Oxenhope... contrail vis 19-09-2009

Lucky to get any this morning as 8ok skies prevailed until later morning and when they did break, the open sky became very milky before cirrostratus moved in from the west. By lunch time 8ok again....

Air Canada overhead going NNW (c) 2009


British Midland overhead again going NNW (c) 2009

Dave and Howard

Scar House Reservoir.. a return to old haunts 19-09-2009

0710-11:30 AMH, RB
Wind light and variable, poor vis till about 0900 then some sunny spells.

Forgot what a lovely place this is- and was duly reminded. peaceful with no car sounds audible at all for the first hour and the low cloud drifting against Little Whernside adding to the atmosphere- in this case actually as well as figuratively.

Sadly the SW winds shown on several forecasts failed to appear in a timely fashion- but, despite this there was enough to keep the interest up, with 4 male Ring Ouzels in a flock of 44 Mistle Thrushes 'U-turning' at the Dam a highlight. This valley runs NE to SW with the trees ending at the Dam to the N. In these conditions a lot of birds 'bottle out' and 'U-turn'.

Meadow Pipit- movement a mix of SW through to SE but S being the common denominator: 170

Song Thrush ( first time in the book this autumn): 6W
Mistle Thrush 4SW and 44 U turned
Ring Ouzel 4 U turned plus 2 on Crags
Chaffinch 15W
Goldfinch 64SW
Alba Wag 12 S and permutations of S plus 1 about
Grey Wag 3S
Collared Dove 2SW
Linnet 8SW
Jackdaw 6- one flock U turned
Stack Dove 5- 1 flock u- turned
Blue Tit 5SW
Coal Tit 1SW
Siskin 3SW
Sparrow hawk 1SW, 1 about
Swallow c45- with at least 15W
Hmartin 8S
Cormorant 4 SW
Red Kite 1SW
Buzzard 1 about
Goldcrest 1 SW

Andy Hanby

Last weekend at Stainburn... a dismal time!

the theme--- increasing decine with the onset of Easterlies!

11/9/9 AMH

A morning look at Stainburn- 0705-0805

Curlew 1NE
Goose Sp 19S- almost certainly Greylags
Pink Footed Goose 53WSW (0750hrs)
Snipe 7 W ( a quick look in the evening had 12 of these arrive from the N and E)
Meadow Pipit 247 S
Alba Wag 6W

................................................................................
12/9/9 Thrusscross 0620-0830 AMH

Meadow Pipit 69S
Chaffinch 38W
Siskin 17N
Starling 15W
Lapwing 5W
Alba wag 3N
..................................................................................
Stainburn 0800- 0945 JB plus AMH after 0900

Chaffinch 2S
Meadow Pipit 73SW
Greylag 3S
LBBG 2W
Alba 6S

also 2 wheatear about
.................................................................................

13/9/9 Stainburn 0750- 1000 JB and AMH A disheartening and dismal day with perhaps swallows the only convincing bulk migrant and then on an economy scale!

Grey Wag 2S
Meadow Pipit 8s, 7N- gave up on those!
Siskin 2SW
Chaffinch 8SW
Cormorant, 2N, 2S,1E
G Heron 1E
Swallow 38N

Andy and John

Oxenhope... col conditions produce! 19-09-2009

Sunrise... illumianted cloud tops over the North Sea! (c) 2009


Fogs in the Vallies.... looking north (c) 2009


Fingers of Fog penetrating the high moors... looking NW (c) 2009

Altocumulus lenticularis.... mid morning looking north (c) 2009

0640 - 1105hr Dave Barker Howard Creber

SF 1 / calm initially rising S F3 by 1030, 10degC at 0600, 100km + initially reducing 5 then increasing 25, 8/8 becoming 4/8 stratus - stratocumulus - lenticularis, QNH 1016 falling.

Transitional weather yet again producing the goods with ideallic conditions in the hills both to be out in and also to induce movement.... inversion mist in the vallies but up here fantastically clear with a brilliant but short lived sunrise over the North Sea. An 8ok sky initially made the birds very easy to see... most were going high but well within unaided vision range above 1280ft asl. Mipits were coming strong in loose flocks of up to 75. Most interestingly the considerable initial surge was again moving E, and SE but the flow soon became south or just east of south and remained so for the rest of the morning. Most of the mipit movement was prior to 0810 when things slackend off a bit only to resurge later in the morning with more birds moving south out of the Worth Basin than could be noted out to our east. Albas were noteable with a high count today of 43, the maximum flock size being 10 and mostly going SW. Chaffinch also going exceptionally strong with a total count of 89!! with max party 14. A Merlin powered south in level batting flight at 0710 and Crows also on the move but much later in the morning with Jays, the first Jackdaws and a Magpie all passind through and away. Jackdaws and Magpie were going west and Jays south west and south! Peak count of Mistle Thrush to date with 24 total in dribs and drabs mainly west.

Moving birds in order of appearance:

Meadow Pipit 1348 > E, SE and S

alba wagtail 43 > SW and W

Merlin 1 > S

Goldfinch 23 > SE

Chaffinch 89 > S and W

Swallow 59 > S

Reed Bunting 1 > W

LBB Gull 31 S and N

BH Gull 493 > mainly south

Mistle Thrush 24 > mainly W

Linnet 12 > SE

Wheatear 1 > SW

Snipe 1 > W

Tree Pipit 2 > SW

Stonechat 3 > S

Jackdaw 4 > W

Magpie 1 > W

Jay 8 > W and S

Skylark 1 > W

Starling 3 > S

Red Admiral 3 > SE

Peacock (butterfly ) 1 > SE

House Martin 5 > s

Greenfinch 10 > S

Dave