"Mike Tullett" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 8 Feb 2004 20:32:01 -0000, J.Poyner wrote in

snip
It is quite common in Spring for a wave of migrants to arrive with a
push of
warm air from Europe and Africa, but this early in the year is highly
unusual.
Any thoughts?

As Martin has written, the winds for some days early in the month may well
have encouraged them, but I still find this most fascinating. I know next
to nothing about such migration, but would reckon it must be very early
indeed. I imagine the mild conditions further south in recent weeks may
be
a another factor in encouraging this early move north.

It does look as if, at least for western areas, there will be a renewed
flow of warm air from the SSW. It will be most interesting to hear if
more
arrive and just how far north they get. I don't normally see any of the
swallow family here until well into April. I'll be on the lookout.

--
Mike 55.13°N 6.69°W Coleraine posted to uk.sci.weather 08/02/2004
21:35:38 UTC

My guess is also, that it has been very warm or even hot in many parts of
Africa in recent days (is nearly 100c above average?) What with the dust
plume that Martin mentioned, this must have had a significant impact on
movement. One other possibility, what if the birds never migrated as far
south as we envisage these days, is there any records of Martins (he, he)
Swallows and migrant butterflies over Spain and Portugal throughout December
and January. Any thoughts on that?

Definitely very intriguing.

Cheers

Tony