A Little Egret flies under the bridge at Little Town. They sometimes fly over it, I wonder how they decide?
‘I USED TO SEE DABCHICK ON THE RIVER BY THE SCHOOL’ said Geoff Rollinson the other day. I hadn’t seen a Dabchick (AKA Little Grebe) there so far in 9 years but amazingly the following day there it was, struggling upstream along the oppoosite bank! Since that sighting things went a bit crazy with 4 Little Grebes at Red Bank on Saturday and 3 from the allotments today. The Little Grebe also marked 100 birds for me in Ribchester this year. Not bad considering I hadn’t even seen 100 species here in total before the first lockdown.
November ticks away and now stands at 60 for the month and 65 all time. There are so many possibilities to add to this figure over the next few weeks. Little Egrets appeared both days this weekend but numbers have definitely dwindled as the autumn has progressed. It is not surprising considering up to 17 are roosting upstream at Sawley at the moment. The BTO BirdTrack walk yesterday managed 51 species. Nothing special, just a good selection of common birds.
A Brambling flew over the allotments this morning and there are still 3 figures of Fieldfares flying south. A small flock of siskins was the first multiple sighting this autumn. Kingfishers are still very noisy and easy to see at the moment, either along the brook near the Stydd or along the river itself, upstream from the road bridge.
Little Grebe at Ribchester (Mike Watson)