Friday 22 August 2008

22 August

Another beautiful morning with hardly any wind and lovely morning sun. Made an early morning visit to Nordhavn where there had been a small 'fall' of birds. Two juvenile Red-backed Shrikes, a Wood Warbler, single Pied and Spotted Flycatchers, 5 Tree Pipits, 6 Yellow Wagtails plus tens of Whitethroats, Lesser Whitethroats and Willow Warblers. Nine Arctic Terns migrating west was a bonus.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

What's a 'fall' old son?

Terry said...

A 'fall' is a sudden arrival of a large number of migrating birds, often forced down to the ground by bad weather conditions or poor visibility. 'Falls' occur most frequently during peak migration seasons (ie Spring and Autumn) when large numbers of birds are on the move and can involve just one or two or several different species at the same time. Classic autumn 'fall' conditions in the UK include a high pressure over the continent that encourages birds to migrate (south or south-west) combined with a weather front passing through the east coast from west to east overnight. The birds start their migration in good weather, reach the UK and are immediately 'downed' by the poor weather...Does that answer your question, old boy?