Viewing entries tagged
Ribchester

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WRECKED SEABIRDS IN RIBCHESTER

Pomarine Skua, Red Bank, Ribchester 4 November 2023

4 NOVEMBER and a photo of an adult skua is posted on a Ribchester residents Facebook page! It is apparently on the path between Boat House and Red Bank, my old local patch. I have walked this path hundreds of times! Within minutes Lee Parnell has zoomed along there and confirmed it as a Pomarine Skua! The first ever twitchable in the ELOC area! Sadly it is not in a good state, appearing exhausted. I was there soon afterwards and we figured out what to do. After lots of phone calls, including to a RSPCA inspector who lives in Rib, we were no further forward. No-one cares about wrecked seabirds anymore, maybe owing to the AI risk? So, with no facilities to look after it, we left it to take its chances and it was inevitably found dead next morning. A sad end for a magnificent bird.

Just over a month earlier, on 29 September, Phil Larkin reported a Northern Gannet in his Ribchester garden!!! Another storm-blown seabird and only slightly more regular in East Lancs than the Pom. The gannet’s fate was uncertain, it was captured in Boyce’s Brook and released on the river. It lingered a while but then disappeared. Now this bird had definitely encountered AI, with one balckened iris. Whether or not it was still suffering is not known but its occurrence was following another severe storm so it may have simply been an AI survivor?

Northern Gannet, Greenside, Ribchester 29 September 2023

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HERE STOOD AN ANCIENT HEDGEROW

Looking south from Shorton Lane, Ribchester towards Osbaldeston Hall. The remnants of a hedgerow that was shown on the 1888 Ordnance Survey map and was probably hundreds of years old on the left. The fact that it was curved and not straight suggested that it was very old indeed.

WHITETHROATS, FRESH FROM THEIR TRANS-SAHARAN SPRING MIGRATION SANG HERE. Song Thrushes fed on the numerous snails in the shadows below. Blackbirds were joined by winter thrushes from Fennoscandia, Redwings and Fieldfares, to feed on hawthorn berries in the autumn. Hares sought refuge in it before the grass of the meadows grew in spring. Now it lies piled in a heap, the heart being ripped out of the countryside. For what?

Under the plough less than a week later, all trace of the hedgerow has been erased, gone forever.

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RISE OF THE JAYS

Jay collage from the benches by the school in Ribchester

I WAS LATE ON THE RIVERBANK TODAY after spending a couple of hours spotlighting with Alexander for Tim’s dog, which went missing last night. We checked the fields, ditches and riverbank but in the opposite direction to where she was eventually found, just before midnight near the Ribchester Arms, about 1km from where she disappeared. Well it was an interesting nocturnal walk, livened up by lots of rabbits, hares and a Tawny Owl. This morning a warm southerly wind was blowing across the valley bringing with it several Red Admiral butteflies that were wafted across the river like leaves. A jay was calling from the tree next to the school and eventually crossed the river in the other direction. I am seeing lots more jays than usual even accounting for autumn activity. A pair of sparrowhawks soared over the river, while small numbers of squeaking meadow pipits passed on their way south. A noisy kingfisher was also about in its usual spots around the island and a flock of seven lapwings flew west down the valley on a gorgeous sunny morning before it was time to go and look for a petrol station that actually still had some petrol and head off to Oldham climbing .

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RETURN OF THE PINKFEET

Pinks in and out of the mist today!

THE WOBBLY CALLS OF PINK-FOOTED GEESE OVER THE VILLAGE has been a feature this weekend so far. In fact a couple of flocks have passed over the house in the dark while I was looking at my photos for this post. There has been a massive push of Pinkfeet over the last few days down the east coast, Twitter has been alive with them so it has been great to join in the excitement as some of them chose to cross the Pennines and fly down the Ribble Valley. They have all been heading west here, a total of 236 in 7 flocks since the first on Friday evening. It is fantastic to have them back!

This blog post could easily have been ‘Golden Plover - new for me in Ribchester’ instead as one flew over calling at Red Bank, also heading west, presumably a little lower than usual thanks to the low cloud base/mist. Phil has seen them in the fields at Salesbury before but not in recent years. It brought up 120 species for me in Ribchester, not bad for somewhere with no notable habitats. Other migrants today included a few summer visitors still around - by coincidence c.120 hirundines on the wires at Osbaldeston Hall and hawking low over the river there was a magnificent sight. They were mostly swallows but included around 10 House Martins as well.

A late Common Whitethroat was in an isolated riverside hawthorn . We tallied seven Common Chiffchaffs today, including one daft bird singing at Red Bank. Another very conspicuous bird at the moment is jay, they seem to be everywhere in the northwest right now, or maybe just more visible as they rush around stashing food for the winter? The juvenile Osprey seems to have moved on now though, it took my 5KO sightings to 13 this year! Finally, I thought our eight Little Egrets was pretty good until I learned that 46 roosted at Sawley this evening!

Golden Plover collage in the mist over Red Bank

A late Common Whitethroat, surely the last of 2021?

Chiffchaffs are dull compated to Willow Warbler! Look at those short wing tips too!

Very dark legs and only a couple of flecks of yellow = chiffchaff

A damp Red Bank with a low cloud base hanging over the Ribble Valley this morning, there are plenty of hawthorn berries for the Redwings, which will soon be here again for the winter.

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