Viewing entries tagged
Alston Wetland

Comment

GREEN WARBLER AT BUCKTON

Green Warbler, Buckton, East Yorkshire 11 September 2021

SOME NUMBERS INCREASED BY ONE THIS WEEKEND. That’s about what my birding amounted to. First of all a Pectoral Sandpiper at lunchtime on 10 September at Alstion Wetland, found by Gavin Thomas, was a new bird for the Ribchester 5KO and the East Lancs ELOC area for me. It spent the brief few minutes I was there creeping around the far shore of the wetland lagoon, so basically rubbish views before I had to go and move my car so Phil and I decided to shove off home/back to work.

Secondly the Green Warbler at Buckton in East Yorkshire moved my UK list on by one as well. Many thanks to Rocket for the lift and another grand day out. The warbler kept us waiting in the dell for almost three hours, which is bascially Mark Thomas’s ringing station project. Top marks and many thanks to him for his years of hard work that culminated in this 8th record for Britiain and only 2nd for the mainland. The crowd of birders assembled by the dell had been instructed by Mark to stay back and he did a brilliant job of keeping it a pleasant atmosphere with no-one rushing the bird, which returned to a small crab apple tree, surrounded by willows waving in the wind in the middle of the dell. It was apparent that some folks still need to spend some time getting know Willow Warblers, of which there was a couple and a Yellow Wagtail flew north, calling. I have been talking about what next after White-tailed Lapwing and Sykes’s Warbler from Central Asia, so what next then?

Oh and there was the Black-browed Albatross on Staple Newk at Bempton Cliffs RSPB reserve as well, a bit distant and then it flew directly out to sea to continue the series of poor distant views. This didn’t seem to matter too much, it was great to catch up with some friends today as well.

Comment

Comment

MIGRATION SLOWDOWN

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.

Comment

Comment

BLUE-HEADED WAGTAIL AT ALSTON

Blue-headed Wagtail, Alston Reservoirs, 4 May

ANOTHER GREAT FIND BY GAVIN THOMAS, A MALE BLUE-HEADED WAGTAIL was the culmination of a nice selection of grounded passerines at Alston Reservoirs. The April rain showers and northerlies had come around a month late but served to stop some northbound migrants in their tracks. At the weekend a lovely gathering of four wheatears and three male Whinchats was near the northwest corner of No.#1 reservoir, the Whinchats hanging around the tiny marshy patch in the sheep field there. More rain followed over the next couple of days and on 4 May Gavin found the wagtail in more or less the same place. It was super shy and I could hardly get within 50m of it by the time I had finished work etc. I was surprised it stayed so long but needless to say it was gone by the next day. It is a big rarity in East Lancashire but there has been quite a good movement of flava wagtails recently, in fact it’s the third I’e seen within 5km of home this year!

The whimbrel roost continues but numbers have dwindled, maybe dragged away to the new roosting spot near Chipping? The heavy rain also brought a Dunlin and five Common Ringed Plovers to the wetland, which lingered until 5 May. Luckily they survived a bombing run by a Peregrine that blasted low across the pools yesterday evening. Summer migrants are nearly all back now, both whitethroats are singing in the hedgerows along the lane and swifts are now a common sight over the reservoirs. The next few days are historically the best for shorebird passage in East Lancs and the water levels at Alston look great. Fingers crossed!

A wheatear forages on the weedy stone banks of no.#1

A few pixels of Whinchat, Alston Reservoirs

A whimbrel zooms in to roost at Alston Wetland

Common Whitethroat singing at Alston

Comment

Comment

SPRING MIGRATION RESUMES IN THE RIBBLE VALLEY

A big, bold female Northern Wheatear at Alston is no doubt on its way to somewhere far to the northwest of here.

AFTER A COUPLE OF WEEKS OF COLD NORTHERLIES AND FROSTS, as soon as the wind veered to the southeast, spring bird migration picked up again and new arrivals started to appear locally. Although wheatears were spotted on both Gannow Fell and at Alston in March, these were local/UK-breeding birds and the birds appearing on passage migration now are heading much further northwest to Iceland, Greenland and maybe even beyond? One such bird was on the stone bank of Alston No.#1 Reservoir on 23 April, where there was also a Lesser Whitethroat singing nearby. Another bird passing through Ribchester on 24 April (maybe Iceland-bound?) was a White Wagtail on the riverbank opposite Churchgates, see photo below. Cuckoo and Common Sandpiper were back in their usual spots on Friday 23 April, an early hobby was seen circling over Lower Alston Farm and Glynn Anderton saw a swift on Stoneygate Lane, both on 25 April. There was another swift on the same day at Alston but the rarest migrants locally were more Yellow Wagtails, flying north, calling, over Gannow Fell on 24 April and at Alston on 26 April. However, we are still waiting for House Martin, Spotted Flycatcher, Common Whitethroat, Garden and Sedge Warblers around the village so there are still plenty of spring migrants to look for. By the way I don’t intend to post locations for breeding birds from now but if you are a local birder and need help seeing something then please DM me.

The whimbrel roost at Alston is one of the highlights of the birding year as northbound birds (again probably heading for Iceland) spend a few days staging in meadows of the lower Ribble Valley. The evening of 24 April saw a new record of 147 birds, watched from the central screen along Pinfold Lane. Apart from a handful of early evening birds, the main arrival from the surrounding fields is usually just after sunset and is a sight and sound to behold. The Lancashire synchronised count on the evening of 25 April totalled 1294, with an awesome 488 at Barnarce! Alston scored a very respectable 141. There will be another synchro-count on 2 May. Up to three gorgeous breeding-plumaged Black-tailed Godwits (of Icelandic origin) were at Alston in recent days, along with three golden plovers on 23 April, also in breeding plumage. These were northern birds, a couple of them with solid jet black faces. Golden-spangled beauties headed far away from here. Looking ahead, the showers on Tuesday will probably ground an interesting shorebird or two at Alston and the next couple of weeks is usually the best period of the spring for them here.

Winter visitors are not quite all gone though! Phil Larkin photographed a late Whooper Swan over the river from ‘The Tush’ very early on 25 April!

White Wagtail, Ribchester 24 April. ‘White Wagtail and Pied Wagtail: a new look’ by Peter Adriaens, Davy Bosman & Joris Elst is a good reference and this bird looks to have a Grey Scale score of c7 on its scapulars and flanks putting it comfortably lighter and outside the range for subspecies yarrellii (i.e. Pied Wagtail) and a score of 0/1 for the extent of grey on the flanks, which strongly suggests White Wagtail but does not completely rule out Pied. The head pattern is spot on for a male White Wagtail though with a very sharp demarcation of the black hood and grey mantle and a large gap between the black on the sides of the neck. The rump can’t be seen clearly in my photos so is of no use either way but without seeing the rump I can’t completely rule out an intergrade.

Whimbrels coming in to roost at Alston Wetland

Whimbrel motion blur at Alston Wetland

Two of the northern European Golden Plovers at Alston

And the winner of unnecessary sign of the week is…

Comment