For days the forecast/weather charts had looked epic, especially after a seemingly endless run this autumn of low pressure and Westerlies. A high pressure system finally moved East into Scandanavia and the Continent overnight, and today the Easterlies duly delivered.
There was a big arrival of Thrushes with a lot of flocks coming through very high in the still conditions and as the cloud base lifted, (14) Crossbill, and the first Snipe and Stonechat on the patch this Autumn. A good arrival but Thrushes were perhaps not in the hoped for numbers, possibly due to the fact that even though there was a window of broken skies overhead first thing, the surrounding low cloud, poor vis and general 'clag' seemed to supress a lot of migration further out early on.
As it warmed up and the cloud lifted a couple of Red Admiral were also seen actively migrating with one picked out circling up to a hundred feet or so before heading off SW, the other more typically tazzing through SW at knee top level! (N.b 3 Red Admiral also seen heading SW at Black Bank, Staffs today)
Visible Migration :-
1 Common Snipe ➝W (then dropped in)
1♂ Stonechat
14 Crossbill ➝S
560 Redwing ➝S/SW
250 Fieldfare ➝S/SW
6 Song Thrush (2➝N) (1➝SW) (1➝E) (2 in)
41 Meadow Pipit (36➝S/SW)
22 alba Wagtail ➝S/SW
9 Swallow ➝S
20 Siskin (8➝N) (11➝S/SW/SE)
6 Goldfinch ➝S
1 Redpoll sp ➝E
7 Bullfinch (5➝SE) (2➝N)
1 Raven ➝E/SE
1 Grey Heron ➝SW
3 Herring Gull (2➝W) (1➝N)
2 Red Admiral ➝SW
Pre-dawn, first light and broken skies above, but surrounding ominous clag!
13/10/11 Some of today's visible migrants, Redwing, Fieldfare, Siskin and Red Admiral!
Stonechat 13/10/11
1 comment:
Great vis-mig counts there Craig...lots of movment. I'm rather envious of the Stonechat. I haven't had one on my patch since Autumn 2009
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