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

DABCHICKS BACK ALONG THE RIVERBANK

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A Little Egret flies under the bridge at Little Town. They sometimes fly over it, I wonder how they decide?

‘I USED TO SEE DABCHICK ON THE RIVER BY THE SCHOOL’ said Geoff Rollinson the other day. I hadn’t seen a Dabchick (AKA Little Grebe) there so far in 9 years but amazingly the following day there it was, struggling upstream along the oppoosite bank! Since that sighting things went a bit crazy with 4 Little Grebes at Red Bank on Saturday and 3 from the allotments today. The Little Grebe also marked 100 birds for me in Ribchester this year. Not bad considering I hadn’t even seen 100 species here in total before the first lockdown.

November ticks away and now stands at 60 for the month and 65 all time. There are so many possibilities to add to this figure over the next few weeks. Little Egrets appeared both days this weekend but numbers have definitely dwindled as the autumn has progressed. It is not surprising considering up to 17 are roosting upstream at Sawley at the moment. The BTO BirdTrack walk yesterday managed 51 species. Nothing special, just a good selection of common birds.

A Brambling flew over the allotments this morning and there are still 3 figures of Fieldfares flying south. A small flock of siskins was the first multiple sighting this autumn. Kingfishers are still very noisy and easy to see at the moment, either along the brook near the Stydd or along the river itself, upstream from the road bridge.

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Little Grebe at Ribchester (Mike Watson)

ELOC CETTI'S WARBLER

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Cetti’s Warbler, Barrow Upper Lodge 6 November 2020

BARROW UPPER LODGE DELIVERED A COUPLE OF SHOCKS, first of all the first Bearded Reedling in East Lancs since 1981 on 4 November and then a Cetti’s Warbler on 5 November. I was surprised news of the reedling did not get out until after dark when a good number of us could have seen it but thankfully Mark Breaks was super quick with the Cetti’s Warbler, allowing me to connect with it via a visit to the post office in Clitheroe a couple of hours later. I’d been thinking of this one in Ribchester, given they are regular at Brockholes just a few miles downstream but it was a nice surprise today nevertheless. New birds for me in ELOC nowadays are few and far between. It was also nice to catch up with John Metcalf at the lodge. I recall Bill Aspin describing him as an ‘Ornithological Cyborg’ in about 2005, owing to his uncanny ability to latch onto good birds here. Even John needs Bearded Reedling for East Lancs and he has probably seen more birds in the ELOC recording area than anyone. Barrow Upper Lodge last hosted Bearded Reedling back in 1978, it is slowly returning to nature now that the fishery closed down and has fallen into dereliction. Its banks are becoming overgrown and much less disturbed so it looks a good bet for Water Rail and bittern now too! I went back again on 6 November and spent some more time watching, well mostly waiting around for, the Cetti’s Warbler.

Cetti’s Warbler was first recorded in the UK as recently as 1961, in Hampshire and then bred for the first time in 1972, in Kent. It has continued to go from strength to strength and by 1996 there were as many as 574 singing males in 26 counties. It has continued to increase since then. There has only been a handful of records in East Lancs but maybe it is about to follow Little Egret and become a regular sight and sound along our waterways? That would be nice!

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Cetti’s Warbler, Barrow Upper Lodge, 5 November 2020

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Cetti’s Warbler, Barrow Upper Lodge, 6 November 2020

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Catching up with East Lancs’s very own Ornithological Cyborg John Metcalf

AUTUMN SLOWDOWN ON THE RIVERBANK

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After the rain followed blue skies and birds of prey: Peregrine, Eurasian Sparrowhawk and Common Kestrel

THE RIBBLE VALLEY AROUND RIBCHESTER IS QUIETLY SETTLING DOWN FOR WINTER, I didn’t see a single summer migrant this weekend and our winter visitors are now arriving. A couple of BTO BirdTrack walks along the riverbank were pretty quiet, mostly owing to another series of heavy showers tracking across East Lancashire. There was nothing new for the year this weekend and highlights were rather few. Woodpigeons are still on the move south across the river and I tallied a total of around 460 over the two days but most of the winter thrushes have pushed through now. Redwings barely made three figures after the big numbers last weekend and Fieldfares didn’t even pass the 40 mark. Little Egrets peaked at four on Saturday and there were only a couple of Grey Herons around, there were no goosanders and I haven’t seen a goldeneye yet this autumn. I guess they will probably appear next month? The best sighting of the weekend was another (or the same) juvenile Peregrine that was toying with Carrion Crows over Red Bank today as the sun came out after this morning’s torrential rain showers. A sparrowhawk and kestrel followed in blue skies but the farmland around Ribchester was otherwise very quiet today. The hawthorns are bare now but they do hold a decent berry crop, the fields are waterlogged and I noticed a nice looking flood pool in a field above Parsonage Farm that I haven’t check before. I will have to include it on my regular walk now!

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Early morning on the riverbank