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Northern Wheatear

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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…

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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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WHEATEAR IN RIBCHESTER

Northern Wheatear, River Ribble, Ribchester 27 September 2020 (Mike Watson). OK it’s a collage of rubbish photos but it’s a Rib Wheatear!

THE HIGHLIGHT OF A WALK ALONG THE RIVERBANK with Phil Larkin was a Northern Wheatear on the south bank just downstream from Boat House Barn. The first I’ve seen in Rib and more notably the first Phil has in 30 years of living here! I’d been wondering where I might see one and was thinking more in terms of a spring migrant on the newly sown corn fields so to see one on the ‘cliffs’ was a surprise. It was soon booted along by some dog walkers discussing how they were going to post their doggy selfies today. Other significant sightings included: three chiffchaffs (two of which were singing); a new high total of 25 cormorants, a flock of 27 House Martins hawking over the river at Red Bank; two kingfishers, a Little Egret; a pair of ravens that flew north east of the village first thing, the first skylark of the autumn and maybe the last swallow of the summer, hawking over treetops just north of Red Bank. Our BTO BirdTrack walk started off with an otter just off the ‘Tush’, it seemed to be quite fearless and was even snorting at me from only c10m away. It caught an eel in the race by the school and disappeared. A few birds are present in noticeably fewer numbers now - Mallard, Starling and Carrion Crow. All persecuted here in some way or other (shot, scared away and shot) but maybe just weather related?

House Martin collage. Juvenile top left. I must have seen thousands of them but I have never noticed that distinctive white line down the outer primary before!

Common Raven collage of the pair that flew across the river, showing their front-heavy appearance at times but also the unusual shapes they make in flight

Reed Bunting (a first winter female, although you can’t see its brown rump in this frame). They seem to like the corn fields at the moment

Otter taking a look at me in the blue half light before sunrise. It is great to see species like this and raven on the increase after decades of persecution

I learned some interesting things this month. As mentioned previously this is the first time I have done any BirdTrack walks in the autumn here but it seems that September is the best month for the highest number of species, with 73. April and August have 71 and May has 70. It is down to the crucial combination of summer and winter visitors but I would have bet on April or May being most productive up til now. I’m still looking forward to what the future holds here. October is now the only unrecorded month, there must be a chance of a Yellow-browed Warbler in the next few weeks (we continue to play its call), maybe Lockdown 2 is ahead, the ‘autumn version’ and there are lots of other obvious gaps in my Ribchester list.

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