Oxenhope 19-10-2008

The Sky at 0700hr.... looking east and looking IDEAL! (c) 2008

Post Sunrise below the Stratus.... looking ESE (c) 2008

Oxenhope Bradford W Yorks. Elevation: 378m / 1241ft asl.
0630 - 1000hr DB/SL
WSW F2 rising SSW F4, 9.2degC rising 10.4, 65km east / 10km west all reducing 800m, 8/8 low stratus, QNH 1013 falling slowly.

First trace of dawn here in the eastern sky at 0625hr. Thought I,d better be on site early today and what a relaxation getting there, set up and the weather done before the birds started to come. In the first half hour (before the count, 0625 - 0700) 29 Redwing contacts from the sky were noted - obviously a nocturnal migration again, but absolutely miniscule in relation to yesterdays (see 18-10-2008 report). The morning started off looking ideal with open sky and a bright moon overhead but fractus from the moor soon extinguished this, followed by low stratus base c 1300ft asl and later light drizzle.... the period 0800-0815 was sterilised by this. Despite the low level, the stratus never came down to the ground here and visibility was maintained for most of the time to 65km out to the east. In relation to yesterdays thrush masses, seeming virtually a birdless morning today, the thrushes without doubt moved on elsewhere. In the first half hour of the count (0700 - 0730) only Redwings were encountered with 27 sky contacts noted despite noise disturbance from the breaking gull (c2500) and Goosander (81) roosts. Each sky contact was counted as "one" the first seen Redwings today were a group of 21 west at 0725..... a big let down after yesterday!! The regular increase in passing Starlings during the final hour was interesting! True to form the stratus began to lift and sky open at 1005hr after a very heavy period of drizzle which sterilised the final count increment but by this time we had had enough!!

Here are the Oxenhope results:

Redwing, 15,33,47,240,326,153,6572,26,101,0, TOTAL 862, W
Skylark, 0,0,1,00,0,0,00,0,0,0 TOTAL 1, S
Chaffinch, 0,0,6,00,4,0,40,0,18,0 TOTAL 23, S
Fieldfare, 0,0,0,00,46,6,30,21,0,0 TOTAL 76, W
BH Gull, 0,0,0,00,1,0,00,0,0,0 TOTAL 1, S
Meadow Pipit, 0,0,0,00,0,0,30,0,3,0 TOTAL 6, S
Goldfinch, 0,0,0,00,0,0,60,0,0,0, TOTAL 6, S
Starling, 0,0,0,00,0,0,041,125,220,0, TOTAL 386, W
Greenfinch, 0,0,0,00,0,0,07,0,0,0, TOTAL 7, S
Alba Wagtail, 0,0,0,00,0,0,01,0,0,0, TOTAL 1, S
Carrion Crow, 0,0,0,00,0,0,00,1,1,0 TOTAL 2, E

Total birds: 1371
Total species: 11

COMMENT:
A very poor morning here in relation to the past days recorded.

Dave


Post sunrise... looking east below the stratus (c) 2008

Low stratus and drizzle..... Coombe Cross col at cloudbase level.. looking NW (c) 2008

Low Stratus base at 1300ft asl (c) 2008