This Barn Owl was slowed down too, to 1/30th of a second
APART FROM A SMALL NUMBER OF WHIMBRELS still passing through Alston, spring migration seems to be fizzling out now in the lower Ribble Valley. I’m not going to be posting breeding bird news from now on as they tend to attract too many bird photographers but there is still time for the latest migrants, the highest-Arctic-breeding shorebirds to make an appearance like Red Knot and particularly Sanderling. I see the wind is due to veer to the west again and the showers it will bring give us hope of something grounding in our area. The easterlies today were hopeless, with nothing new at Alston where I photographed this Barn Owl the other day. The light levels were too low for anything other than a half-hearted motion blur but it’s a start. There are still plenty of Little Ringed Plovers on view from the Pinfold Lane screens along with regular shelduck, Gadwall and teal. The gathering of hirundines and swifts has been nice too but in reduced numbers now. I can almost feel the rush of air as swifts zoom past close by!
Meanwhile on the riverbank at Ribchester a pair of Common Sandpipers looks to be breeding somewhere nearby and Grey Wagtail is regularly carrying food from the river into the village somewhere. I have tried a few sessions from the benches but there has not been anything of note on the move. I was distracted a few times by the Song Thrush singing from the direction of the Churchgates that imitates whimbrel in its repertoire of mimicry! It is around this time that our attention usually moves uphill to the fell, where there is still lots of rough habitat with some actual food for birds in it.