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Peregrine

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FIRST PEREGRINE OF THE AUTUMN

Peregrine, juvenile over the White Bull in Ribchester, 14 September 2021

LOCK UP YER PIGEONS! The first Peregrine of the autumn wheeled into view over the White Bull on my way home tonight, a pristine juvenile bird only just over the rooftops. It was obviously prospecting the village for an evening meal and was five days earlier than last autumn’s first on 19 September. I was very sorry it appeared after Phil and Lee had gone home - it would have looked great from the benches, assuming it passed that way. Peregrine is a regular feature in the lower valley during the winter but they range widely so you can never be sure of when and where they will appear.

Also around this evening were Little Egret (up to four recently), a kingfisher (it seems to be fond of the large willow on the island at the moment), a flock of 11 lapwings over, several Grey Wagtails (which also roost in the island willow), a sparrowhawk dangling an injured leg and a couple of buzzards of note. Five swallows were around Lower Alston Farm, they are becoming scarce now and a large salmon flopped out of the water almost around the bend upstream from us. The cold easterly wind felt like autumn this evening so I didn’t stay until dusk.

A Little Egret flies upstream past the benches this evening

Ribchester sunset on the riverbank, looking east towards Pendle Hill

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GULLS!

Little Gull, adult hawking for insects over Alston No.#1 reservoir CLICK IMAGES FOR LIGHTBOX

GULLS WERE THE MAIN FEATURE OF A BRIGHT AND SUNNY SPRING DAY and I saw seven species within 5km of Ribchester! The highlights being the lovely adult Little Gull at Alston, found by Gavin Thomas and a second calendar year Iceland Gull that flew east at Red Bank at 1046 (a new patch bird for me, identified later from photos with help from Pete Morris, Gavin Thomas and Bill Aspin). There were at least three adult Mediterranean Gulls in the Red Bank area today, no doubt attracted by a combination of slurry spreading and a huge insect emergence on the river. A Peregrine was in the Ribchester area this morning. Unfortunately it was a bit of a mess and showed some ‘non-physiological’ feather damage, which is being scrutinised. A Reed Bunting flew north during a small movement of Meadow Pipits at Red Bank - the first on the Ribchester patch this year.

It was great to see around 60 Sand Martins too, excavating nest burrows and getting back to normal after the Arctic weather last week. There was only a handful of swallows today though. Buzzards were again well into double figures and included one kettle of 8 birds mixed with gulls at Red Bank, an awesome sight!

At Alston there were also two Black-tailed Godwits, two Redshank, three Little Ringed Plovers and a drake Gadwall of note on a splendid day on the local patch that resulted in 63 species. Other stats are now Ribchester 2021 (88) and all time (116), Ribchester April 2021 (74) & Ribchester April all time (82), making April the most productive month of the year.

Iceland Gull (second calendar year) heading east at Red Bank, Ribchester

Iceland Gull, note the light bill

Mediterranean Gull, breeding plumage adult at Red Bank, Ribchester

Little Gull, Alston

Little Gull and Black-headed Gull, Alston

Little and Black-headed Gulls, look at that size difference!

Peregrine (second calendar year), maybe the bird which has been in the area on and off all winter?

Peregrine, showing worrying feather damage, watch this space for an analysis soon.

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MEDITERRANEAN GULL

Another adult Mediterranean Gull, this time over Red Bank, Ribchester CLICK IMAGE FOR LIGHTBOX.

MED GULL STOLE THE SHOW AGAIN on a glorious springlike day. The valley was full of bird song even after a frost overnight. Blackbird, Song Thrush, Dunnock, Chaffinch, Wren and Great, Blue and Coal Tits were all adding to the chorus. However, ever ungrateful, I had just complained that there was hardly any movement today (Black-headed Gull didn’t even reach three figures and Common Gull was down to its usual three or four instead of yesterday’s 33) when a small flock of gulls appeared ahead of me at Red Bank. I could see one was a Common Gull so why not photograph it? It would look great against a clear blue sky. As I was lining it up I noticed the others were Black-headed Gulls but the fourth bird was…BAM! An adult Mediterranean Gull with a half-black hood. I had plenty of time to lock onto it as it came past me on the top of the small hill, not far above eye level. You can see from my other mostly poor Med Gull photos from Rib that they do not always co-operate, and/or I have not always been ready in time/had the correct settings dialled in etc. They are very much a feature of the valley at the moment, Bill Aspin had five at Brockholes yesterday afternoon and Paul Holt also had five feeding in the show field at Salesbury late this morning. We had a walk along there in the afternoon but they were all gone by then. It makes me laugh that Mediterranean Gull isn’t really a typical gull of the Mediterranean in the same way that Yellow-legged and Audouin’s Gulls are and it’s scientific name actually means Black-headed Gull! Meanwhile Black-headed Gull has a brown head and a scientific name that means Laughing Gull! And so it goes on, what a mess!

The rest of the birding around the village was mostly things that have been around for a while now. Lapwings exceeded 40 again, with several displaying pairs. Curlews were singing their hearts out again but didn’t break double figures today, all presumably local breeding birds now. Oystercatcher has dwindled to only 15 (most have probably gone upstream to breed now) but one of the wintering Little Grebes was still at Red Bank. Fieldfares had increased to 62 and walking the fields north of Red Bank I found a flock of 10 Redwings near Eatoughs. However, the two other best sightings were a Peregrine on one of the pylons (probably the same youngster, which has been around for a couple of months) and four Teal on one of the hidden shooting ponds. Ha! They are not on it now and are hopefully somewhere safe instead. Interestingly an adult Great Black-backed Gull was hanging aound the sheep up here this morning, maybe it knows that some tasty afterbirth is on the way soon? I do not see many mammals around Ribchester but Brown Hares are particularly conspicuous at the moment, with 6 seen today. So February ended on 72 bird species, one ahead of January but more significantly my Ribchester patch year list moved up to 76 and February is now four clear at the top of the all time chart with 77. Probably just a product of the 12 BTO BirdTrack walks I did this month.

Common Buzzard (adult) over Eatoughs on a bright sunny morning.

Feel the power! Another pylon Peregrine.

Can you stand another Med Gull?

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STORM CHRISTOPH AFTERMATH

Little Egret motion blur

ALTHOUGH OTHER PARTS OF THE NORTHWEST GOT BADLY FLOODED IN MIDWEEK BY STORM CHRISTOPH, Ribchester was left more or less untouched. The flood barriers went up on Monday and the rain continued all day on Tuesday and Wednesday and some of Thursday but its intensity in the Ribble Catchment wsas obviously less than further to the east and south of here. The river level at Ribchester School peaked at 4.51m in the early hours of Wednesday and then started to fall, a brief upturn around lunchtime after the morning’s heavier rain reacehd us did not last long and soon it was on its way back down to its usual level of around 1m. This was a relief for the folks on the frontline of Greenside and the poor Ribchester Arms, which really does not deserve to be flooded again and by the weekend things were back to normal. It is always interesting to see what the high water has left behind, as well as taken away. The old fridge at red Bank has gone, presumably downstream and there is now a huge tree trunk on the bank just upstream from the ‘Tush’. When I know a storm is coming I get woken up by the rain hammering on my window and can’t help having a quick look at the Enviornment Agency’s website, which reports the river level here. It was nice to be able to relax again and only worry about Covid-19 and Brexit.

The Ribble in spate from the path to the Roman Baths, this is around 4m deep and running like a train

The main threat to houses in Ribchester comes from the brooks, rather than the river itself. They back up and creep around the the village. This is Boyce’s Brook, behind our street, which has burst its banks.

Alexander looks at the hastily deployed flood defences on Greenside in Ribchester.

The Saturday BTO BirdTrack walk along the river produced 53 species again, this time in the snow, the highlights being a pair of Mandarin that flew downstream at Lower Barn Farm. A young Peregrine caused panic among the many birds on the meadow opposite the allotments early on and a trio of drake Goosanders was very nice! Lapwings had flicked their hard weather switches and were back around the village, with 22 noted. Two Little Egrets and two dabchicks were also on the river from the allotments and the pinkfeet keep coming and three skeins of 26, 9 and 9 (maybe the same last two groups?) flew over, the first two heading west and the third going south. Small birds were generally few, only one Redwing was noted and there were no fieldfares west of the village on my walk today. A group of only four Long-tailed Tits had probably lost some of their family, I haven’t seen a group of this small size since last spring. A kingfisher flew by the school on my way back and there is often a pair of Stock Doves in the two trees on the oposite bank, I wonder of they are going to nest in the old barn that was formerly home to Little Owl?

In poor light conditions why not have a crack at motion blurs? Black-headed Gulls in this case.

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