Oxenhope 26-09-2008

Hope!.....Golden Light and Shallow Rolling Fog! (c) 2008

Golden Light.... The Sun Burning Through (c) 2008

Fog on the Clear (c) 2008

0650 -1100hr DB/HC
Calm to S F3, 7.9degC increasing 15, 40m - 6km, 1/8 shallow rolling fog initially, 8/8 deep fog, 2/8 cumulus fractus, QNH 1037 rising.

A morning with so much promise turned out to be one of the worst for vis that we can remember at this time of year! A brief period of ideallic conditions... golden light through shallow rolling fog with 20 minutes of initial bird movement through and overhead.... Then deep, damp and dense fog comming up out of Calderdale on the strenthening breeze from the south put a stop to everything for more than a couple of hours. At 0925hr visibility began to return but without the moving birds. The most interesting thing about this morning was the massive flocks of blogging mipits in the various fields to our north.... c450 were estimated up in the sky at various times and there may well have been many more!.... If this is happening throughout the uplands / in-byes which we suspect it may well be, as the mipits have now had plenty of time to congregate. When the push comes there should be some very big groups on the move.... one can always hope!

Moving birds in order of appearance:
Meadow Pipit 58 > S
Alba Wagtail 4 > SW
Siskin four lots
Reed Bunting 5 > W
Chaffinch 3 > S
Skylark 3 > W
Greenfinch 1 > S
Linnet 3 > S
Swallow 8 > S
Goldfinch 7 > SE
Lapwing 50 > S

Dave

Mipit Montage....forward through the fog....Open and Shut! (c) 2008

Linnets Going South (c) 2008