WIGEON NEW FOR THE RIBCHESTER PATCH

Eurasian Wigeon, River Ribble, Ribchester 22 November 2020 (Mike Watson)

OUT OF THE PRE-DAWN SHADOWS ON THE RIVERBANK APPEARED A WIGEON on Sunday morning! It had been resting with the Mallards, with which it remained loosely until I left it, a little upstream from the allotments. This is my first at Ribchester, the second good bird on successive weekends that the local Mallards have pulled in and it was interesting to note that the second half of November is the BTO Bird Track annual peak time for them. After the torrential rain stopped on Saturday an afternoon walk produced a few interesting birds, notably a Little Grebe on the Lower Alston Farm bend, a sparrowhawk, a flock of 15 Tree Sparrows and around 100 Fieldfares feeding in fields between Lower Barn Farm and Boat House, where a flock(!) of eight Song Thrushes was something special. They were feeding together in a newly sown field. I’ve seen migrants more or less together before but I have never seen anything like this in winter.

The Sunday morning watch from the allotments was very lively starting with the Eurasian Wigeon (Ribchester 102 2020/110 all time) then Goosander, Little Grebe, four flocks of Pinkfeet totalling around 450 birds, three Whooper Swans that flew west along the river, three ravens flew north and there was a very noticeable steady northwesterly movement of Herring Gulls all morning that ended up with a total of 184. I was surprised to see that there are still woodpigeons (78) migrating south, I expected that all of them would have gone by now. Most Redwings seem to have gone already, with only one seen today.

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Great Cormorant against a fiery dawn sunrise

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Three Whooper Swans flying downstream on 22 November

(Un)Common Gull. Numbers increase in the Ribchester area in winter, where they are still outnumbered by more than 100 to 1 by Black-headed Gull

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Eurasian Wigeon, my first in Ribchester

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Tree Sparrow still flourishes in Ribchester, thanks to the conservation efforts of Glyn Anderton and the kind residents who feed them throughtout the year

THE SMALLEST LIST PLODS ON

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Whooper Swans, Stocks Reservoir.

THIS YEAR HAS APPARENTLY ALREADY SEEN A GOOD PASSAGE OF WHOOPER SWANS THROUGH EAST LANCS and I thought my chance had gone until the autumn. So I was very happy to see a flock of 25 resting in the Hodder Inlet of Stocks Reservoir today. Then I looked at my phone and saw they had already been reported. A guy who I chatted to briefly about photography was being frog-marched around the circular walk by his disinterested mates and didn't want to walk a few metres down to the hide to look at them. 'I've seen them at Slimbridge already' he said. I didn't have the inclination to tell him that they would have been Bewick's Swans and not Whoopers. A Black-tailed Godwit at Alston was also my first of the year in the ELOC area. Uncommon shorebirds have been scarce there so far but April is THE month for them so hopefully there are more to come soon. The smallest list plods on then. Otherwise Alexander also saw his first adders today, a very exciting moment for him to get very close to them and see what beautiful and placid creatures they are.

ELOC year list: 103. Black-tailed Godwit 104. Whooper Swan

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Black-tailed Godwit, Alston Wetland.

EAST LANCS MIGRATION

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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.