Plummeting early afternoon temperatures

Heysham obs
A few bits today

Kittiwake - flock of 31 am
Little gull - ad seaward end outfalls early am
Guillemot - one still in harbour - dead r/g on sea
Fulmar - one observed flying out of Heysham airspace from stone jetty
Shag - 1cy in harbour pm only (and 8 cormorant)
Pink-footed goose - 62 s pm

Middleton
First gadwall since the summer - very skittish male
Two redwing
Teal - 18 plus

Storm blown Gannet

Heysham Obs

The tired windblown Gannet

(photo taken with I-phone through the scope hence poor quality)

Guillemot in the harbour

Adult Gannet on the shore between Red Nab and the outfalls (it has been seen flying)

Adult Kittiwake Stage 2 outfall, 6 behind 1OM ferry

Whooper swan - 4 south

Goldeneye - two males by skeer off Heysham head

46 Goldfinch and 9 Linnet on seed but no Twite

No moths in trap - not even a mossie!

Poor visibility and rain

Heysham Obs
Wednesday 18th November
The search for the cutting edge involved a low point of waiting to see how many diving Tufted Duck there were on the model boat pond sitting in a warm car (8)

More credibility getting soaked and finding two storm-blown 1CY Shag sitting it out in the harbour but not feeding - by all accounts they didnt stay long

The Guillemot was also present in the harbour by the waterfall

Calm down dear!

The wind abated slightly this morning and so did the birds.
A Guillemot was still in he harbour
60 finches were on the North Harbour Wall, about 40 Goldfinches and 20 Linnet. No Twite.
Just 6 Tufted Duck on the model boat pond at Middleton NR (3M, 3F)

Nice selection over a very long time!

Heysham Obs

A little frustrating today with a male Snow Bunting heading south towards the area not located within and the Grey Phalarope's not quite clinched as the 'on the sea' views were just glimpses before being lost in the rather distant heavy seas.  One the plus side, the 'what's that' as viewed out of window by Reuben was also then seen by Steve and myself and proved to be the first 'from the office' skua spp in the form of a westbound Bonxie with a few trailing gulls warily keeping their distance,  Thanks to Bill, Andrew, Jean and Malcolm for coverage 

 

Sea on and off 1000 onwards to just before dusk

Whooper Swan - 9+7+2 south in the afternoon

Pintail - 19+3 south

Shag - 1CY afternoon

Grey Phalarope - "two very probable grey phalarope - long way out (beyond the red buoy) but they settled on the sea and then I lost them in the waves"

Leach's Petrel - one yellow buoy area late afternoon then lost in rough seas further south 

Skua spp - one very distant bird in Cumbria

Kittiwake - 15 or so behind the IOM ferry, one out

Med Gull - 2 adult

Guillemot - one in the waterfall area of harbour

Linnet - 7

Twite - 1

Goldfinch - c15

 

Office area

Bonxie (Great Skua) - one flew west at 1200hrs, almost certainly then headed south

 

Middleton NR
Chiffchaff - 1

 

Very fortunate

Heysham obs
The Heysham equivalent of sitting in a hide paid dividends this morning.   The maritime inaction was tempered by listening to the radio and reading the paper whilst regularly carrying out 180 degree scans.  Then at 1012hrs, a little black thing with a white rump sheared through the optics before turning and trying to fly out before the process was repeated.   Then it all happened as a flock of 16 Pintail flew out. Didn't expect this in the conditions which seemed a fraction too far to the south and certainly were an hour or two later .  Tried to intercept it at the stone jetty to give some inner bay watchers am idea of where to look but this coincided with some poor visibility.

Inshore sightings
Leach's petrel - one in 1012 hrs about 150m beyond the buoys
Guillemot - one by waterfall at low tide
Pintail- flock of 16 out
Cormorant - 5 waterfall
Med gull -  adult fishers h.t.
Wren - one near south Roundhead!

Mammal
Dead hedgehog by reserve entrance

Making the most of useless conditions

Heysham Obs
As suspected, checking the synoptic charts, daylight hours today saw slack winds and heavy drizzle for the most part.  Watching the sea would be like watching paint dry.  So a bit of a low tide check, followed by a date with MapMate, whilst Malcolm did the full rounds before the heavy rain started.

Middleton NR

No Cetti's Warbler heard at 1030 0r 1315 and no sign of yesterdays 1CY male Goldeneye
6 mute swan
10 tufted duck
28 teal
2 moorhen
1 grey heron
2 little egret
5 snipe over to South (1 flock 12.45)

Ocean edge
1 Jack snipe
6 common snipe
2 little egret
23 turnstone
1 ringed plover
c30 linnet
6 mallard

Red Nab
32 wigeon
1 kingfisher

SW Round Head
1 juvenile shag

Nothing on or
over water

Malcolm

Low tide check north wall early am

Eider - 47

Med Gull - adult 

A varied mix but missing the key species

Heysham obs
Should have implemented the previous experience of the best time for Leach's Petrel being one to three hours after high tide.  We missed the critical time for the Preesall sands sighting, assuming it came past and the later afternoon stone jetty bird was forced further out by lbbg attention and was presumably behind distant wave troughs or eaten by the time it should have reached Heysham . Fingers crossed for the next few days but unfortunately not a straightforward pattern of strong onshore winds and this is very bad news for any hoped for leach's. Worth checking the low tide channel first thing tomorrow?

Sea on and off 0930 onwards
Great skua - two sightings which suggested the two knott end birds having split up, the second of these also presumably the lighthouse cottage bird at long range off ocean edge.
Sanderling - flock of nine out unprecedented at this time of year
Golden plover - flock of nine out - unusual
Pintail- 13, 4, 32 out
Common scoter - 2 separate males in
Little gull - adult
Kittiwake - 14, 20, 16 in early on, one out, 3 in then out again behind the ferry, 11 out mid-afternoon and 4 in
Razorbill - flock of five out
Pink-footed goose - 21 se
Red-throated Diver - 1 heading out then landed on the sea
adult Med Gull floating along the north wall

Middleton NR
Goldeneye - 1CY male
Tufted duck - 11

Finch blitz

Heysham Obs
The only remotely suitable ringing weather (but not for mist nets) at the moment led to all or most of the north harbour wall finches being caught.  Unfortunately no Twite.  31 new Goldfinch and 6 new Linnets were ringed plus another 25 retrap Goldfinch

Inshore
Med Gull - adult following freight ferry and 2CY roosting on Red Nab
Wigeon - 44 Red Nab
Mallard - 4 Red Nab
Shelduck - 178 off Ocean Edge
Little Egret - 2 Ocean Edge

Vis mig by office for two 15 min stretches
Chaffinch - 23 SW
Mistle Thrush - 3 SW
Woodpigeon - flock of 35 S
Goldfinch - 3 S

Moth
The first (and perhaps the only on previous form here) December Moth of the year

Mammal
Grey Seal - 1 close under the north harbour wall on the incoming tide.

Bits and pieces

WEDNESDAY
Four Pintail were mentioned by the person who was going to post them!

TUESDAY Heysham obs

Kittiwake - five ad behind IOM ferry
Auk spp on sea then out
Pintail - 16 plus 4 put
Wigeon - flock of 29 out

No moths!