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BACK TO THE MANCHESTER BIRDING WEBSITE HOMEPAGE -> Manchester Birding Forum -> GENERAL BIRDING DISCUSSION -> VISIBLE MIGRATION IN GREATER MANCHESTER (GM VisMig)
Post Info TOPIC: VISIBLE MIGRATION IN GREATER MANCHESTER (GM VisMig)
dave broome


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RE: VISIBLE MIGRATION IN GREATER MANCHESTER (GM VisMig)
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Ian McKerchar wrote:

Originally posted today by Dave Sanderson:

Very envious of the Horwich Moor Vis Mig totals. I live in Saddleworth and have tried vis migging a couple of times recently from Alderman's Hill but very little seen. All advice on when to watch and whether I can improve on my local location much appreciated.




Hi Dave
On the face of it, Aldermans Hill looks like it ought to be a decent enough location for vis-mig. Can well imagine birds on the move filtering through the north-south section of the Greenfield Valley on the east side of the hill. I suppose it may be affected by what routes they tend to take approaching there. Maybe movement there occurs on more of a wide front as opposed to the Horwich Moors on the western flank of the Pennines?
There can be quiet days at the best of vis-mig locations, so dont get disheartened.
I have looked at OS maps and pondered what locations might be decent around Greater Manchester. I wondered whether the slopes between Alphin Pike and Noonsun Hill might be decent, as migration might get filtered in to the Tame Valley.
Keep at it! It will pay off


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Rob Creek


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Dave...
Horwich Moors is one of, if not the, best site in the North West for VisMig, some of the numbers that the dedicated patchers have up there are crazy. Just about anything could well pass over those Moors!

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Ian McKerchar


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Originally posted today by Dave Sanderson:

Very envious of the Horwich Moor Vis Mig totals. I live in Saddleworth and have tried vis migging a couple of times recently from Alderman's Hill but very little seen. All advice on when to watch and whether I can improve on my local location much appreciated.



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Craig Higson


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Simon Warford wrote:

Craig, 2,300 grounded Redwings at Spurn today, but other inland sites recorded many more fresh in and straight through heading rapidly south-west or north-west.

I have been out in the garden tonight and Redwing calls phenomenal, at least 5-7 calls per minute and these are probably calls within small flocks of birds, also Song Thrushes being heard overhead. Other sites reporting over 700 calls per hour this evening with proper listening equipment, theres going to be alot of Redwings around in the next few days! biggrin

-- Edited by Simon Warford on Tuesday 14th of October 2014 10:09:41 PM




It wasn't the redwings in impressive numbers but the Goldcrests. This was my second experience of a goldcrest fall and its amazing. Full post on the Yorks sub forum.

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Simon Johnson


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Only 22 off your predicted 50 yesterday! Not bad going! wink

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David Walsh


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I've spent several rain, or in yesterday's case, wind-battered days over the past month tramping around the top of Brushes Valley and Lees Hill in the vain hope of seeing Ouzels on the return journey, with the only sign of any migration being 6 Willow Warblers on Sunday!!

It will be nice for Simon and Andy if there are 50 on Winter Hill today, but there will be much teeth grinding in Stalybridge. I can't get up again until Sunday, so I'll never know if any fall in. How much is a return to Dungeness? no

-- Edited by David Walsh on Wednesday 15th of October 2014 06:29:59 AM

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Ian McKerchar


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With 26 on Bardsey too, who's to say how many have slipped through the inland Spurn of the North West, or hopefully how many more will be waiting tomorrow biggrin

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Simon Warford


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Quite remarkable that Ian, does that mean they'll be 50 on Winter Hill tomorrow? biggrin

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Ian McKerchar


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Despite thousands of migrating Redwing being an amazing and evocative sight (or indeed sound), they all paled by comparison for me, to the frankly remarkable 500 Ring Ouzel at Dungeness today, not to mention the 250 at St.Margaret's Bay!

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Simon Warford


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Craig, 2,300 grounded Redwings at Spurn today, but other inland sites recorded many more fresh in and straight through heading rapidly south-west or north-west.

I have been out in the garden tonight and Redwing calls phenomenal, at least 5-7 calls per minute and these are probably calls within small flocks of birds, also Song Thrushes being heard overhead. Other sites reporting over 700 calls per hour this evening with proper listening equipment, theres going to be alot of Redwings around in the next few days! biggrin

-- Edited by Simon Warford on Tuesday 14th of October 2014 10:09:41 PM

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Craig Higson


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Simon Warford wrote:

First significant arrivals of Redwings into the East coast today and thousands arriving into Holland from late morning today.




That's encouraging. I'm off to Spurn for a few days on Weds so hoping it coincides with a nice fall of birds and this sounds promising.

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Simon Warford


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First significant arrivals of Redwings into the East coast today and thousands arriving into Holland from late morning today.

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Craig Higson


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Haha. Nothing as 'secretive' as that Nick. It was some info re-tweeted by the BTO. Unfortunately it was just a screenshot/photo with no web address!

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Nick Isherwood


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Craig Higson wrote:

I'd guess a combination Simon. Certainly there were reports of birds washed up along the beach at Spurn when I was there a couple of days ago. But, interestingly, Dutch radar recorded a movement of birds leaving Holland on the night of 25th, even bigger than the movement on the 21st. With the winds being NNE chances are many of those will be or should have arrived in Norfolk, unless they just headed south into France of course.




How did you access the info from Dutch radar? Is there a website for this or do you have 'contacts'?

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Craig Higson


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I'd guess a combination Simon. Certainly there were reports of birds washed up along the beach at Spurn when I was there a couple of days ago. But, interestingly, Dutch radar recorded a movement of birds leaving Holland on the night of 25th, even bigger than the movement on the 21st. With the winds being NNE chances are many of those will be or should have arrived in Norfolk, unless they just headed south into France of course.

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Nick Isherwood


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Some interesting points there Simon.

I'd guess the answer could be a mixture of the factors you describe. I'm no expert but I would have thought the weather would perhaps be the main contributing factor.

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Simon Warford


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So with only about three weeks left of what's been a fairly poor Visible Migration period so far this Autumn, what could be causing the low numbers of birds this year?

- Has this year's freak weather had an effect on breeding birds? Birds such as Meadow Pipits well down on last year at many sites across the UK as well as through Gtr Manchester.
- Have most birds avoided the UK and headed through the Low Countries? Well possible as some sites in Holland have recorded over a million birds this month alone so maybe.
- Are birds just late migrating this year?
- Maybe one slight contributing factor is following several days of extreme sea fog earlier this week and huge falls of birds all along the east coast, numerous reports of many passerines ditching in the sea as a result of the weather, presumably lost at sea with not enough fat reserves to make it across the North Sea. Lobster Boats off Dorset reported many passerines dropping into the sea all around them with many actually landing on their boats, while they managed to "scoop" out several robins and thrushes (mainly Song Thrush and Blackbird) and dry them out in cardboard boxes one wonders how many didn't make it. Also many reports of passerines, mainly thrushes, washed up along the Norfolk coast this last week suggests the situation was quite bad but one of the hazards of migrating across a large water body.

Whatever the reasons or causing factors we're currently c50,000 birds down on this time last year.








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Simon Johnson


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Not been a post in here for a while....so to just to get peoples attention -

Might be worth keeping any eye out for flocks of Redwings and Fieldfares on migration as a good arrival on the coast yesterday and this time of year should be passing over on migration.

If the weather is be as forecast this weekend then big flocks of Woodpigeons and Starlings could also be on the move as it gets coulder and should be another wave of Pinkfeet.

keep an eye on the sky

-- Edited by Simon Johnson on Tuesday 23rd of October 2012 05:40:43 PM

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Henry Cook


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Simon Warford wrote:

Henry, we had a migrant hawker on top of Winter Hill, is this a decent record? Also significant numbers of butterflies moving through south.

-- Edited by Simon Warford on Saturday 22nd of September 2012 03:40:46 PM



They are locally established in GM but it's not often you get to see Migrant Hawkers actually migrating. Nice to see.

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Simon Warford


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Not sure if it was Steve Christmas ringing hirrundines on the moor today?? From where we we're watching (me, Riggers & Karen) it looked like more hirrundines were landing in the net than you could extract?! I'd be interested to know how many you had and how many you thought we're on the moor today?

Cheers, Simon

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Henry Cook


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A decent movement of stuff over Hale Barns (far south of GM) this morning including 12 Buzzards all through within a few minutes, plus numbers of Mipits and Swallows.

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Simon Warford


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A quite remarkable movement of mainly Swallows, House Martins, Meadow Pipits over Winter Hill and our first Hen Harrier of the autumn which Riggers and Karen jammed in on! Merlins and Sparrowhawks attacking migrating pipits, fantastic day so far only just packed up! Full details to follow later but day count of Swallows probably surpasses any previous counts recorded in Gtr Man.

Henry, we had a migrant hawker on top of Winter Hill, is this a decent record? Also significant numbers of butterflies moving through south.

-- Edited by Simon Warford on Saturday 22nd of September 2012 03:40:46 PM

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Simon Warford


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With the promise of sunny weather and good visibility tomorrow should hopefully be a good day for Visible Migration watching especially as its now peak time for Swallow and Meadow Pipit migration. Why not give it a go you just might get something unusual ?

-- Edited by Simon Warford on Friday 21st of September 2012 07:38:46 PM

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Simon Johnson


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Yep they are starting

400+ Over heaton Park yesterday and 50+ over the house this morning, next 2 weeks is normally peak time depending on weather

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Nick Isherwood


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A good push of Meadow Pipits over Highfield Moss this morning with 74 in just over an hour.

This drop in temperature will have spurned them on to making the move.

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Simon Johnson


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Thought i would try get this thread going again as Autumn Migration is now starting to hot up (shown by a Gannet over Winter Hill today)

There already has been big movements of Pipits and Siskins in the North and we should get a big push in the next few weeks of Meadow Pipits, Hirundines, Finches etc moving further south.

Worth keeping an eye to the sky now.

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Paul A Brown


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Come july we should get post juvenile dispersion and fingers crossed those male and some female waders will be moving back south

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Nick Isherwood


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With the way things are going migration is going to last well into June and July.

Saying that though, I wouldn't mind betting that when the weather turns favourably we'll get a massive surge.

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Tony Coatsworth


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Article in today's Observer about radio-tagged Cuckoos.

They are still in Spain and Italy and were due back here this week.

We need a decent run of southerlies I think

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Henry Cook


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Might be something to do with near constant northerlies for the last week or two. It's been a trickle here too in the south of the county but slowly most of the common warblers are returning bar Whitethroats.

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Craig Higson


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Simon Johnson wrote:

Are other folk noticing a lack of migration at the moment.

Hirundine numbers seem to be low fo this time of year, a few warblers are now making thier abscene known for the time of year and just seems to be birdless skys (mind this could just be Bury)

Whats going on? is it the weather thats holding them up or has something happened in the wintering grounds?




Indeed - we were discussing the same yesterday morning at Pennington. The migrants that have arrived have, like Nick says above, just trickled in.

On the flip side I noticed a Song Thrush feeding a fledged chick this morning which struck me as being quite early. The mild period just before easter probably encouraged a bit of action from the residents.

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Mike hirst


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There was a report in todays express that the weather on the continent has slowed the migration into this country. The weather in Spain is so bad the swallows are more or less grounded.

Mike

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Simon Johnson


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Are other folk noticing a lack of migration at the moment.

Hirundine numbers seem to be low fo this time of year, a few warblers are now making thier abscene known for the time of year and just seems to be birdless skys (mind this could just be Bury)

Whats going on? is it the weather thats holding them up or has something happened in the wintering grounds?

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Nick Isherwood


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I hope so. There's been very little bird passage over my local patch lately.

I don't know about 'Spring has sprung'. More like spring has trickled.

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Rob Thorpe


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Probably more out of hope than expectation, but weather forecast for tomorrow morning looks decent for a bit of passage.

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Simon Warford


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Rob, I think you're exactly right and its not unusual at all for birds to migrate into a headwind and for migration to last a large portion of the day. Just look at all the Ospreys that came through the north-west yesterday flying into the strong north-easterly wind. I checked on the Vis Mig national sightings and many sites recorded good northerly movements of both linnets and meadow pipits yesterday. This is a really interesting topic as you would think it would be counterproductive for birds to migrate into a headwind but that is not the case. Flying into a headwind is actually a great energy saver because of the way a birds wing is designed. The height they fly will also vary depending on the wind speed subject to the amount of lift they get from air flowing over the wings. On extremely calm days the birds are so high up you can barely hear them never mind see them as we have found out on Winter Hill in the last couple of years and thats at 1,500 feet. Radar studies have proved that on calm days birds migrate at a much higher altitude. We think we know a lot about bird migration but actually we know very little!

By the way I look forward to reading more about your Vis Mig exploits this autumn.

Cheers, Simon


-- Edited by Simon Warford on Wednesday 4th of April 2012 10:20:35 PM

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Rob Thorpe


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I witnessed a strange bit of probable migration this evening

The evening started off mild, with light W breeze and mainly clear sky. At this point there was no obvious movement of any species.
Then, a weather front moved in from the north, with a cold gusty N wind picking up with clouds building and a few specks of rain.
As soon as this change of weather happened, small flocks of Linnet (mainly), Goldfinch and Meadow Pipit began to fly through, fairly low to the ground, purposefully heading north (into the wind).
Maybe these birds had been moving north at higher altitude, but then dropped low to the ground due to the change of weather?
However, it did seem unusually late in the day/evening to see these species moving through. Maybe this was due to it being rainy through most of the morning/day?
This is all guess-work by the way

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Henry Cook


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Good idea for a thread Ian.

Meadow Pipit movement just starting to pick up in the far south of the county over the last couple of days, generally heading in a northerly direction. Eleven birds in an hour this morning, over in ones and twos. Numbers should pick up over the next few weeks.

My working theory for why Meadow Pipits (and other migrants for that matter) pass through, or fly over, this site in decent numbers (where the Cheshire plain meets the GM urban fringe), is that they filter up what effectively is a green wedge of open land preferring to have some green habitat beneath where they could ditch down if forced to for whatever reason (predators/weather). Where they go after reaching the Mersey corridor I don't know. Carrying on over the city center or taking a wide route around; flying up or downstream on the whole? Can any Chorlton/Sale patchers elaborate?

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Ian McKerchar


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With the excellent increase in visible migration watching over the skies of Greater Manchester, this thread has been started to discuss all aspects of VisMig in GM. It is not however for the posting of actual sightings as they should be placed in the relevant site thread as usual. Instead feel free to post about VisMig weather, passage, locations, directions etc etc.

I have no doubt this exciting aspect of county birding will reveal plenty of new information about the status of county species in the future (it has done already) so please don't forget to submit your sightings formally to me so we (the Greater Manchester Bird Recording Group) can assimilate this information and utilise it.

-- Edited by Ian McKerchar on Saturday 17th of March 2012 02:26:09 PM

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