With dense fog and heavy rain throughout the day, up here in the Gods, birding had to be cancelled.
With a mega Vis Mig moving day yesterday, dominated with Redwings I,ve put together Redwing counts recorded by local vis miggers. Other than Redwing, several other species were recorded from various sites including good numbers of Fieldfare, Woodpigeon etc as well as Pink Footed Geese plus 2 sites recorded Whooper Swans.
The Redwing count is as follows :-
AC at Cock Hill....................11,492
Dan B at Soil Hill.................12,696
HC at Sentry Hill..................8,160
DJS at Hunter Hill.................6,500 + some mixed Redwing/Fieldfare flocks pm at Ogden
BS at Foxhill.........................8,200
MP at Low Moor..................4,017
SJ at Bury, Gt Manchester....24,464 am + 9,602 pm
Anglers C.P...........................22,000
A total of 107,135 Redwings passed over, mostly >SW, no doubt a great number of birds missed due to low cloud, the height of the birds, and the overwhelming task of counting such numbers.
As DJ Prest remarked, over 200,000 Redwings must have passed through the area, probably even more.
A special thanks to HC keeping the long established Oxenhope watch point going. Howard Creber, Dave Barker and myself started watching from there in 1988 and though Howard and his wife are having health problems he is keeping the watch going like the true dedicated birder he has always been.
Howard called me today to report Fieldfare and Redwing still moving over his home in Haworth which is below the cloud base, they pay more rates in Haworth!
Big numbers of Fieldfare and Woodpigs yet to come.
BS