Thursday 5 May 2011

Large Swallow movement and terns in situ

Heysham Obs
Outfalls/north harbour wall
Arctic Tern - just 12 heading off NE but a gradual build-up on the outfalls from 55 first thing to 272 at 1000hrs
Black Tern - as above; just one first thing building up to 9 by 1000hrs
Common Tern - 4 on outfalls
White Wagtail - one
Swallow - sample counts gave 170 0700-0730, then 41 in just 5 minutes c0900hrs
House Martin - 2 north-east
Gannet - one distantly

Heysham NR
Two mist nets were only set for two rounds to see what was happening.  Seemingly not a lot, with the only migrant capture being a Lesser Whitehtroat.  No evidence of Wheatears at any of the coastal sites - usually a good indicator of passerine 'action'