AUTUMN SLOWDOWN ON THE RIVERBANK

View fullsize

After the rain followed blue skies and birds of prey: Peregrine, Eurasian Sparrowhawk and Common Kestrel

THE RIBBLE VALLEY AROUND RIBCHESTER IS QUIETLY SETTLING DOWN FOR WINTER, I didn’t see a single summer migrant this weekend and our winter visitors are now arriving. A couple of BTO BirdTrack walks along the riverbank were pretty quiet, mostly owing to another series of heavy showers tracking across East Lancashire. There was nothing new for the year this weekend and highlights were rather few. Woodpigeons are still on the move south across the river and I tallied a total of around 460 over the two days but most of the winter thrushes have pushed through now. Redwings barely made three figures after the big numbers last weekend and Fieldfares didn’t even pass the 40 mark. Little Egrets peaked at four on Saturday and there were only a couple of Grey Herons around, there were no goosanders and I haven’t seen a goldeneye yet this autumn. I guess they will probably appear next month? The best sighting of the weekend was another (or the same) juvenile Peregrine that was toying with Carrion Crows over Red Bank today as the sun came out after this morning’s torrential rain showers. A sparrowhawk and kestrel followed in blue skies but the farmland around Ribchester was otherwise very quiet today. The hawthorns are bare now but they do hold a decent berry crop, the fields are waterlogged and I noticed a nice looking flood pool in a field above Parsonage Farm that I haven’t check before. I will have to include it on my regular walk now!

View fullsize

Early morning on the riverbank

EAST LANCS MIGRATION

View fullsize

Eurasian Curlew flying west up the Ribble Valley at Ribchester 

THERE IS A LOT OF MIGRATION TAKING PLACE ACROSS THE UK RIGHT NOW including reports of thousands of Redwings from watch points in southern England. A pre-dawn walk up Pendle Hill in a howling easterly wind was hard work in the low cloud but a single Fieldfare sheltering behind peat hags right at the summit was my first on the ground here. Martin Naylor managed to twitch it and told me later that he has occasionally seen them and Redwings in weather like today. I could hear Redwings going over Pendleside in the dark on my way up the hill and three Fieldfares were near the shelterbelt at Pendleside Farm. As I was watching a pair of Common Ravens skirting the hill a small passerine came into view in the sky, it gradually flew closer before diving into the bracken on the hillside, it was a greenfinch. Back in the valley I watched from the benches by the river at Ribchester for around 40 minutes and in that time five Whooper Swans flew east, 316 Redwings flew northeast over the town, two Eurasian Curlews flew east and a kingfisher and Goosander were on the river itself. Migration is an amazing spectacle, even on a small and local scale.