Hen Harrier, juvenile - my first in Ribchester.
THE SQUEAKY CALLS OF MEADOW PIPITS could be heard as I walked out of the back door and towards the river first thing today. A brisk easterly wind blew all morning and as the clouds gave way to sunshine the southerly movement of pipits kept going in ones and twos easing off towards lunchtime. My final total was exactly 240. Ok I would rather have been at Spurn today in an easterly wind but this is as about as exciting as migration gets in Rib. I have never seen a pipit movement like this here… as I am not usualy birding here at this time of year! A small number of swallows and finches were on the move too in what turned out to be a classic Ribchester BTO BirdTrack walk. I ended up with 58 bird species including a new one for my patch, Hen Harrier. It seemed to be following the same line as the pipits across the river and although very distant I managed to fire off a few frames that later showed its diagnostic 5 primary fingers and broad arms. Its dark inner underwing and paler underhand indicated it was a juvenile too [we can forget the remote possibility of Northern Harrier as it lacked such bright ginger tones]. Thanks to my ID guru Pete Morris for comments! It is the first one I have seen away from the uplands in ELOC, they are so rarely seen down in the valley bottoms here! Although we can’t be certain, it is nice to think it was following the pipits.
The morning kicked off in fine style with an Otter in the river off the ‘Tush’, which swam upstream constantly harassed by Black-headed Gulls. A Grey Heron stopped to take a look at it too! A curlew flew upstream early on and a juvenile Peregrine powered down the valley scattering everything in its path. It felt like autumn today with a nip in the air but there were still a few warblers around, the Willow Warbler is still present in the same patch of vegetation by the river at Old Park Wood, where it has been for a fortnight now and there were some chiffchaffs and a Blackcap too. A Siskin and 11 redpolls flew south and the number of starlings has shot up to around 250 in the last week. I always check every one I see! The same went for the 9 cormorants today, all sinensis form, again. Lapwings and Common Gulls are back in the valley and three House Martins lingered. It will not be long before they are gone for the winter. A single Little Egret was barely noteworthy, although I check every one of them too carefully just in case!
Peregrine, juvenile - the first of the autumn