Pennine Skywatch: 21 Sept 2010

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Oxenhope... wild skies! 21-09-2010

Oxenhope, Bradford (W Yorks, England)
Tuesday 21 September 2010
Counting period: 6:25-11:40
Weather: CALM-SSE-SW F2, 11-18degC, 100m - 30km, 4/8 shallow fog banks, QNH 1017 rising
Observers: Dave Barker, Howard Creber, Rodney Procter

Moving birds;
Greylag Goose 3 -
Collared Dove 6 -
Magpie 11 -
Shelduck - 3
Skylark 3 -
Jackdaw 19 -
Sparrowhawk 3 -
Swallow 3093 -
Starling 10 -
Kestrel 3 -
House Martin 16 -
Chaffinch 224 -
Brambling 5-
Ringed Plover 2 -
Meadow Pipit 2877 -
Greenfinch 51 -
Lapwing 22 -
alba wagtail sp. 42 -
Goldfinch 60 -
Dunlin 6 -
White Wagtail 1 -
Siskin 24 -
Common Snipe 8 -
Stonechat 1 -
Linnet 138 -
Black-headed Gull 230 -
Wheatear 1 -
Lesser Redpoll 4 -
Lesser Black-backed Gull 450 -
Song Thrush 1 -
Reed Bunting 4 -
Woodpigeon 33 -
Mistle Thrush 40 -
Red Admiral 4 -

Totals: 7393 individuals, 33 species, 5:15 hours

Comments: Broken sky in the early part of last night, then open from midnight rigt through to early pm when cloud over drew from the southeast. Massive shallow fog banks prevailing fromn c 30min after sunrise for about an hour. Calm initially then light southwesterly from mid morning and QNH rising all the time. A phenomenal morning with movement right from the off nodoubt a partial product of the widespread fogbanks. Mipits were the main movers during the first part of the morning, even during the hour of fog we could hear them going over the top in masses, but could see or count NONE so the mip total in this respect is a massive under representation as the peak period of movement was obscured. The mip movement was broad front high mainly south but some weaker westerly movement as well... and streaming up the valleys in addition. Movement kept going all morning and into the afternoon as well albeit ata much reduced rate! Swallows were terriffic, same as mips but not starting till much later, broad front high and very high, streaming up the vallies and along the ridge as well... these ridge movers were coming up and breasting the embankment fight into our faces and on south almost beneath the trypod legs... a terriffic experience which we will all cherrish for ever! Chaffinch were for the time of year exceedingly strong, all going west as expected in the early season but definately not in these numbers! A flock of six Collared doves went high east... not sure I have ever seen such a flock on the move before? A small group of five Brambling took us unawares until we heard calls over head... the group spead through SW a direction not normally prominent here! Many more House Martins were heard during the foggy hour than could be counted ad it was thought that big numbers were going over head. The waders all went W and NW. A train of eleven Magpies W was good and a few Red Admirals were also streaming west..... A Song Thrush passed high west... a good bird for up here on the moors as we dont normally get so many going through! The first Jackdaws of the season went west. Three Shelduck an obvious product of the improving conditions and open sky overnight were on the water at dawn... they eventually left uner pressure from a heron NW. All in all a terriffic morning with birds moving throughout that taxed even the three experienced observers to the limit!!

....................................
Counting period: 14:00-19:00
Weather: SW F2/3, 18degC, 65km, 4/8 to 8/8, QNH 1018 rising
Observers: Dave Barker

Moving birds:
Common Buzzard 2 -
Skylark 29 -
Kestrel 2 -
Swallow 32 -
Peregrine 1 -
Meadow Pipit 164 -
Common Snipe 4 -
alba wagtail sp. 6 -
Curlew 5 -
Jay 3 -
Black-headed Gull 399 -
Siskin 10 -
Lesser Black-backed Gull 96 -
Red Admiral 3 -
Herring Gull 3 -

Totals: 759 individuals, 15 species, 5:00 hours

Comments: The lunch time BOP slot produced a couple of Buzzards W. Three Jays also passed in this direction... mips were slowing down and Swallows had virtually stopped.

Dave, Howard and Rodney

Hunter Hill, Calderdale... 21-09-2010

Cold Edge, Halifax (W Yorks, England)
Tuesday 21 September 2010
Counting period: 7:45-10:45
Weather: Watchpoint at Hunter Hill covered in hill fog clearing by 08:15 but surrounding hills still misty with good visibility all around by 09:15. 12c rising to 15c with wind SW F0 rising to F2/F3
Observers: David Sutcliffe

Moving birds:
Cormorant 4 -
Swallow 124 -
Chaffinch 14 2
Greylag Goose - 1
Meadow Pipit 621 -
Greenfinch 2 -
Black-headed Gull 8 -
alba wagtail sp. 4 -
Goldfinch 14 -
Lesser Black-backed Gull 4 -
Mistle Thrush 1 + 3
Siskin 2 -
Woodpigeon 4 -
Rook 1 -
Linnet 15 -
Great Spotted Woodpecker - 1
Raven 1 -
Lapland Bunting 1 -
Skylark 7 + 2
Starling 3 -

Totals: 839 individuals, 20 species, 3:00 hours

Present: Grey Heron 1, Sparrowhawk 1, Kestrel 3, Stock Dove 6, Little Owl 2, Green Woodpecker 2, Swallow 30, Great Tit 1, Jay 2, Magpie 6, Jackdaw 24, Carrion Crow 8

Comments: A wonderful morning after the mist had cleared from the watch point. A Lapland Bunting was the highlight which was heard calling from the west and fortunately for me came more or less directly overhead and headed >SE towards Swales Moor at 08:20. As the mist started to clear the migrants were coming over really high and were difficult to pick out. As the skies cleared they came through at a lower elevation with lots of Meadow Pipits the main movers as follows 1st hr - 121, 2nd hr 321, 3rd hr 179. Swallows (124) did not start coming through until the first one at 09:10. 4 Cormorants >W at 10:27 came from Soil Hill direction.

David Sutcliffe

Stainburn Moor, Harrogate... 21-09-2010

Stainburn Moor, Harrogate (N Yorks, England)
Tuesday 21 September 2010
Counting period: 7:10-11:35
Weather: Hazy - trying to be foggy first thing but failing- thank goodnese. 2/8 cloud, 6/8 later. Wind 0 at forst F1 sse later. Mild.
Observers: A Hanby

Moving birds:
Sparrowhawk 3 -
Tree Pipit 2 -
Raven 2 -
Golden Plover 227 -
Meadow Pipit 981 -
Tree Sparrow 3 -
Lapwing 67 -
Grey Wagtail 2 -
Chaffinch 78 -
Common Snipe 7 -
alba wagtail sp. 24 -
finch sp. 23 -
Black-headed Gull 4 -
Dunnock 3 -
Greenfinch 12 -
Common Gull 17 -
Mistle Thrush 4 -
Goldfinch 57 -
Lesser Black-backed Gull - 2
Chiffchaff 3 -
Siskin 3 -
Collared Dove 1 -
Goldcrest 17 -
Linnet 92 -
Great Spotted Woodpecker 1 -
Coal Tit 29 -
redpoll sp. 3 -
Skylark 53 -
Blue Tit 27 -
Yellowhammer 1 -
Sand Martin 1 -
Great Tit 33 -
Reed Bunting 1 -
Swallow 959 -
Tree Creeper 1 -
House Martin 88 -
Magpie 9 -

Totals: 2840 individuals, 37 species, 4:25 hours

Present: Red Kite 11, Common Buzzard 22, Kestrel 4, Golden Plover 25, Curlew 1, Stock Dove 8, Woodpigeon 25, alba wagtail sp. 2, Whinchat 1, Wheatear 1, Blackbird 1, Blackcap 1, Starling 700

Comments: A very interesting and busy morning; local rarities but no regional grippers, but a lot of interesting goings on. Of particular interest were movements down the hedge West. By far and away the biggest move of the autumn so far here. Two kettles of Buzzards 10 to South and 12 to the North probably represented moving birds but went up so high and took so long I couldn't work out which way they went inthe ned so put as 'around'. Swallows stormed through ( 959) mainly after 10 then stopped by 11 15- I didn't cotton on to them at first and probably missed a load as a lot were very high up. House Martins on 88 were probably even more under counted as they were relatively high even compared to the Swallows. Two tree Pipits, both invisible buzzed over in the general mayhem and its fair to say I did my forst 'Wrynecking. of the autumn, spinning n the spot like a drunken ballerina at times! Meadow Pipits were 'middle of the road' on 981- but at their peak visibility was quite poor so many others would have passed ( stating the obvious I know!). Only 3 Dunnocks were detected moving but first thing the hedge was alive with their calls, but sadly most cleared of undetected/counted. As indicted the hedge was stunning today with 29 Coal Tits, 27 Blue tits and 33 Great tits heading west down the course of the morning. Some of the coal tits flew along the line of the hedge rather than landing on it at any point. Added to this were 17 Goldcrest!, three Chiff and- the cherry, a Treecreeper zipping past the gap. Two Ravens gave a noisy flypast west early on; the first of the autumn as was the single Yellowhammer. All in all a cracking good morning- but the best is still to come im sure.

Andy

Caldene Fields, Low Moor... 21-09-2010

Caldene Fields, Bradford (W Yorks, England)
Tuesday 21 September 2010
Counting period: 6:45-9:15
Weather: Dry with fog creating visibility from 100 yds pre dawn to beyond 15miles. No wind of note, mild 11c 100% cloud clearing from the E with full sun around 08.00.
Observers: Martyn Priestley

Moving birds:
Grey Heron - 1
Meadow Pipit 247 -
Starling - 6
Mallard - 5
Grey Wagtail - 1
Chaffinch 9 -
Black-headed Gull 27 -
alba wagtail sp. 2 + 19
finch sp. 10 -
Common Gull 1 -
Mistle Thrush - 3
Greenfinch 2 + 37
Woodpigeon 27 -
Jay 2 -
Goldfinch 134 -
Collared Dove 1 -
Jackdaw 16 -
Swallow - 8
Carrion Crow 16 -

Totals: 574 individuals, 19 species, 2:30 hours

Comments: : A good day but missed a lot due to heavy low fog and bright sunshine above creating very poor viewing conditions to the E. So most of my observations were to the W over Low Moor and Wibsey and plenty of birds were moving. Mipits start to move in reasonable numbers here from the third week of Sept and today saw a 3 figure count moving but I suspect many were missed due to some flying very high and Goldfinch which were seen ‘tree hopping before moving W, Wagtails and Corvids were also moving. The highlight for me today was 2 Jays which were picked up coming in W over Low Moor and were tracked veering S and out of sight over Heckmondwike a distance of over 15 miles.

Martyn