White winged gull eludes identification

Heysham Obs
Probably Iceland 2CY heading down shipping lane 10ish this am - couldn't clinch it on rear end views and therefore a small Glaucous not ruled out

North Harbour Wall
Linnet x 27
Goldfinch x 14
Twite x 1
Med Gull x 1

Harbour
Guillemot x 1

Offshore
Little Gull - ad

Middleton
Tufted Duck - 11 model boat pond
Cetti's Warbler - 1 in willows for short time south end of western marsh reedbed (also seen or heard 20/21/28 Jan (Richard Miller, Steve Ryder)

Finches, Med and Guillemot

Heysham Obs
North Harbour Wall
Linnet c25
Goldfinch c15
Twite 1
Med Gull (Czech ringed)

Harbour
Guillemot 1

Aukfest

Heysham Obs
Single 2CY Razorbill close inshore off the NHW at lunchtime and the reappearance of Guillemot in the harbour (from the undergrounds reservoir?) were the highlights this morning along with two distant adult Little Gull

North wall and area incoming tide
Razorbill - see above
Little Gull -two adult together far offshore low tide -lifted off water and re-landed
Guillemot - see above
Kittiwake - 2CY out, ad in, ad behind ferry but peeled off early and headed out
Red-breasted Merganser - male harbour mouth
Finches - 13 Goldfinch, 10 Linnet, 8-10 unspec others
Med Gull - adult Knowsley road field

Small Twite influx

Heysham Obs
Plenty of food down by lunchtime and a good number of finches on the seed but unfortunately disturbed just as I was starting to scope them.  Certainly more 'jumpy' now there are not many of the more tolerant Goldfinch with them

North harbour wall
Med Gull - 2 adults (one behind ferry, then back out)
Kittiwake - adult behind ferry (at least - arrived early and missed the harbour entry bit)
Linnet - 16 on seed
Goldfinch - 5 on seed
Twite - 3 on seed (2 x Heysham ringed, one unringed) (see below)
Linnet/Twite - additional c8 along the embankment with Twite as well as Linnet call coming from the flock

More jack snipe tide

Heysham obs
A few bits and pieces

Jack snipe - one flushed by the tide from ocean edge salt marsh (plus one snipe)
Skylark - one flushed from salt marsh
Med gull - at least one adult
Great crested grebe - two in harbour. One in summer plumage

Moth
One chestnut  in the trap - not common here (dark chestnut more regular ) and the first of the year

Car-potato weather

Heysham Obs
Trawled around with the minimum  of effort and the reward was exactly what was deserved

Med Gull - ad Fisher's roof
Tufted Duck - 6 on model boat pond

Dark-bellied Brents

Heysham Obs
Quite a bit of coverage today, mainly relating to watching what the tide flushed out of the saltmarsh

Ocean Edge saltmarsh
Snipe - 7
Jack Snipe - 1
Reed Bunting - 3
No pipits - still 'need' Rock Pipit for year in recording area

Other coastal sightings
Dark-bellied Brent Goose - flock of four, first seen at 1020 from NHW flying round the wooden jetty, then around Red Nab, then flying towards Potts Corner before returning to Red Nab and joining the Wigeon flock
Med Gull - presumably the Czech bird on Fisher's roof - starting to come into summer plumage if it was that bird
Wigeon - 120

Heysham village
Male Blackcap still present

Sunday 24th

Heysham Obs

Unremarkable WeBS day and not a lot else apart from ground-breaking Jackdaw record!

Jack Snipe - one possibly two Ocean Edge saltmarsh
Med Gull - adult Fishers roof
Jackdaw - 7 in field off Knowsley Road on northern edge of recording area - MEGA!!

Firecrest confirmation

Heysham Obs
Firecrest is a regional description species in Highland, therefore it was important to check up on a report of the Firecrest we ringed in mid-September last year being found in a car radiator grille in Elgin, Moray (400k north) on 7th January.  Here is the bird just prior to release at Heysham on 14th September 2015

!

Thanks to Philip for reporting this and sending a rather sad pic of the freshly dead bird, confirming the identity and implicitly correct ring number - not always easy to discern with AA rings.  The location was more tricky.  The 'fresh' nature of the bird and the impression Philip had of a small bird flying across the front of the vehicle on the outskirts of Elgin, which did not appear to come out at the other side, does suggest that the bird had not been in the radiator grille for very long.  However, there remains the, given the condition, unlikely possibility that the bird was impacted somewhere between Wick and Elgin, the journey undertaken that day.

Not quite unprecedented - here is a 'similar' record from Norfolk:

964150	First-year Male	13-10-1975	North-west Norfolk coast: 53°0'N 0°36'E (Norfolk)
	Freshly dead	11-02-1976	Ires Geo, Wick: 58°22'N 3°6'W (Highland)   642km   NNW

and here is a notable recovery from an Irish Sea site at a similar latitude to us - maybe a more predictable direction:

BEH893	First-year Male	22-09-2007	Calf of Man: c. 54°3'N 4°49'W
	Caught by ringer	01-11-2008	Queen Mary Reservoir: 51°25'N 0°28'W (Surrey)   413km   SE

All that happened today was that I arrived at HNR later than expected, missed the short ringing weather window and had to take the net down virtually as soon as it was set.  The only surprise was the capture of yet another un-ringed Robin.  Then ploughing through the 2015 report species accounts.  No reports from anyone else, but Malcolm did say that his male Blackcap would be on his fat-balls in the village unless he informed otherwise!

The view from the top

The view from Knowlys Road at high tide:

The grey blob in the middle is the Oystercatcher roost which would normally be on the heliport but due to so much disturbance by off-lead dogs and their owners, has had to relocate to a safer roost spot. These fields are fenced off, sometimes grazed by horses and nicely undisturbed by anything else. As you can see, by walking on the promenade path it is possible to get quite close to the birds without disturbing them. Or, if it is raining or very windy, by parking on Knowlys Road you can enjoy a view across all the fields from the comfort of your car........

...........as I did earlier today. From here I could see:

660 Oystercatcher

12 House Sparrows (in the central hedge)

8 Magpies

1 Mistle Thrush (a red-listed species)

20 Black-headed gulls

9 Lesser Black-backed Gulls

5 Woodpigeon

3 Linnet (also red-listed)

 1 Pied Wagtail

2 Goldfinch

20 Starling

 

Next stop was the Near Naze. Six species of bird in this picture:

 

In all there were 70 Redshank, 14 Ringed Plover, 2 Turnstone, 1 Curlew, 350 Oystercatcher, 50 Dunlin, 12 Lapwing and 3 Herring Gulls crammed on the rocks. 

 

At Red Nab there were 41 Wigeon, 500 Oystercatcher, 2 Shelduck, 1 Red-breasted Merganser plus small numbers of gulls.

 

But bird of the day was at the North Harbour Wall feeding station where a lone Twite joined 10 Linnet, 8 Goldfinch and 3 Feral Pigeons.

 

JR.