Getting Started.
Watching Visible Migration is both initially and ultimately about enjoyment – if you don’t enjoy it you wont do it! So the most important thing initially is to develop your own way of watching and reporting that is pleasurable to you. Either try out some of the known localities, with and where others are watching, or strike out and find your own site closer to where you live. Maybe even try from your own back garden if you have a good elevated outlook, as certainly in autumn it is the first couple of hours of daylight that are dramatically most productive and it is important to get on site early! Lots of ideas for potential localities are mooted on the maps appended to these pages. Before too long you will begin to notice patterns, like for instance, certain types of weather seem to induce more movement of certain species, certain species move earlier in the day than others, different species using different flight heights in different weathers, the difference in attitude and movement between diurnal and nocturnally migrating species, certain species travelling in certain directions and you begin to ask yourself why?

It is then that you might realise the benefit in systematically recording what you see and the conditions applicable, times and dates that you experience it and the like. Only after you’ve been doing that for a while do you begin to get an appreciation of what the important factors might be.
What to record – specifically to assist Newcommers.

* Identification of Birds. For those new to Visible Migration watching, the important thing is to do what you feel comfortable with, both in watching and reporting. Don’t be put off by the technicalities and by skills you might see in use by those with more experience. The most important thing initially is to get to grips with the birds, especially passerines and then other bird families which migrate diurnally (this immediately limits what you need to know and makes the extent of learning more definable). Identification by flight call, field marks prominent at distance on flying birds, profiles, manner of flight and general Jis of both individuals and flocks should be tested out on birds at various / increasing ranges until you feel happy with your identifications. You can do this anywhere and will soon learn the most common / key species, which will be the base for further study and advancement. You may need some help initially but persevere and very soon the skies will be full of identifiable birds and not just pips, squeaks, chiziks, seoo’s, tzees and pheets (to quote but a few!) going over in the half light after dawn. Without doubt a skill that every birder needs to have! Irrespective of the above you may still have to compromise on the exact science and accept: finch sp; grey goose sp; alba (Pied or White Wagtail); and the like, as even the best of us cant do it all at all ranges!!

Very briefly some other important points are:

* Select a suitable site and give it a name. Have knowledge of local movements. A locality with low resident populations is possibly most reliable.

* Watch and count for a specific time period and record the length of period together with start and end. To appreciate the differences in magnitude across the spread of the visible migration day it is helpful to record your countings incrementally. Splitting my counts every fifteen minutes, just by writing a time in my book at the appropriate place, seems to work quite well for me if I need to do the comparison.

* Record very briefly the local weather conditions applicable and the affect they seem to be having on the birds. Just to put a face to the day. Wind direction, speed, cloud cover and perhaps visibility are essential, but the more information here the better. Help with these technicalities is currently in preperation! The national weather situation is of obvious importance but as this is available from any number of archive sources later in the day, it is not critical to record this but the approach and timing of frontal systems and the like is sometimes very obvious in the field and has a notable affect on the moving birds. It is however critical to scrutinise the various charts on “the night before” to assess suitability and prognosis, both for the birds and for you.

* Identify and count all of the moving birds you see or hear at any distance using bins, scope or unaided vision and note their main or various directions of movement. The scope is more important than at first you might think and its accurate use as an exacting instrument, to catch the distant fliers, needs to be developed without rubbering and ultimately loosing the all important bird. The skill of closing in, snapping on to and scoping a distant flying bird with a degree of certainty gives a great amount of satisfaction! Whilst watching never move away from your scope or you will regret it before too long!

* Write a very brief diary report to enhance the points of interest as you appreciated them. When you’ve been doing it for a while and got into the hang, there will be lots to say here! This makes the presentation of your efforts more interesting and informative to every one at all levels. It also gets away from the bald lists of species and counts which mean very little to anyone except those with photographic and statistical minds or documentation to complete.

* List the species seen, their counts and directions of flight. As a generalisation its very much like sea watching, just as enjoyable and even more addictive to the inland watcher, without doing miles and miles to get there and quite honestly, just like the sea, you never know what is likely to come past next.

* If you don’t like doing reports or have no time for diaries just mail the bald counts as it is still of great interest to the "vis" watcher with his nose to the ground – or in the air as the case may be!!!! What has been found to date is that it all fits together, how ever sparse, as a local picture and very often as a national one as well, but that’s another story.

There is already a well-developed network of Visible Migration counters across the Bradford area. Not all are active but many are interested. If you feel that your area is under represented in the field, then why not have a go!! These pages are experimental and hopefully together with the banter, will assist all to appreciate how to do it and the background behind the movements to ultimately induce even more enjoyment from this compulsive birding activity.

One final point to remember is that whilst background levels of movement continue throughout the year which the "vis" freaks will continue to count, the true season is in the autumn and on selected days (its not always at peak or even moving much at all). Mid September to mid October is often the peak but not necessarily the best period. You need to be out well in advance of this to tune up and get back in fettle again. The excitement of those special “Big days” in the Pennines, on your own patch, just could not be missed, not even for a years watching on the East Coast or the like! So do be warned!!!

Why not get out and join in now!!

Dave Barker [Visible Migration] © March 2005 v01.01.01draft

One final thing is that this reporting system is not a way of submitting your records for the Group archive. Your records still need to be submitted to the Group Recorders, Mark Doveston or Andy Jowett in the normal way.

Improvements:
Any ideas as to how we can improve or add to this system of communication will be very welcome. It will be interesting to see how much interest there really is in our local VISIBLE MIGRATION now we have a means of pulling all the local stuff together, whilst it is happening.