Caldene Fields, Low Moor... 11-10-2009

Caldene Fields S Bradford

11th of October 2009 Watch 07.00 –10.00
Weather: A very mixed weather today with a damp start, temp of 8c and a F1 W wind. Clear skies to the E with high thick cloud coming in from the W. Around 07.45 there were intermittent showers followed by low mist and cloud giving 80% cloud cover. Around 08.30 the skies cleared to around 30% only to return to showers and low cloud around 09,00. Visibility ranged from 5 to 10 miles.

Comments: What a morning!, it had everything from a late Swallow to an excellent movements of Starling and Redwing which moved for most of the watch fairly high to the W/S/W. A squadron of 150 Starling moving S/W which nearly knocked me over! they were that low... and a Skylark, sadly a passage rarity here flew E, Greenfinch again moved and a slight increase in Chaffinch was noted. 2 Brambling moving W at around 08.30 probably brought in by the same weather system as the Redwings etc was an excellent highlight!

I feel that I missed half of the ` Golden hour ` this morning due to poor visibility and many birds were probably missed

Moving Birds:

Mallard > 4 W
Black Headed Gull > 12 W + 22 S/S/W = 34
Common Gull > 5 S
LBB Gull > 3 S
Wood Pigeon > 22 S/S/W
Meadow Pipit 8 S
Alba Wagtail > 4 W + 6 S = 10
Swallow > 1 W
Starling > 241 S/W
Redwing > 669 W/S/W
Carrion Crow > W 7 + 6 = 13
Jackdaw > 9 S/W
Skylark > 1 E
Chaffinch > 15 S/W
Greenfinch > 98 W/S/W
Brambling > 2 W
Goldfinch > 13 S + 1 E = 14
Siskin > 1 W

300+ Golden Plover were observed at their normal feeding area N of Caldene Fields
A party of 12 unidentified Ducks flew N

Martyn Priestley