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.