Nothing of individual note

Heysham Obs
Counting again today - nothing individual worth noting

Heliport - birds included
Knot - 2250
Ringed Plover - 20

South of harbour
More monoculture on the outfalls - i.e. Black-headed Gulls - never known a winter with so much westerly wind and so little variety
Wigeon - 72 ish
Snipe - one flushed out of OE saltmarsh

Finches
4 unringed Linnet and 2 unringed Twite were caught

More coffee-coloured year-ticking

Heysham Obs
A Barn Owl hunting the western and central marsh areas late morning - must be hungry.  Not an obviously common bird here - reported occasionally by dog walkers but not a feature of recent consultancy vigils, or evening swallow roost ringing here.  Interestingly it came from the direction of the proposed gas fired power station...................further emphasising the incomplete nature of the ecological survey which seemed to borrow far too heavily from a previous wind turbine survey which, of course, was weighted towards vantage point flight registrations, not habitat removal

Definitely no Med Gull along north wall/Fishers roof

Excellent show on the heliport this morning with 3k Knot, 4k Oystercatcher, 19 Ringed Plover and a 'heap' of Redshank etc at the far end I didn't have time to check

Unproductive onshore winds

Heysham Obs
Just a Red-throat to show for about 40 mins staring at the sea this morning on the incoming tide.  Better news on the finch front.  Absolutely no sign of the Czech Med Gull despite careful searching through the Fisher's roof stuff ie BHG cluster at HT.  Gone?

North wall
Red-throated Diver - one flew out
Finches - 45 in total with about 20 each of Twite and Linnet

Heliport
Knot - 3500
Ringed Plover - 11
Rest n/c - no time to go to café end

Wader quiz

How many Knot do you think there are in this photo?

In fact there are 450.  Now have a guess at how many there are in the photo below:

 

I haven't counted these individually so your guess is as good as mine!  This isn't the whole flock that were roosting on the heliport as another the same size was swirling about over the sea.  There were probably in the region of 3000 today plus 2000 or so Oystercatcher. 

 

Nothing much else to report at the moment.

 

 

 

 



A decent bird at last

Heysham Obs
............with apologies to the Cettis Warbler


North wall 0930ish onwards
Iceland Gull - At c0945, 2CY headed south just inside the yellow buoy with 2 x 2CY Herring Gull then headed for the shipping lane where it may have landed.  No sign from 'the other side' however
Kittiwake - tight flock of 11 on sea
Eider - 250+ but rough sea
Finches - 35ish on seed but very flighty


Model boat pond
Pochard - 3 males
Gadwall - 5 (3 males)
Tufted Duck - 7
Mute Swan - imms only


South of wooden jetty
Dead with just 92 Wigeon of note, despite thorough check of outfalls, harbour and wooden jetty

Distracted by emails

Heysham Obs
Meant to do all sorts of things coverage wise today, but the computer took over after a model boat pond check on the way there.  Only report from others was a summer adult Med on the north wall, probably the Czech bird but not certain

The only notable things on the model boat pond were
Large gulls - 72 - still promising with good numbers of 2CY Herring
Black-headed Gull - massive reduction with only 24
Pochard - 3 males
Tufted Duck - 7
Mute Swan - just the imms

Brief visit to top up seed at feeding station saw.
30+ Finches in flight only

Eider slowly increase

Heysham Obs

North wall low tide check
Red-throated Diver - 1
Eider - 320
Finches - flock of 40 in flight by the seed
Skylark - 1 north

Middleton NR
No Teal or Coot
Displaying pair of Kestrel
Mute Swan - 2+6
Moorhen - 4
Mallard - 4
Pochard - 2 males
Gadwall - 5 (3 M)
Tufted Duck - 16
Long-tailed Tit - flock of 10 feeding on reed mace heads

Awayday

Heysham Obs
The Czech-ringed adult Med Gull was reported today

The only other thing worth saying is that there was a March Moth in the trap - a first for the year the night before last!

Time to see the Laughing Gull at last!

Eider fest on Wedesday

Heysham Obs
Sorry this is late - thought this had been posted

North wall
Eider - 295
Twite - at least 9/30 finches
Meadow Pipit - 3 seemed to be new in on the mound area

Reserve
Green Woodpecker this am

Gorse flowers on the menu

Heysham Obs
The usual heliport roost activities - lady with dog encouraging it to chase Oystercatchers and a photographer wanting flight shots contrasted with the most unusual sight of a Roe Deer buck chewing gorse flowers on Middleton

North wall
Med Gull - Czech bird still
Twite - 4 (plus 3 Linnet and 2 Goldfinch)

Middleton NR
Gulls - just 64 large and 149 Black-headed today
Pochard - 3 males
Gadwall - 2
Snipe - 1
Tufted Duck - 12
Gadwall - 2
Mallard - 8
Moorhen - 4