Thursday 13 November 2008

Routine trawl round

Heysham Obs
The coastal areas were given a short run-round with most of time being spent on the finches (& see below). Several birding blogs have been accessed recently featuring the usually most mild-mannered of people ranting and raving [using BBC language] at Man U supporting shrike twitchers vs. Lincolnshire kale fields, bushes which are not holding any Pallas's warblers, fog-bound Rossall seawatches, people tape-luring Greenish Warbler on their local patch, as well as about 25 species of dog [Rossall again]. Should I succumb to the appropriate linguistics - better not - but spent a significant part of this morning cleaning sticky, sugary, red-dyed sweet and sour sauce off the scope, courtesy of a Range Rover which reversed across the road in front of me as I left a Chinese takeaway last night. Two emergency stops in three days, hope they dont come in threes. The rice was still edible.

North harbour wall
Twite - 77; at least 16 unringed, plus a Duddon bird ringed this autumn (probably one of the two already trapped) and Duddon-ringed bird from autumn 2006 (the first time this has been seen)
Linnet - 12 (1+ ringed)
Goldfinch - 2 (at least one ringed)
Med Gull - one adult

Wooden jetty
One juv Shag at long-range from the red gate

Observer: Pete Marsh

Elsewhere
3 Waxwing still at Levens (see yesterday)