Northern Lapwings were a feature of the New Year weekend, brought to the riverbank by the recent snow
BACK TO THE BEGINNING ON THE RIVERBANK was much more fun than I was expecting. The weather has been transformed by a big area of high pressure, which has blocked the endless series of depressions and with it came snow, frost and ice. Wonderful stuff and just what was needed to cause birds to get on the move again. Things had slowed down in December and this weekend saw an influx of birds to the riverbank. It was also a great way to take my mind off the equally endless mental depression owing to Covid-19-related news. There is nothing like the natural world to put a smile on your face! New Year’s Day always marks the start of a new year list for birders and at 58, it took me two days to see more than half of the number of species I saw in all of last year (50 is usually my benchmark daily total in January but a good day could see 60).
The biggest feature of the weekend was bad weather-driven lapwings, with a tally of 131 on New Year’s Day and 91 on the 2nd, many of them were heading east for some reason, into even worse weather. Up to 25 Common Oystercatchers were gathered at Red Bank and up to 7 Common Snipe were on the riverbank itself, no doubt driven from frozen fields higher in the valley. A flock of 7 Eurasian Teal at Red Bank and 3 Eurasian Skylarks over our watchpoint behind the allotments were also bad weather related. A male bullfinch in the middle of village was unusual, a flock of 7 Redwings was in my street itself and a Treecreeper in Peter’s garden was his first there for 20 years apparently! However, the highlight of the weekend was a first winter Peregrine along the power lines, they are expert at using the pylons as cover and it sneaked out of the back a couple of times, so I have to resort to a collage again to show its markings. The absence of slurry on the meadows meant there were only a few gulls around this weekend, so starling became the commonest bird on the patch, followed by Mallard and lapwing! Great Black-backed even tied with Herring Gull at 9 a piece on the 2nd, I haven’t seen this happen before. One Little Egret clings on but we couldn’t manage a kingfisher at all this weekend.
Ice, snow and a little cloud usually means a nice sunrise on the riverbank.
Blue Pendle from Red Bank
Blue Red Bank. The once lovely woodland here is slowly dying/slipping into the Ribble.
Powerline Peregrines always slip out the back
Peregrine collage
Young Common Gulls are cool-looking birds
Well at least the tightly-cropped hedgerows can be used to create interesting effects
Treecreeper in the village on 1 January, rusty tinge to the flanks, long hind claw, uneven step in the primary bar, well what else?