Thursday 24 October 2013

Vis-mig on Bangor Mountain during October 2013

I've done as much patching in between course work as I can during October and over the past three weeks I've been mainly focussing my attention on Bangor Mountain. It's quite a raised location with almost 360 degree views, so a good spot for vis-mig.
As the weather for the last few days of October doesn't exactly look brilliant for vis-mig, I thought I'd summarise my highlights of the month. [Please note that counts are more extensive, but those records would be tedious to write and read!]
10th October - I started quite well into the month, but anyway, managed 5 Bullfinch, 16 Greenfinch, 24 Chaffinch,  heading South West plus my first Brambling and a Redwing heading South East + 13 Woodpigeon. This was the same day that Sandy had an astonishing count of 33,000!

11th October - What a difference a day makes! The mass arrival of winter thrushes the day prior managed to filter across to Bangor and had 4693 Redwing, 3 Fieldfare and a Song Thrush moving South East. Despite the astonishing increase in Redwings, the highlight of the day was a WHOOPER SWAN flying high south down the Menai straits which was a Welsh tick for me! 6 Brambling, 15 Chaffinch, 3 Siskin and 15 Woodpigeon, 8 Pink-footed Geese were moving too.

12th October - The mass thrush arrival peaked on the 12th with a staggering 6610 Redwing, 67 Fieldfare, 3 Song Thrush moved South East + 1 Brambling and 12 Chaffinch and 20 Woodpigeon moving South West. Also a flock of Snipe moving East was an interesting record.

13th October - Thrush numbers settled down a tad with 2326 Redwing, 18 Song Thrush, 15 Fieldfare and a big suprise juvenile RING OUZEL moving South East. 5 Bullfinch, 1 Redpoll sp, 84 Greylag Geese, 8 Goldfinch, 7 Woodpigeon, c300 Starling and a single Reed Bunting moving overhead.

15th October - Thrush numbers had dwindled to 10+ Redwing and 2 Common Crossbill, 2 Brambling, 12 Lesser Redpoll and 7 Skylark South West.

16th October - Morning was spent ringing, so main focus wasn't on the sky, but when a LAPLAND BUNTING flew over low calling, I started to wish I'd paid more attention!

17th October - 138 Redwing, 2 Brambling, 137 Woodpigeon, 21 Meadow Pipit, 2 Linnet, 160 Jackdaw moving South East and 2 Common Crossbill South West.

18th October - 669 Redwing, 408 Jackdaw, 32 Woodpigeon and 81 Starling South East + 2 Common Crossbill, 1 Brambling, 55 Chaffinch moving South West. (I also had a pipit sp that was very probably a Red-throated Pipit, but didn't get any sound recordings, so I'm letting it go)

24th October - Highlight of the day in clear South Easterlies were 2 Stock Doves heading South East with 234 Woodpigeon. Also, 620 Chaffinch, 5900+ Starling (big movement South East!), 20 Redwing, 11 Meadow Pipit, 1 Lesser Redpoll, 173 Jackdaw, 198 Herring Gull (south), 3 Common Crossbill, 18 Bullfinch, 9 Siskin, 5 Goldfinch and 3 Brambling
Worst photo of 2 Stock Doves you're ever likely to see!

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