Friday 26 October 2012

Yellowhammer surprise

Heysham Obs
A check of the mound/north wall produced a bunting but not the species which was being looked for in the freezing cold northerly wind!  A female/immature Yellowhammer was finally clinched after getting right side of the sun - loosely associated with the finch flock, but then remaining on the mound when they returned to the gate area.  The remainder of the 'coverage' amounted to oversleeping (last night's rock and roll lifestyle playing at a ceilidh at Lowgill village hall?) and picking up the very back end of a few thrushes, Chaffinches and Meadow Pipit before the wind started getting up and it 'went dead'

Not a good morning to give vis mig coverage a bit of a miss - see thread on LDBWS and FBC sites - however most of the birds seemed to be heading north to the east of us

North wall 
Finches amounted to about 22 with circa 15 Goldfinch, 5 Twite and 2 Linnet but heavy duty work in the centrica compound kept them off the food
Yellowhammer - female/imm with the above - what was probably this gave a single half-heard (a lot of background noise here for hearing vis mig) call seemingly quite high in the sky, so may have just come 'in-off' before pitching in and being located five minutes later in loose association with the finch flock.  Last seen around the gorse on the mound
Med Gull - adult and 1CY

Office area
Single Goldcrest ringed and not a lot seen (see intro): 2 Meadow Pipit, 1 Chaffinch and 5 Redwing

Moths
Surprisngly there were some: Caloptilia stigmatella, Light-brown Apple Moth and Pink-barred Sallow