Eurasian Wigeon, River Ribble, Ribchester 22 November 2020 (Mike Watson)
OUT OF THE PRE-DAWN SHADOWS ON THE RIVERBANK APPEARED A WIGEON on Sunday morning! It had been resting with the Mallards, with which it remained loosely until I left it, a little upstream from the allotments. This is my first at Ribchester, the second good bird on successive weekends that the local Mallards have pulled in and it was interesting to note that the second half of November is the BTO Bird Track annual peak time for them. After the torrential rain stopped on Saturday an afternoon walk produced a few interesting birds, notably a Little Grebe on the Lower Alston Farm bend, a sparrowhawk, a flock of 15 Tree Sparrows and around 100 Fieldfares feeding in fields between Lower Barn Farm and Boat House, where a flock(!) of eight Song Thrushes was something special. They were feeding together in a newly sown field. I’ve seen migrants more or less together before but I have never seen anything like this in winter.
The Sunday morning watch from the allotments was very lively starting with the Eurasian Wigeon (Ribchester 102 2020/110 all time) then Goosander, Little Grebe, four flocks of Pinkfeet totalling around 450 birds, three Whooper Swans that flew west along the river, three ravens flew north and there was a very noticeable steady northwesterly movement of Herring Gulls all morning that ended up with a total of 184. I was surprised to see that there are still woodpigeons (78) migrating south, I expected that all of them would have gone by now. Most Redwings seem to have gone already, with only one seen today.
Great Cormorant against a fiery dawn sunrise
Three Whooper Swans flying downstream on 22 November
(Un)Common Gull. Numbers increase in the Ribchester area in winter, where they are still outnumbered by more than 100 to 1 by Black-headed Gull
Eurasian Wigeon, my first in Ribchester
Tree Sparrow still flourishes in Ribchester, thanks to the conservation efforts of Glyn Anderton and the kind residents who feed them throughtout the year