Finches galore

After a few days of lousy weather (great for sea-watching - see Phil's blog from just across the water in Sweden) I knew that the first decent day with south or south-westerly winds would produce some good visible migration. Like a true vis-migger yesterday morning I was on site at dawn and it did not disappoint.

Between 0800 and 0930 the passage of finches was quite simply immense. The sky was full of Chaffinches and Bramblings with many other birds interspersed including Meadow Pipits, a few late Tree Pipits, Goldfinches, Greenfinches, Siskins, Crossbills, Skylarks, Woodlarks and even a Hawfinch. Small flocks of Great and Blue Tits were also gathering at the point and, after several aborted attempts, finally made their move and headed out to sea. Magic stuff. I tried to have a go at counting but with birds passing through on a broad front (as far as the eye could see to the east and to the west), I knew it would be difficult. I decided to (very scientifically) look in one direction for one minute and count roughly how many birds passed. I could then double that (given the passage was equally heavy in the opposite direction) and that would give me an estimate of the total number of birds that passed in 60 seconds. I counted 420 birds, so doubling that for the opposite direction gives me 840 birds per minute. That works out at around 50,000+ per hour. Incredible. Quite simply the biggest passage of birds I have ever seen.

Meanwhile, it's all happening on the Azores.....!

Photos below: no, this isn't a test shot to show how much dirt there is on my lens, it's actually a bunch of finches crossing the moon; migrating bramblings (second and third photo); and a chaffinch with no wings - amazingly this didn't seem to hinder its ability to migrate - the wonders of nature...