Northern Wheatear, River Ribble, Ribchester 27 September 2020 (Mike Watson). OK it’s a collage of rubbish photos but it’s a Rib Wheatear!
THE HIGHLIGHT OF A WALK ALONG THE RIVERBANK with Phil Larkin was a Northern Wheatear on the south bank just downstream from Boat House Barn. The first I’ve seen in Rib and more notably the first Phil has in 30 years of living here! I’d been wondering where I might see one and was thinking more in terms of a spring migrant on the newly sown corn fields so to see one on the ‘cliffs’ was a surprise. It was soon booted along by some dog walkers discussing how they were going to post their doggy selfies today. Other significant sightings included: three chiffchaffs (two of which were singing); a new high total of 25 cormorants, a flock of 27 House Martins hawking over the river at Red Bank; two kingfishers, a Little Egret; a pair of ravens that flew north east of the village first thing, the first skylark of the autumn and maybe the last swallow of the summer, hawking over treetops just north of Red Bank. Our BTO BirdTrack walk started off with an otter just off the ‘Tush’, it seemed to be quite fearless and was even snorting at me from only c10m away. It caught an eel in the race by the school and disappeared. A few birds are present in noticeably fewer numbers now - Mallard, Starling and Carrion Crow. All persecuted here in some way or other (shot, scared away and shot) but maybe just weather related?
House Martin collage. Juvenile top left. I must have seen thousands of them but I have never noticed that distinctive white line down the outer primary before!
Common Raven collage of the pair that flew across the river, showing their front-heavy appearance at times but also the unusual shapes they make in flight
Reed Bunting (a first winter female, although you can’t see its brown rump in this frame). They seem to like the corn fields at the moment
Otter taking a look at me in the blue half light before sunrise. It is great to see species like this and raven on the increase after decades of persecution
I learned some interesting things this month. As mentioned previously this is the first time I have done any BirdTrack walks in the autumn here but it seems that September is the best month for the highest number of species, with 73. April and August have 71 and May has 70. It is down to the crucial combination of summer and winter visitors but I would have bet on April or May being most productive up til now. I’m still looking forward to what the future holds here. October is now the only unrecorded month, there must be a chance of a Yellow-browed Warbler in the next few weeks (we continue to play its call), maybe Lockdown 2 is ahead, the ‘autumn version’ and there are lots of other obvious gaps in my Ribchester list.