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Birding

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OTTERS ON THE RIVEBANK

Otter at Ribchester, presumably a female with a cub in tow. CLICK ON IMAGE FOR LIGHTBOX

A COUPLE OF OTTERS ON THE RIVER WAS REWARD FOR GETTING UP EARLY. An adult and a small cub, which got out of the water to have a look at me, too close for photos less than a metre away! I do not see many otters in Ribchester, they are quite mobile, usually secretive and active at dawn and dusk. Obviously they are unpopular with fishermen too but the coarse season does not have long left so the riverbank will be much more empty soon.

Birding was also quite good today with highlights: Mandarin (a pair on the river below Churchgates early on only); Woodcock and 15 Pinkfeet flying west. Curlews made double figures and they were singing a lot this morning. Lapwings reached 26, also with lots of display flight and song and a flock of Oystercatchers was at Hothersall again. The Fieldfare flock was still along the lane just past Lower Barn Farm, I counted 53 there and another six were upstream from the bridge. It was good to see some other interesting waterbirds along the river including Little Grebe (one upstream from the allotments), two Little Egrets (upstream from the bridge) and a scatter of four kingfishers, my first for several weeks and all from public footpaths! Birds of prey were also in evidence with buzzard, kestrel and sparrowhawk all putting in appearances. The Rib patch list is up to 77 for 2021 and 59 for March this year/74 all time, making it the second best month after February. It seems we get more winter visitors than summer visitors here.

You looking at me?

A more typical view in early morning pre-dawn light.

Ever stopped to appreciate what a terrific bird Blue Tit is? Could you colour one in correctly from memory?

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DANISH BLACK-HEADED GULL IN RIBCHESTER

Black-headed Gull, White V03S, ringed in Denmark in 2016 (Mike Watson).

BLACK-HEADED IS OFTEN THE COMMONEST BIRD IN RIBCHESTER in winter on my BTO BirdTrack counts. But where do they come from? Lee Parnell’s sighting in December 2020 of a bird colour-ringed in Zagreb, Croatia gave a clue that not all of them are from hereabouts. You could easily be forgiven for thinking they are, as Belmont Reservoir, home to the UK’s largest colony of them (11,500 pairs in 2020!), is only 15 miles away. So when Alexander I and saw a bird stood on the roof of his school on 1 March that bore a ring, White V03S, we were keen to find out where it had come from. Well it was a nice surprise to discover it was not a local breeding bird at all, in fact it was ringed as a chick at a colony on an island off the coast of Denmark, over 900km away! It was also interesting to discover that this is the first reported sighting of it since it was ringed in 2016, almost 5 years ago, on a tiny island of the Hirsholmene group off the northeast tip of Denmark. There are about 3,000 Black-headed Gulls on this island, which is also home to 1,000 Sandwich Terns and is a RAMSAR site.

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THROW IN THE OWL

A Barn Owl ready to pounce in Ribchester CLICK ON IMAGE FOR LIGHTBOX

EVERYONE LOVES OWLS RIGHT? We are lucky to have several pairs of Barn Owls breeding around Ribchester and while it still gets dark quite early it’s possible to see one before teatime at the moment. This particular owl is pretty much bombproof and doesn’t seem to be too worried by the many folks out for a walk when it emerges from its day roosting spot to go out hunting. I called in to see it again, giving a small boost to my March local patch list that started today. Mediterranean Gull excitement continued with a pair of adults with solid black hoods of breeding plumage on the fields along the lane to Boat House. They were quite lively and appeared to be courting, calling frequently but they didn’t linger too long after I first saw them as the 400 or so Black-headed Gulls attracted to the slurry spreading operation dispersed towards sunset. Again a Common Buzzard was also attracted to the slurry. I am thinking it has learnt that the slurry brings worms to the surface rather than trying to hunt gulls? Earlier in the afternoon a 3CY Great Black-backed Gull was feeding on the carcass of a dead sheep opposite the rectory, one of two ewes that have died there in the last couple of days. A Goldcrest was still singing at dusk and the Fieldfare flock was still around Lower Barn Farm, joined with a hundred or so starlings on a cold evening with a stiff southeasterly wind. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky but instead a dull brown haze caused by crappy quality, continental air across the eastern skyline.

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MEDITERRANEAN GULL

Another adult Mediterranean Gull, this time over Red Bank, Ribchester CLICK IMAGE FOR LIGHTBOX.

MED GULL STOLE THE SHOW AGAIN on a glorious springlike day. The valley was full of bird song even after a frost overnight. Blackbird, Song Thrush, Dunnock, Chaffinch, Wren and Great, Blue and Coal Tits were all adding to the chorus. However, ever ungrateful, I had just complained that there was hardly any movement today (Black-headed Gull didn’t even reach three figures and Common Gull was down to its usual three or four instead of yesterday’s 33) when a small flock of gulls appeared ahead of me at Red Bank. I could see one was a Common Gull so why not photograph it? It would look great against a clear blue sky. As I was lining it up I noticed the others were Black-headed Gulls but the fourth bird was…BAM! An adult Mediterranean Gull with a half-black hood. I had plenty of time to lock onto it as it came past me on the top of the small hill, not far above eye level. You can see from my other mostly poor Med Gull photos from Rib that they do not always co-operate, and/or I have not always been ready in time/had the correct settings dialled in etc. They are very much a feature of the valley at the moment, Bill Aspin had five at Brockholes yesterday afternoon and Paul Holt also had five feeding in the show field at Salesbury late this morning. We had a walk along there in the afternoon but they were all gone by then. It makes me laugh that Mediterranean Gull isn’t really a typical gull of the Mediterranean in the same way that Yellow-legged and Audouin’s Gulls are and it’s scientific name actually means Black-headed Gull! Meanwhile Black-headed Gull has a brown head and a scientific name that means Laughing Gull! And so it goes on, what a mess!

The rest of the birding around the village was mostly things that have been around for a while now. Lapwings exceeded 40 again, with several displaying pairs. Curlews were singing their hearts out again but didn’t break double figures today, all presumably local breeding birds now. Oystercatcher has dwindled to only 15 (most have probably gone upstream to breed now) but one of the wintering Little Grebes was still at Red Bank. Fieldfares had increased to 62 and walking the fields north of Red Bank I found a flock of 10 Redwings near Eatoughs. However, the two other best sightings were a Peregrine on one of the pylons (probably the same youngster, which has been around for a couple of months) and four Teal on one of the hidden shooting ponds. Ha! They are not on it now and are hopefully somewhere safe instead. Interestingly an adult Great Black-backed Gull was hanging aound the sheep up here this morning, maybe it knows that some tasty afterbirth is on the way soon? I do not see many mammals around Ribchester but Brown Hares are particularly conspicuous at the moment, with 6 seen today. So February ended on 72 bird species, one ahead of January but more significantly my Ribchester patch year list moved up to 76 and February is now four clear at the top of the all time chart with 77. Probably just a product of the 12 BTO BirdTrack walks I did this month.

Common Buzzard (adult) over Eatoughs on a bright sunny morning.

Feel the power! Another pylon Peregrine.

Can you stand another Med Gull?

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