Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Half of a million Mipits!

Dear All (with apologies to those on the VisMig Yahoo group who've already seen this)

 

More than half a million Mipits were recorded at VisMig sites (mostly coastal) across Holland yesterday. Breskens – the prime SPRING vismig spot in Holland recorded an unbelievable 267,000, not to mention 96 other species seen. The ongoing E and NE winds are presumably ideal for pushing northward bound birds towards the west side of the low countries with them re-adjusting >NE into a headwind along the N coast. Good to see the UK (Heysham) chipping in with 44 birds!

 

Copied below is an e-mail from Gerard Troost, Trektellen web-site designer who is a Breskens regular:

 

......................

 

I think today (23/4/08) is the last day with big numbers of mipit, we really need good
and strong (Eastern) winds. And after tomorrow the wind will be SW here.
Maybe tomorrow a little movement (10.000 at Breskens) and then the year total
for Mipits is set.

And yes, it were crazy days, if i close my eyes i still see the river of
mipits flashing by.

Regards,
Gerard

 

.........................

 

STILL no SW winds forecast for us in the UK – I'm keen to give Out Head in Fife another go, but no point in easterlies.

 

Cheers

 

Clive

2 Comments:

Blogger AndyC said...

Hi Dave,
I bet that was some day,Have you herd of this CD 'Out of Blue' published by Dutch Birding Association. Lots of flight calls of common and rare species.

Cheers, Andy

April 24, 2008 6:58 pm  
Blogger Dave Barker said...

Hi Andy
and yes, 240000 mipits in a morning is some going! I am trying hard to imagine what a "river" of mipits might look like in the field!! Our max mipit morning count here is c8000 and that was a lot of birds to get your head round with two observers.

No I have not heard about the CD but will Google it to see what i can find.

Best Wishes,
Dave

April 24, 2008 7:33 pm  

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