BBC weather warning today gives the following:- "Southwesterly severe gales will develop later on Thursday, increasing storm force for a time as they veer westerly overnight into Friday morning. Gusts of 70 to 80 mph are likely, and perhaps 90 mph across exposed locations."
I wonder if this will blow a Leach's or two in our direction??????
For those who may be interested there is a good write up on Leach's Petrel migration on http://www.deeestuary.co.uk/ - go to "site index" and then "species spotlight".
If mine doesn't work, there is a link to the Dee estuary web site on the home page of this forum kindly provided by Mr McKerchar
PS there are a couple of write-ups but I found the Oct '01 to be the best description of the migration whereas the Oct'10 write-up deals more with numbers seen over the years.
-- Edited by sid ashton on Monday 26th of October 2015 05:56:37 PM
Thursday 21 Oct last year was the day of the massive gales. I went to New Brighton but missed the Leach's which had been blown too far up the estuary only to re-emerge going back out to sea the following morning
I recall going over to New Brighton on 22nd October last year Tim; arriving just after first light I was disappointed to find only two Leach's and one Storm Petrel (European)during the morning river watch. In previous years I have seen many more birds but usually in September after strong winds.
Thursday 21 Oct last year was the day of the massive gales. I went to New Brighton but missed the Leach's which had been blown too far up the estuary only to re-emerge going back out to sea the following morning
I can't remember a single Leach's Petrel being reported from the Wirral this year. Does anyone know different, have there really been zero sightings?
Cheers John
I believe that you are correct John, none of the Wirral birders I know have heard of any Leach's sightings over there this autumn. This is probably because of the lack of north-westerly gales over September/October to drive some birds from their passage into the Irish Sea and on into the mouth of the Mersey and the north Wirral coast. So unless we get a big blow soon we probably won't see any passage birds this year since I understand that the passage is over by the end of October, and usually before.
However,it is not totally unheard of to get sightings later on. In mid-November 2006 gale-force south-westerly winds apparently blew some Leach's back north from their wintering areas into the Irish Sea so we may yet get lucky.
I see from my magic seaweed (well a website called Magicseaweed.com) that there are Force 6 north-westerly winds predicted through the top of the Irish Sea on Thursday and Friday. Does anyone think this is sufficiently stormy for some Petrels? It's a bit academic as I will not be able to get over there but I wondered if my reading of the possible conditions looked OK.
Some of the weather sites are predicting strong n.w. winds on tues after strong southerly/s.w.winds which could produce a few late Leach's Petrels in the Mersey mouth(fingers crossed)as there has been no favourable winds all autumn so farWe'll just have to wait and see if weather predictions are accurate!!
Friday afternoon, 4 hours or so threw up about 12 Leach's, a single Stormy, nice to see both "together", and a real bonos if a stunning pale phase adult Long-tailed Skua...
We'll just have to wait and see if weather predictions are accurate!!