From: Stuart Reeves <S.Reeves@marlab.ac.uk>>

To: <ukbirdnet@dcs.bbk.ac.uk>>

Subject: RE: FW: [UKBN] Honey Buzzard Movement Autumn 2000

Date: 03 November 2000 13:08

>> >> Hi Nick, Stuart, Richard, Paul et al

>> >>

>> >> I don't know the answer to the Honey Buzzard puzzle, but Birding World's

>> account (Ex-northern Europe in high pressure/juvenile birds/east winds/bad

>> weather/eventual reorientating out via south coast) is short and to the

>> point, and sounds entirely reasonable to me.

>>

>> It all sounds so plausible until you realise that passage had largely

>> ceased

>> at Falsterbo five days before the British movement started.

>>

>> Cheers ... Nick

>>

>>

> It is misleading to regard passage at Falsterbo as the whole story.

>Karlsson, in Birds at Falsterbo, notes that in south-easterly winds,

>migrating raptors tend to be drift more to the North-West, and further that

>birds migrating down the west coast of Sweden tend to cross to Denmark at

>the narrowest point, between Helsingborg and Helsingor. In addition Aulen,

>in Where to watch birds in Scandinavia, notes that Autumn totals of Buzzard

>at Helebaek, Northern Zealand (the part of Denmark nearest to Sweden) often

>exceed those at Falsterbo. On this basis, the relatively weak passage of HBs

>at Falsterbo may actually indicate that the large majority of the birds

>migrated by a [much] more westerly route this year.

> Stuart Reeves

Thanks Stuart for this very constructive suggestion. I've searched records of Danish observatories and the results Movements in Denmark provide no evidence to support a continental origin.

Best wishes ... Nick