THE VISIBLE MIGRATION / MOVEMENT OF BIRDS OVER BRADFORD (UK) AND SURROUNDING AREAS WITH SPECIAL EMPHASIS ON WEATHER AND SKY. NOW Including:
"OXENHOPE HOLISTIC SKY"!
Saturday, March 26, 2005
AUTUMN 2005 (an advert)
AUTUMN 2005 (an advert) Might as well get in early here and start the planning, now we have a means of communicating locally. We (the team) are looking for someone with moblie phone and access to a PC (Halifax or Bradford) and who is able and willing to "do" Paul Clough this autumn – weekends and whenever else they can. Early mornings essential!! If you don’t have one, there is a spare radio to borrow for the period, for you to keep in batteries, to ensure you are kept in touch with the team whilst in the field, at minimal cost. There are also potential sites elsewhere which may reep rewards, including probable specific effort on Woodpigeons – anyone interested? Dave.
Members only watchpoint 26-03-2005 Saturday 26th March 2005 0755 - 1045hr. Weather and Sky: Firstly since my message yesterday about cutting down the length of my reports, I have since received two requests for me to continue to include the weather details. So here they are. A deteriorating morning, both initially and later with initially mostly clear skies soon overdrawing along with cloudbase and visibility reducing. Misty at first, followed by substantial fog banks and fall in temperature after 1000hr. Wind: initially NNE F2 @ 0630, NE F3 by 0850, becoming F4 by 1030hr. Temp: initially 8 dp 7 @ 0630, 9 (7deg C @ wp)dp 8 by 0800, 8 dp 8 @ 1000hr, with temperature quickly dropping 2.5deg after envelopment by fog. Precipitation: some very light drizzle, but mainly absent. Visibility: initially 10km NW max (Keighley Moor) and 5.5km E max (Wilsden), reducing gradually until 1000hr when approach of tremendous rolling fog bank from the north-east further reduced and following envelopment allowed only c300m and remaining similar for the rest of the visit. Cloud: initially st fractus 4ok, quickly increasing low stratus 9ok with base initially c1450asl to the west, gradually reducing through morning with continuous block over the western hills and Pennine ridge and then as described in visibility above. Gloomy brightness visible below cloudbase around horizon from NW~N~ NE~ E~SE. Pressure: falling gradually over night to give 1011 by 0630 and 1010 by 1100hr. Here, an almost birdless morning with dark, quiet and empty skies. Most unusual feature being not a gull of any sort to be seen throughout. In relation to what Brian was getting over the hill mips were here very thin on the ground with no longer range movements in the sky that could be seen either. No congregations of mipits at all were noted at the usual places en-route to the watchpoint. A large (for here) group of c120 Golden Plover, disturbed from the in-bye, circled broadly to almost cloud base height (much higher to the east) and eventually made off high the north-east. A group of 6 distant Siskin went NE. Again, several Herons were seen, most likely commuting to and from Brians froggeries or similar (if there is such a word?).
Moving Birds: Golden Plover c120 > NE Lapwing 15 > N alba 6 > N Sky Lark 2 > NW Reed Bunting 1 > N Meadow Pipit 10 > Northish Chaffinch 2 > W Siskin 6 > NE
Other: Dunlin 1+ Golden Plover Redshank Snipe Curlew Oystercatcher. Willow Warbler calls from wood.
New Bradford O G Website Very many thanks for all your efforts Paul. The site looks GREAT! For those that might come this way first, here is the address for the new site – now active.
Cold Edge Dams 26-03-2005 Thanks for that Brian. My report will follow shortly. You had considerably more mips than me this morning and I think we may find as we said that your site is better placed for catching the spring movements than mine. Dave ----- Original Message ----- From: Brian Sumner To: [vismig] Sent: Saturday, March 26, 2005 11:24 AM Subject: [vismig] Cold Edge Dams
0730-1015 hrs A dull morning with low cloud to the north and mist in the valley to the south. A cool ENE wind F2-3 increased to 4 by mid morning with a little sunshine. At 1000 Dave called me from TM to say I was about to be engulfed in fog rising from the valleys to the N, and how right he was. As 15 mins later I was struggling to find my way back to the car.
Movers: Meadow Pipit 103 > N Reed Bunting 2 > N Skylark 3 > N alba Wag 5 > N
