Sunday, October 24, 2010

Oxenhope.... pig "mania" 24-10-2010


Pre sunrise!... (c) 2010


Pre sunrise... big and dusky blue!!!... (c) 2010


Rapidly developing cu > cb.... c150 miles NE of Newcastle out to sea!!... (c) 2010



Cunim way out E over the North Sea



Tremendous morning skies!!...NE... (c) 2010


Tremendous morning skies!!!...E... (c) 2010


Just BIG Blue and open!!... (c) 2010


Afternoon.... up there!... (c) 2010


Just TERRIFIC!..... (c) 2010


Sunset and almost the end!... (c) 2010


The End to a Perfect Day.... A Waxwing Moon!! (c) 2010

Sorry just swamped out with birds today.... details to follow!
Lots of bird shots today as well, but the real holistic sky takes pride of place!!


Oxenhope, Bradford (W Yorks, England)
Sunday 24 October 2010
Counting period: 7:20-13:50
Weather: NW F2, -1degC frost, 65km, 0/8, QNH 1012
Observers: Dave Barker, Howard Creber, Brian Vickers

Moving birds:
Whooper Swan 3 -
Stock Dove 5 -
Raven 2 -
Pink-footed Goose 41 -
Woodpigeon 3048 -
Starling - 69
Canada Goose - 6
Skylark 3 -
Chaffinch 6 -
Goosander - 32
Meadow Pipit 10 -
Brambling 32 -
Sparrowhawk 1 -
alba wagtail sp. 5 -
finch sp. 42 -
Merlin 1 -
Fieldfare - 4665
Greenfinch 30 -
Peregrine 1 -
Redwing - 65
Goldfinch 8 -
Lapwing 19 -
Jackdaw 25 -
Siskin 28 -
Common Snipe 6 -
Carrion Crow - 1
Reed Bunting 4 -

Totals: 8158 individuals, 27 species, 6:30 hours

Comments: Pre Period.... Open sky overnight and through the day becoming scatterd c lunchtime before lunchtime before clearing again. Wind from a northerely qtr with QNH rising strongly all day. A hard frost initially with many cunim's seen out over the North Sea, some beyond 200 - 300 mile range and especially NE of Newcastle way out. A check on the rainfall radar confimed this and also that whilst many scattered cumim's out the that passage was essentially clear right down the east coast with big gaps between... Woodpigons and thrushes were on the move before sunrise today... thus scuppering the regular sunrise snap which in any case was a clear colourless big blue sky job... shrouded by the anvils out to sea!; ..... Period One: Brilliant Woodpigeon movement south down the east Pennine flank flyway and more or less restricted to this first hour. Very high thrush flocks way up confirmed an arrival that would become much mor obvious later in the morning.; .... Period Two: Woodpigeon almost stopping but thrushes building up further...; ..... Period Three: Thrushes powering through, mainly high but dropping towards the end with a tremendous c600 flock, over the in-bye above res plateaux level, along the moor, before off the Nab and rising up mega high off NW. The first white back Goosanders of the autumn, a pure flock of five went NE.; .... Period Four: Thrushes quelling with flight level dropping but still keeping coming...; .... Period Four: Further quell of thrushes but Bramblings coming through.; .... Period Five: All migration quelled, thus decide to pack up!

...........................
Counting period: 16:15-18:30
Weather: N F2, 5degC, 65km, 0/8, QNH 1020
Observers: Dave Barker

Moving birds:
Whooper Swan 5 -
Fieldfare - 520
Waxwing 7 -

Totals: 532 individuals, 3 species, 2:15 hours

Comments: .... Period Six (late pm): Thrushes going over at home mid pm suggested that movement was picking up again, this together with news of Waxwings getting into the Pennines from this mornings massive country length influx from Norway necessitated a further visit... initially to our low watchpoint and later to the winter station... just four flocks of Fieldfare albeit very big ones up very low out of the valley from the east with nothing up in the sky at all, but a check of the wood and beyond after sunset heard trilling from the Swedish Whitebeams, with three Waxwings located in the tops and shortly after from the plantation with a further four, disturbed, all got up coalessed and off into the glowing sky, Lancashire bound!

Dave and Howard

Caldene Fields, Low Moor.... 10000 birds! 24-10-2010

Details to follow....
Caldene Fields, Bradford (W Yorks, England)
Sunday 24 October 2010
Counting period: 7:30-11:15
Weather: Dry with 20% thin cloud and a F 2/3 N/N/W wind. Slight frost 1c and excellent visibility to 30+ miles
Observers: Martyn Priestley

Moving birds;
Cormorant 2 -
Meadow Pipit - 2
Starling 241 -
Canada Goose 11 -
alba wagtail sp. 2 + 2
Chaffinch 62 -
Golden Plover - 11
Fieldfare 5805 -
Brambling 1 -
Black-headed Gull 29 -
Song Thrush - 1
Greenfinch 83 -
Common Gull 1 -
Redwing 68 -
Goldfinch 19 -
Lesser Black-backed Gull 1 -
Mistle Thrush - 7
Siskin 1 -
Woodpigeon 3749 -
Jackdaw 43 -
Skylark 2 -
Carrion Crow 6 -

Totals: 10149 individuals, 22 species, 3:45 hours

Comments: Brilliant ! with the excellent visibility a valley opened up around the Liversedge Norristhrope areas and Fieldfares were seen to pour through this area. The movement of Fieldfares though was on a broad front and a record breaking count was recorded with 89 parties observerd and also what was interesting was that many birds came in quite low. The other movers as expected with the drop in temp were Woodies which started just after dawn with the majority moving E of the watch point with 53 parties recorded. Greenfinch was again moving and but because of the rush I suspect many slipped through.

Martyn Priestley

Hunter Hill, Calderdale... 24-10-2010

Details to Follow....
Cold Edge, Halifax (W Yorks, England)
Sunday 24 October 2010
Counting period: 14:45-16:45
Weather: 7.5C with F3 northerly with high broken cloud and good visibility
Observers: David Sutcliffe

Moving birds:
Black-headed Gull 38 -
Meadow Pipit - 1
Common Gull 6 -
Fieldfare - 126
Stock Dove 2 -
Redwing - 23
Woodpigeon - 69

Totals: 265 individuals, 7 species, 2:00 hours

Present: Goldeneye 2, Partridge 3, Green Woodpecker 1, Meadow Pipit 50

Comments: Hunter Hill for 2 hrs this afternoon - still a number of thrush's moving N/W right up until 16.45.

David Sutcliffe