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Birding

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A SEPTEMBER BTO BIRDTRACK WALK IN RIBCHESTER

Common Whitethroat at Red Bank. Red Bank never lets us down! (Mike Watson)

MY FIRST COMPLETE SEPTEMBER LIST on the BTO’s BirdTrack along the river at Ribchester only just broke 40 species despite going slow and checking every bird, even scanning into the distance! It can be hard work at times but I appreciate being able to see birds like Little Egrets, Kingfishers and Tree Sparrows just a few minutes from my back doorstep. Alexander even found the first Little Egret today himself, he’s coming along regularly now. Notable sightings today included 8 Meadow Pipits flying south, they have started to move now and a gorgeous Common Whitethroat in the dell at Red Bank. A pair of oystercatchers was the first for a while but no Sand Martins were around today, maybe they have gone now? I am looking forward to what the rest of the autumn will bring. I am hoping to find an uncommon migrant in the willows along the river, let’s see what it will be.

Little Egrets on the River Ribble by Ribchester School (Mike Watson)

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REPROCESSED LAMMERGEIERS

Young Lammergeiers at the Buseu feeding station in Catalonia (Mike Watson) CLICK IMAGES FOR LIGHTBOX

THE PEAK DISTRICT LAMMERGEIER got me thinking about my previous encounters with this special bird. I had struggled to see one for years, having missed it in Turkey, Israel and even Nepal until I finally caught up with one on its nest on a remote cliff face in the mountains of Lesotho of all places! After that distant encounter the floodgates opened when I started guiding Wild Images tours to Catalonia and, later, Ladakh to the point where I have been lucky to have enjoyed almost 100 sightings in all sorts of situations. The most thrilling of these were without a doubt from photo hides in the Pre-Pyrenees of Catalonia, arranged via Steve West of Birding in Spain at Buseu and Serra de Boumort. I had been thinking of going back to see the Peak District Lammergeier in the hope of a better photo but instead I decided to take a look through my archives at photos of young birds from Catalonia and reprocessed a few of them.

Check out that crazy red eyeliner! (Mike Watson)

OK images taken with the 1DIV almost 10 years ago are way noisier than the 1DX but I found a couple I like that I had forgotten about. My good friend Keith Regan had said something very honest to me in 2013, that he thought my photos were far too warm, like Kodacolour Gold back in the 80s. So nowadays I always check the auto WB recommendation in Lightroom when processing images. You might ask why not just have the camera set to auto WB? Well, I don’t bother what setting the camera is set on as it doesn’t really matter when I am going to check it in processing later anyway. With green backgrounds a colder WB is invariably needed to subdue it, as in the case at Buseu, where the feeding area and surrounding pine forest is very green. It also makes the vultures look less orangey and more sinister and I like that.

A dozen enormous tail feathers, like a third wing, make Lammergeiers very agile for such a big bird (Mike Watson)

It was also great to remember some of these majestic birds with full tails, albeit a bit ragged by late April, it is a shame that the current Peak District bird is missing its third wing or it would be even more impressive. Let’s hope that it stays long enough for it to grow back. I’m hoping that someone will set up a feeding station for it. Lambs legs go down very well! Sometimes two per sitting in my experience! Many thanks to my friends in Catalonia who made these photos possible, Steve West, Jordi Bas and especially Jordi Canut at Buseu, where these images were taken. I hope to return one day to this wonderful corner of the Iberian Peninsula.


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EAST LANCS NEW YEAR

THE NEW YEAR STARTED OFF VERY WET INDEED. I got soaked three times on New Year's Day taking part in ELOC NYD listing. Although I saw some interesting birds like Snow Bunting on Pendle Hill, Pintail and Pink-footed Goose at Stocks, Little Egret, Little Grebe and oystercatcher at Ribchester and finally a brief adult Glaucous Gull in horrible conditions at Fishmoor Reservoir I was still 20 behind the Breakses total as usual. The time taken on Pendle kills the chances of enough small birds and I was rained off twice when I planned to look for them. I caught up five on my first day back at work on 2 January including a male Brambling, which has been on the office feeders this week.

In contrast the first Sunday of the new year was freezing cold and icy. An all day effort produced a similar total between Pendle, Ribchester and Fishmoor. Highlights included two Snow Buntings over Pendle Summit in a freezing cold wind before dawn. I gave up taking landscapes when my camera lens frosted over. This never even happened in Ladakh!!! The wind chill was very severe indeed this morning. The walk around my BTO birdtrack location at Ribchester produced 52 species including Peregrine, 7 buzzards, 4 ravens, 10 oystercatchers, 3 Little Grebes, 4 Goosanders and record totals of Stock Dove (6!) and Long-tailed Tit (19). A skylark flew over the village calling, a scarce bird around Ribchester in midwinter. Finally the late afternoon Fishmoor gull roost in Blackburn produced a terrific 2cy Glaucous Gull by Mark and Jack and what was almost certainly an adult Caspian Gull in rapidly fading light by Pete.

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THE SMALLEST LIST PLODS ON

Whooper Swans, Stocks Reservoir.

THIS YEAR HAS APPARENTLY ALREADY SEEN A GOOD PASSAGE OF WHOOPER SWANS THROUGH EAST LANCS and I thought my chance had gone until the autumn. So I was very happy to see a flock of 25 resting in the Hodder Inlet of Stocks Reservoir today. Then I looked at my phone and saw they had already been reported. A guy who I chatted to briefly about photography was being frog-marched around the circular walk by his disinterested mates and didn't want to walk a few metres down to the hide to look at them. 'I've seen them at Slimbridge already' he said. I didn't have the inclination to tell him that they would have been Bewick's Swans and not Whoopers. A Black-tailed Godwit at Alston was also my first of the year in the ELOC area. Uncommon shorebirds have been scarce there so far but April is THE month for them so hopefully there are more to come soon. The smallest list plods on then. Otherwise Alexander also saw his first adders today, a very exciting moment for him to get very close to them and see what beautiful and placid creatures they are.

ELOC year list: 103. Black-tailed Godwit 104. Whooper Swan

Black-tailed Godwit, Alston Wetland.

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