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Barn Owl

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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.

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WELCOME BACK WILLOW WARBLER!

Willow Warbler singing at Red Bank, Ribchester on 2 April, back from Africa a couple of days earlier than usual.

THE LOVELY DESCENDING NOTES OF WILLOW WARBLER’S SONG greeted me at Red Bank today as more summer migrants return to the village, despite a drop in temperatures over the last couple of days. Red Bank is a regular site for Willow Warbler, which still breeds in a few spots around Ribchester. Swallows are more in evidence around the village now and there are also plenty of Sand Martins excavating their nesting burrows along the riverbank, albeit not in their traditional spots opposite the vicarage/school. A Blackcap was also singing at Red Bank today and a female was close in attendance.

We are lucky to have 5 or 6 pairs of Barn Owls within 5km of the village and they are very conspicuous hunting until well after dawn at the moment. Maybe they have hungry mouths to feed now? Sunny spring days usually also mean soaring birds of prey. Buzzards, kestrels and sparrowhawks have all been up high in the sky this week, a couple of the buzzards showing unseasonal wing damage, ‘Maltese Moult’ as it is known. I am still waiting for an osprey! March finished on 70 for 2021 and 80 species all time, making it the best month for numbers by far now but it also has the most checklists! The Rib yearlist moved on to 84 today as the commoner summer visitors appeared. April started with a pair of Mediterranean Gulls in breeding plumage that flew east along the river yesterday and a late Little Grebe was still at Red Bank today of note. At higher altitude another 12 Common Crossbills flew over in the early morning cold wind.

Barn Owls continue to delight. Everyone loves owls!

The Dell at Red Bank, Rib birding hotspot!

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THE WARMEST MARCH DAY IN THE UK SINCE 1968!

Northern Wheatear in H.A.R., the epitome of ‘cracking’! The first one of the year always looks best too.

PHIL ORDERED A WHEATEAR and sure enough one appeared on the wall in front of us in H.A.R. (‘High Altitude’ Ribchester}. A cracking male as well! A Ring Ouzel that flew over calling in the same vicinity was a new 5km patch bird and another Bowland speciality that doesn’t breed in the Ribchester area. Other migrants included swallow (one north over the fell and one along Shorton Lane}, double figures of Sand Martins buzzing along the riverbank and investigating nesting banks downstream from Boat House, a Chiffchaff singing there and at the last knockings, a pair of Little Ringed Plovers that flew in to the riverbank opposite Lower Alston Farm. What a great way to finish a lovely spring day, without a cloud in the sky and apparently the warmest March day in the UK since 1968! Winter migrants were still just about around in the form of five Fieldfares that flew north over the fell calling followed later by a Brambling and four Lesser Redpolls. Six crossbills were also coming and going between the plantations but they could easily be breeding by now.

There were plenty of other highlights (with the exception of narrowly failing to see an osprey, again!) including a pair of Barn Owls, one of which was very confiding and was hunting until well after two hours after the sun rose over the big end of Pendle at 0654. There appears to be three pairs of curlews on the fell and at least three singing Eurasian Skylarks. Only one pair of stonechats was a surprise but there were lots of Meadow Pipits and Red Grouse as usual. A Little Grebe was back on the tiny reservoir together with a Grey Heron and a pair of Canada Geese. On large clumps of gorse on the slope above were a Reed Bunting and a couple of Linnets. I spent a lot of time scanning the skies again today without much success but buzzards were also again easily into double figures with up to nine in the air at once and even four in a kettle over the house! Sparrowhawks and kestrels were also in evidence again. There is not very often a star mammal on the patch but a Noctule Bat hawking high over Red Bank just after midday was nice! There were also plenty of Buff-tailed Bumblebees and Small Tortoiseshell butterflies on the wing around the village today.

This Barn Owl looked like it was making up for lost hunting time at the weekend, dives into wet grass had made a real mess of it.

Dry stone walling Barn Owl

Incoming vole catching machine

Meadow Pipits are very common on the fell again this year. Did you hear that Merlins?

Whereas skylarks are not, we only saw three singing birds today.

Skylark ascending, one of the most beautiful sounds in nature.

LRP in the place to be, my Ribchester patch. Of course fluctuating water levels mean they could never breed here but nice to take an interest!

Dawn in H.A.R.

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SPARE A THOUGHT FOR BARN OWL

Barn Owl, Ribchester, March 2021

THE RAIN IS HAMMERING ON MY WINDOW AGAIN this evening as normal service is resumed in East Lancs. A series of depressions is on its way across the Atlantic that are going to lash us with rain for the next few days. There’s a yellow wind warning too of gusts of up to 55mph. This has rather stopped my only enjoyment at the moment, birding walks, in its tracks and it looks like there will not be a decent day until next week. Although this is going to make me even more depressed than I already am it’s nothing compared to what our poor local Barn Owls will have to endure. At least I’ve got plenty of food and stuff to do indoors. Hunting is going to be very difficult for the owls over the next few days, for birds that rely so heavily on their hearing to catch mice and voles. That’s without the ever increasing acres of #greenconcrete with nothing living in it, cut right up to the bonsai-ed hedgerows. Despite all this we are still lucky to have Barn Owls around the village and presumably they will sit out the bad weather until it passes. Top tip, after a period of rain they will be hungry as hell, so Tuesday is looking particularly good with some sunshine, for them to be out hunting in daylight in the early evening. Pick your spot and wait for them to fly past on their terms, don’t go chasing them around.

A Barn Owl passes across the dark shadows of a wood in the evening sunhine

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