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birding

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RISE OF THE WOODPIGEONS

Part of the cloud of woodpigeons over the Ribble Valley on Sunday 18 October

HARDLY EXCITING BUT THERE’S A BIG PUSH OF WOODPIGEONS GOING SOUTH AT THE MOMENT is what I wrote on the East Lancs WhatsApp group yesterday. Well that was yesterday and the ‘big push’ by Ribchester standards was only 216. Today the estimated number was around 1700, including one mega flock of around 1200 birds that was flushed from the direction of Red Bank/Old Park Wood by a hot air balloon. I’ve not seen something like this before! Other highlights of my BTO BirdTrack walks around Ribchester included a flock of nine Whooper Swans that flew east low over Lower Alston Farm while watching a male Brambling and a Tree Pipit feeding in the same insect-laden sycamore! The Brambling was only my second in Ribchester. They are very uncommon here. The other main feature of the weekend was the arrival of the winter thrushes, Redwings and Fieldfares (780 and 145 respectively logged over the two days). They were everywhere in small groups. Redwings were feeding on the grass by the allotments, bursting out of every hawthorn and filling the bushes at Red Bank. Fieldfares were all only seen in flight, ‘chacking’ overhead. Blackbirds peaked at a minimum of 41 on Sunday, again they seem to be everywhere at the moment. Robins too, ticking away in the dark on my pre-dawn walk to the riverbank.

Another Peregrine powered over Red Bank towards the village and nine Little Egrets flew upstream on Saturday morning. There were still a few swallows around on Sunday morning with groups of three over the allotments and Lower Alston Farm. Surely these will be the last of the summer? A couple of skylarks were on the newly-cut maize field on Saturday with a good number of Pied Wagtails and Meadow Pipits but they were not here again on Sunday. The wagtails were chasing them non-stop so no surprise they had gone. I saw three Long-tailed tit flocks on Saturday but no luck yet with the hoped-for Yellow-browed Warbler despite much searching! A Noctule bat on Sunday morning along the river was nice and it is also interesting to see that Herring Gull has now replaced Lesser Black-backed Gull as the default large gull in the skies.

October now stands at 69 species and is therefore the fourth best month of the year on my Ribchester patch behind September, August and May in that order. The Rib year list is now on 99! One to go, what will it be?

A collage of one of Sunday’s nine Whooper Swans

Eurasian Skylark - a rare sight on the ground in Ribchester!

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BACK ON THE RIVERBANK AGAIN

Spotted Flycatcher, Red Bank, Ribchester CLICK ON IMAGES FOR LIGHTBOX

MY DEFAULT BIRDING PLAN is to walk out of the back door, put my wellies on and head to the riverbank. Having done plenty of BTO BirdTrack walks this spring and finally passed the 100 species mark for Ribchester I’m building up some happy memories here. However, I hadn’t done any walks in the summer before so there must still be potential to find some surprises. The highlights of the last week or so along the riverbank between Ribchester village and Hothersall included a pair of Spotted Flycatchers feeding at least one newly fledged youngster at Red Bank. They were present each time I passed that way and were a real delight as they are so scarce locally these days. Another highlight was an apparent influx of Willow Warblers along the brook leading down to the Ribble from Lower Barn Farm. There were at least eight here at any one time, maybe more and were a mixture of adults and bright, yellow-bellied youngsters, flycatching in the lee of the hedgerow here. There was also a Chiffchaff and it was good to reaquaint myself with these two species in autumn, pretty easy really, especially the super bright juvenile Willow Warblers. They could easily just be local birds, although there has been a lot of immigration on the east coast in the last week so who knows?

Spotted Flycatcher habitat at Red Bank

Willow Warblers, near Lower Barn Farm, Ribchester

Today there was a Reed Warbler here as well. It popped up in a hawthorn and I was lucky to get a couple of images, which show the bluish grey legs, dark claws and prominent eye ring with very little supercilium, therefore ruling out the albeit much rarer other possibilities. There are only a couple of regular breeding sites for Reed Warbler in the ELOC area, although there are plenty just downstream at Brockholes. It was a surprising new patch bird nevertheless, I was expecting something like shelduck or Common Scoter instead.

European Reed Warbler, River Ribble near Lower Barn Farm, Ribchester - prominent eye-ring, very weak supercilium, blue grey legs and dark claws.

A Tree Pipit on Saturday flew up from a hawthorn by the riverbank, calling, also next to the cornfield, which is now very tall. I wonder if it has some pulling power for migrants? A Common Whitethroat was in the Himalayan Balsam at Lower Alston Farm, which is taking over the riverbank here like something out of the ‘Day of the Triffids’. The Little Egret tally hit five again this weekend, the same as Grey Heron, which are using the same newly sown field below Red Bank, the one from which the skylark was singing in the spring, that is also atrracting hundreds of Black-headed Gulls (up to 700) and just over 100 Lesser Black-backed Gulls. No Med Gulls, which is a pity as the location is ‘just below Flashers Wood’! I checked them several times but no luck yet. They are also feeding on the meadow on the Hothersall meander, which is being ploughed up at the moment, no doubt to make way for more ‘green concrete’.

A gorgeous Long-tailed Tit in the sallows below Lower Barn Farm, loosely associated with the Willow Warblers

Common Buzzard (a fairly typical adult, with a dark broad trailing edge to the wing and a bit ragged)

It has been striking how quiet things become in the afternoons along the riverbank at this time of year. Many resident birds are keeping out of sight, presumably moulting and remaining in the shadows. The number of species is way down on my springtime walks and it seems that a mere 40 is the new benchmark, despite a lot of effort. The following graphic of my patch Ribchester also shows I haven’t done any September or October walks yet either so there must be plenty of potential to add some new species, although I learned today there are another three that I am still missing that were seen so far this year - Little Owl, Common Cuckoo and… Common Scoter of course!

Blue represents 2020 sightings. I didn’t do much in June and July after lockdown eased and I’ve never done any complete lists in September or October.










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THE MOORLAND MADNESS CONTINUES

Pendle Hill trig point looking towards the lights of Burnley.

THANK GOODNESS THE RAIN SEEMS TO HAVE STOPPED at last and both hikes up Pendle Hill this weekend were dry. That's 13 times so far this year. I could even see some daylight on Sunday after which I went for a spin around some of my old Bowland patch adding skylark at Champion Moor and stonechat at White Greet to the ELOC year list in the process. A male Brambling, found by Nigel(!), was on the feeders at work on Wednesday and Thursday and a small flock of 6 Lesser Redpolls was near the board house at Stocks today. No owls this week and I am still to see both Short-eared and Little in the ELOC recording area this year - a sign of how badly they are both doing these days unfortunately. There are also still quite a few other soft birds missing too, like kingfisher, Green Woodpecker and Red-legged Partridge for instance. I'm still not really trying though!

ELOC year list 89. Eurasian Skylark 90. Common Stonechat

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LOOKING FOR A BITTERN

Ancient Hawthorn with an Alder in the background, Chipping Moss.

THERE WAS NO SIGN OF THE BITTERN at Chipping Moss this weekend despite many hours searching. Shame, it is a rare bird in the ELOC area. I did see a few interesting things, notably a treecreeper with a flock of Long-tailed Tits, in an alder on the moss itself. Probably quite a good record there? Two Common Snipe, 14 Common Teal, 83 lapwings (over, west) and a female sparrowhawk were also here as well as a couple of reed buntings, Meadow Pipits, Greenfinches and a cormorant, which flew over going west. A flock of around 100 Common Gulls also headed west, probably a daily movement from Stocks and small groups of starlings flew towards the plantations on the fells north of Chipping at dusk. Two Brown Hares also sought sanctuary here from the sound of shotguns that filled the valley on both days. It would be easy to convince myself that the bittern has gone but I guess it will probably reappear next week, having tucked itself away somewhere out of sight. There are plenty of places it could hide on the moss. I also hiked up Pendle Hill on both days but just to the trig point and back and mostly in the dark on Sunday. The only birds seen up there were raven and golden plover both times and a few Red Grouse on Saturday. That's seven times so far this year. I wonder if I can keep it going?

ELOC year list: 84. Common Treecreeper

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