am to check and replenish Niger seed. Birds feeding at first were just 5 Goldfinch, 7 Linnets, 2 Robins and 3 Dunnocks.

Also two adult Med Gulls nearby.

After a check of the south side of the harbour where no more small birds were seen, a return to the north wall a little later found that the finches had built up to about 35.

Very flighty and dogs about so didn't manage to see them all on the ground. 

Mainly Goldfinch and Linnets with probably no more than 7 Twite, at least three ringed, two local recent ones and the Machrihanish red/green.

 

Eider fest and House Sparrow mega

Heysham Obs
North wall low tide
Eider - 302 - seen smaller flocks with kings and queens......................but all very distant.  This flock needs grilling just in case
Common Scoter - female
Red-throated Diver - 1
Auk spp - one - quite probably Razorbill

Finches included up to 5 Twite late morning

Office area
Activity round the office comprised an early Brambling and what seemed to be a small movement of about 15 southbound Chaffinch at the same time, c20 Blackbird and best of all a female House Sparrow ringed

There were no moths or even flies gracing the trap

Subterranean guillemots

Heysham obs
 Far from being 'trapped', guillemots which enter the underground reservoir by the power station intake have whale of a time and can then get out at low tide. There may be three doing this at the moment. A few years ago before risk assessments were invented we went in there with landing nets and caught/ringed 6 including a northern bird. Indeed our a toons may have invented risk assessments as a ten page document including the word 'no' materialised and we then realised they could get out anyway

 Plenty of seed left at dusk last night and this morning's ringing session comprised a small gang of twite and goldfinch with no sign of the big linnet flock . These included the 2o11 machrihanish- ringed bird seen in the field

 The other news involved blackbird with a notable arrival of at least 30 around the office area plus a singleton on the north wall along with a late migrant meadow pipit

 Moths consisted of an incredibly geriatric angle shades and a pristine winter moth if that is the right word to use

Afternoon all

Heysham Obs
Unusually no morning coverage whatsoever today and the early afternoon saw a quick visit to the north harbour wall where there was no available food and the dreaded three pigeons plus a rabbit were digging into the sand to find morsels. I put a small amount of nyger down which was in the car and, after a quick walk round, a decent flock of 54 finches materialised on the seed: 41 Linnet and 13 Goldfinch. As far as could be seen only 13/41 Linnet were ringed but about 10/13 Goldfinch bore a mixture of right and left leg rings, possibly indicating that some were ringed by the NR office. As also stressed by a visiting ringer, its really important for a feeding station to guarantee a dawn food supply, but that is easier said than done with people's committments and nocturnal mammalian consumers. The problem is that all the Twite are to the south of here, so they have to have a pretty solid reliable incentive to come up here for the dawn feed - it would be a different matter if Heysham was on a 'commuter route' for wintering Twite. It is looking pretty bad with seemingly no semi-resident birds able to entice others from a communal night time roost as seemed to be the case in other years

Ad Med Gull followed the IOM ferry along the length of the harbour

The moth trap amazingly held December Moth and Mottled Umber after a NE gale. Bizarre!

No Knot

Heysham Obs
No Knot seen at the subroost below the heliport seawall today unless they came in very late and were undisturbed

North wall first thing
Mixed flock of 15 Linnet, 7 Twite and 5 Goldfinch on seed but couldn't see any ring details due to light

Guillemot offshore and Med Gull along the seawall

A Winter Moth in the trap!

Knot the lady in red

Heysham Obs
Sadly certain dog walkers seem to have a daily routine which they find impossible to change. The last two days have seen a decent gang of knot trying to roost on the heliport. A precursor for a return of the good old days? Enter the lady in red with a ginger and white collie type. Why do you have to walk the heliport seawall at or near high tide? The knot cleared off.  An early morning visit to the north harbour wall saw a couple of birders already there who said that 'about 35 finches had flown off and there was nothing on the seed'.   My fault - forgot to feed last thing yesterday as arranged.  Plenty of food was put down allowing for pigeons and finches to feed at the same time and the results were 3 feral pigeons, one Robin, 4 Linnet, 4 Goldfinch and 4 Twite down together within 30 minutes but no sign of the big flock on a walk round.  One of the Twite was singing and was the only ringed bird - ringed last winter period.  Presumably the big flock is part of the 60+ gang on Ocean Edge saltmarsh - predominantly Linnet

Mound etc
Song Thrush - 1 - the 'usual wintering bird'? also seen yesterday
Rock Pipit - one

Offshore
20 minutes produced a single Guillemot and single Red-throated Diver floating in
Ad Med Gull behind departing ferry

Ocean edge
Linnet - 61
Reed bunting - 1