starlings take off!!... 2011-10-14

 Pre sunrise thrush watch.... (c) 2011

Massive mobile fog banks.... (c) 2011

Oxenhope, Bradford (W Yorks, England)
Friday 14 October 2011
Counting period: 6:30-15:00
Weather: wind South3, cloud-cover 7/8, precipitation drizzle, visibility 30000m, CALM increasing S F4, 9ok reducing, some drizzle, 300m to 30km, QNH 1030 falling
Observers: Dave Barker, Howard Creber, Lester Ward.

Cormorant 1 -
Woodpigeon 12 -
Jackdaw 133 -
Greylag Goose 10 -
Skylark 16 -
Starling - 883
Pintail 1 -
Swallow 7 -
Chaffinch 90 -
Sparrowhawk 2 -
House Martin 1 -
Brambling 9 -
Golden Plover 17 -
Meadow Pipit 85 -
Greenfinch 27 -
Lapwing 61 -
alba wagtail sp. 28 -
Goldfinch 25 -
Snipe 9 -
Dunnock 1 -
Siskin 31 -
Black-headed Gull 22 -
Fieldfare 1230 -
Linnet 1 -
Lesser Black-backed Gull 31 -
Redwing 3693 -
Lesser Redpoll 2 -
Herring Gull 5 -
Mistle Thrush 1 -

Totals: 6434 individuals, 29 species, 8:30 hours

Comments: On site as usual well before sunrise... and at fog top level in almost total calm, tremendous!..... near constant RW calls overhead with first visual evidence of movement between E and S but during the morning thrushes were going in all directions, all typical of second day after arrival up here. From mid morning more evidence of continuing arrival with high thrush waves from the SE but in negligable magnitude in relation to yesterday. By mid afternoon, thrush movement had almost stopped. Two more important things today though, the first big surge of continental Starlings combined with the first obvious Jackdaw passage. A single flock of Brambling passed west. Redwing movement by call in the evening after dark was almost absent relative to last night, all suggesting that this migration had just about ceased.

Dave