*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.*

*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!*

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*Hen Harrier, juvenile - my first in Ribchester.*

THE SQUEAKY CALLS OF MEADOW PIPITS could be heard as I walked out of the back door and towards the river first thing today. A brisk easterly wind blew all morning and as the clouds gave way to sunshine the southerly movement of pipits kept going in ones and twos easing off towards lunchtime. My final total was exactly 240. Ok I would rather have been at Spurn today in an easterly wind but this is as about as exciting as migration gets in Rib. I have never seen a pipit movement like this here… as I am not usualy birding here at this time of year! A small number of swallows and finches were on the move too in what turned out to be a classic Ribchester BTO BirdTrack walk. I ended up with 58 bird species including a new one for my patch, Hen Harrier. It seemed to be following the same line as the pipits across the river and although very distant I managed to fire off a few frames that later showed its diagnostic 5 primary fingers and broad arms. Its dark inner underwing and paler underhand indicated it was a juvenile too [we can forget the remote possibility of Northern Harrier as it lacked such bright ginger tones]. Thanks to my ID guru Pete Morris for comments! It is the first one I have seen away from the uplands in ELOC, they are so rarely seen down in the valley bottoms here! Although we can’t be certain, it is nice to think it was following the pipits.

The morning kicked off in fine style with an Otter in the river off the ‘Tush’, which swam upstream constantly harassed by Black-headed Gulls. A Grey Heron stopped to take a look at it too! A curlew flew upstream early on and a juvenile Peregrine powered down the valley scattering everything in its path. It felt like autumn today with a nip in the air but there were still a few warblers around, the Willow Warbler is still present in the same patch of vegetation by the river at Old Park Wood, where it has been for a fortnight now and there were some chiffchaffs and a Blackcap too. A Siskin and 11 redpolls flew south and the number of starlings has shot up to around 250 in the last week. I always check every one I see! The same went for the 9 cormorants today, all sinensis form, again. Lapwings and Common Gulls are back in the valley and three House Martins lingered. It will not be long before they are gone for the winter. A single Little Egret was barely noteworthy, although I check every one of them too carefully just in case!

*Peregrine, juvenile - the first of the autumn*

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THE WARMEST MARCH DAY IN THE UK SINCE 1968!

LOOK WHAT THE MEADOW PIPIT MOVEMENT BROUGHT!