Friday 16 December 2011

Dredger disruption

Heysham Obs
After some ice-road trucker conditions between Bentham and the A65 this earlyish morning (trucks coming the other way until one jackknifed), followed by a phone call at the A65/A59 roundabout that the Bradford meeting was cancelled, an unscheduled belated visit to Heysham this lunchtime/afternoon.  This included a short spell of ringing where the December total was more than doubled with the capture of 5 unringed finches!   It also revealed that dredger activity had dispersed many of the large gulls from around the inner harbour, perhaps 'dragging them offshore'.  No obvious sign of the Glaucous this afternoon.

Harbour area, mainly morning reports
Kittiwake - 35, mainly 1CY
Glaucous Gull - juvenile present during at least mid-morning around the waterfall, not seen in afternoon as far as am aware
Shag - 3 1CY around (2+1)
Twite - 17
Little Gull - at least one 1CY on outfalls
NO sign of any Guillemot - are they all in the underground reservoir?   Will try and find out.

Moths
Excelled themselves with a Dark Chestnut and two Winter Moth