BIRDS OF BRITAIN AND EUROPE was one of the jokes my Hungarian friends used to make in the 1990s before they had joined the EU. That is 'Britain, which is near Europe'. Part of the European Union but always on the sidelines and never really 'mucking in' or feeling 'European'. It was strange walking around East Lancs today contemplating the reality that pretty soon the situation will be reversed and they will be IN and we will be the outsiders. How times have changed? Meanwhile the ELOC area was quiet again today. I checked Stocks and Alston in the hope of a Common Scoter to no avail. Very strange that Stocks did not have one yet by the way! Again there were no additions to the ELOC little year. I am seriously running out of steam for that at the moment. However, there were a few interesting sightings, notably eight crossbills in the plantation on Gannow Fell. Other notable things were: Common Cuckoo (one over Gannow Fell); Eurasian Curlew (four flew high west over the fell, calling, presumably on their way to the coast); Common Sandpiper (a pair with a fluffy chick at Ribchester Bridge, where there was also a Common Whitethroat songflighting); Kingfisher (one flashed past the new hide at Stocks and headed into the forest!); Great Crested Grebe (eight adults at Stocks was my highest count there); Barnacle Goose (22 flew up the Hodder Inlet - where do they come from and where are they going to?); Garden Warbler and Blackcap were both still singing at Stocks but the cuckoos seem to have gone quiet now. Earlier in the week a crossbill over Longridge Fell and a Little Owl at Wetter's Bridge, Waddington were notable. On the insect front a Bilberry Bumblebee was stranded on bramble flowers by the new hide at Stocks, first one I've seen this year.
Viewing entries in
Birding
Common Crossbill, Gannow Fell
MIDSUMMER IN EAST LANCS IS USUALLY QUIET like this. It is becoming difficult to add to the little year total and my wanderings this weekend did not produce anything special but more notable sightings included 31 Common Crossbills at Gannow Fell, some of the red males singing. They were roaming around the moorland this time rather than migrating and were feeding on both spruce and Scots Pine cones. Also here was a Common Cuckoo mobbed by Meadow Pipits, a pair of Common Stonechats with at least 2 juveniles but there wasn't anything on the move over the fell today. The curlews still seem to have young but there was also a dead young jay by the roadside. Yesterday morning produced an amazing brood(s) of 18 Goosanders being tended by one mother on the river at Alston, one LRP and four Gadwall at Alston Wetland where the Lesser Whitethroat was still singing on both days along Pinfold Lane. Common Whitethroat was also still singing there. However, the low point was not managing to catch up with the Common Scoter on Clowbridge, which had moved on but the time I got there. Plenty of time left for that one though!
Western Roe Deer in cotton grass at Gannow Fell (you can just about see the ears of her fawn standing in front of her).
Eurasian Curlew, Kemple End.
THE LOCAL CURLEWS APPEAR TO HAVE YOUNG NOW judging by the amount of noisy activity over the Birdquest office at the moment. These photos were taken from the car park! This near-threatened bird has declined across its range it is still fairly common in East Lancs for the time being. One wonders for how long though with such early silage cutting in most of the lowland areas? Let's hope that some of the work done by the RSPB can help this special shorebird. They have always been one of my favourite birds, going back to childhood days in Weardale and the countryside would feel empty without them.
Common Crossbill (male), Gannow Fell.
MIGRATION CONTINUES. Although most birds are breeding in East Lancs at the moment, either incubating or feeding young in or out of the nest, some are still on the move and today it was crossbills again. I had another eight today in a tight flock that flew east over heather moorland at Gannow Fell. Fortunately they gave me plenty of warning they were coming, with their loud 'chup-chup-chup' calls, so I was ready for them with the camera. Crossbill flocks always potentially have something really rare amongst them but these were all clearly Commons and all appeared to be adults, at least four of them red males like the one last week from the same spot. Bill Aspin tells me that some crossbills have been reported from Darwen Moor lately too. I wonder where they are coming from to be heading east at this time of year? A male siskin and three Lesser Redpolls also flew east over the moorland here. I have even seen a raptor on Gannow Fell now, albeit only a kestrel. Stocks was very quiet part from some breeding activity. A mother Goosander had nine ducklings in tow, there were also at least six juvenile Grey Herons around the reservoir too. The pair of Great Black-backed Gulls fortunately do not appear to have produced youngsters this year and a lone first summer Common Gull was noteworthy. Alston Wetland was also very quiet with no passage migrants. Only a pair of LRPs and six Gadwall of interest on the pool and a Lesser Whitethroat singing from the hedgerow in the field behind the viewing screen. No new birds for the ELOC little year despite some effort, hopefully that will change soon!