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Eurasian Dotterel

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DOTTEREL TIME ON PENDLE

Eurasian Dotterel (female), Pendle Hill, 7 May 2021 CLICK ON IMAGES FOR LIGHTBOX

IT’S DOTTEREL TIME AGAIN ON PENDLE! The female first seen on Wednesday was reported again by Ribchester birding pal Phil Larkin early this morning by the path to the trig point and happily it was still present when I got there. The dark feathers in the white breast band clearly match those in Mark Carter’s photo of the 5 May bird on the Lancashire Birding Facebook page. Thanks a lot to Phil who kept tabs on it and waited for me. I owe him a beer! I’ve been saying this for a while that dotties continue to become scarcer and this is only the second on Pendle this spring, an unthinkable state of affairs by 7 May when I first moved to East Lancs in 2005. Like many birds that breed in marginal climatic zones, like on mountain tops in the case of dotterel, its future is not bright, so birders would do well to see them while they still can. This one was bomb-proof and approached me within the minimum focusing distance (5m) several times. Lone birds are often much tamer than groups or ‘trips’ as they are known and it was fabulous to be the only person watching it from time to time. Several passers-by enjoyed it too (after all it is on the interpretive sign by the main gate to the hill at Pendleside) including a group of ‘Public Services’ students from Blackburn College. I have no idea what that course entails but watching a dotterel seems like worthwhile subject matter. I left it where Phil had found it, as a hail shower piled in from the north but was amazed to learn later that birders that I passed on my way down couldn’t refind it. Happily it was still there later in the evening sunshine so presumably it had just hunkered down for a while during the bad weather?

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PENDLE HILL DOTTEREL

My first dotterel on Pendle Hill for four years, how times have changed! CLICK ON IMAGES FOR LIGHTBOX

DOTTEREL IS BECOMING A RARE SIGHT ON PENDLE HILL. As their numbers become fewer, they are ever more difficult to find as they stopover in East Lancashire on their way north each spring. Ironic that this year has seen the least disturbance on Pendle in recent memory, with hardly anyone making the hike up there, following the dubious closure of the Pendleside footpath. It would still have been a great place to keep your distance from other folks and much less risky than lots of places that were kept open. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about this subject and came to the conclusion that the trip to the supermarket is infinitely more dangerous! Nevertheless, the finder rightly didn’t want the news broadcast despite the easing of lockdown allowing local folks to visit, in the knowledge that it would attract twitchers from much further afield. We were already aware of a birder making three c.100 miles round trips to Pendle the previous week in the hope of a dottie. We also thought that if this showy bird by the path to the trig point wasn’t battered by loads of toggers, as usually happens, it might attract some more during its stay but this proved not to be the case even with the lack of the usual endless stream of hikers and dog walkers with their animals off the lead. There really are fewer dotties now than even 10 years ago, a sad situation! The concensus is that this is a first summer female, any other thoughts are welcome.

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