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BEMPTON ALBATROSS

Black-browed Albatross from Staple Newk, Bempton RSPB reserve, 5 July 2021

AT LAST I MANAGED TO SEE AN ALBATROSS IN THE UK! The words ‘at last’ are well-justified in this case. My first miss was a week on Unst on Shetland in 1990, just about as far away from home as I could get in the UK at the time, when I was in Hertfordshire. This coincided with ‘Albert Dross’, as it was cruelly known (one of my pet hates is calling birds, and walruses for that matter, daft names), taking a week off from his ledge on the cliff face. After running the gauntlett of the bonxie colony at Hermaness, I recall lying on the ground and peering over the edge of the immense cliff face (double the height of Bempton!) to where the albatross usually sat on the top of a prominent buttress. It wasn’t there. The disappointment was crushing even though I did see some other nice things in Shetland but to add insult to injury as soon as I got home, the Pallas’s Sandgrouse turned up near where I had been staying and I wasn’t able to go back for it. The urge to see an albatross in the UK waned after I saw thousands of them in New Zealand and more recently the South Atlantic, where we even cruised past Steeple Jason in the Falkland Islands, home to the world’s largest Black-browed Albatross colony (tens of thousands filled the sky like a swarm of insects). However, albatrosses are special and the thought of seeing one in the North Atlantic/Western Palearctic/UK remained appealing. Apparently not appealing enough for me to rush down to the viewpoints from the Eastern Crowned Warbler at Bempton in 2016, I didn’t want to ‘go off and do something else badly’ until I had managed a decent photo of the warbler, so I ignored it until had gone. It has just taken 5 years to prove that was the right decision! In the meantime I was late to the Bempton albatross party in 2020 and missed it again, even sleeping in the car and trying again the following day to no avail.

Back to 2021 and the clifftop viewpoints on the RSPB’s Bempton reserve. I arrived in late morning after enduring commuter traffic, lorries, roadworks and at least one million tractors on the cross-country journey from East Lancs, to meet Johnny Mac coming away from the morning sighting. Not the first time he’s turned up by chance just when I needed some help. Staple Newk (the most easterly viewpoint, pronounced ‘Stapple Nuck’ it means ‘pillar corner’) was where I should head to and happily the albatross was still sat on the sea to the east of there, just about visible in binos (no details) and only a little better through a scope (orange bill, but the first bird I was shown was a black-backed young gannet, just to add a little more stress!). Not long afterwards the albatross flew in and proceeded to give repeated awesome views as it circled the gannetry on the arch below the viewing platform, before finally landing out of sight around the corner of the cliff. Phew, that was something! I waited for another 8 hours for it to return, passing the time with my old pal Duncan, who had missed in by 10 minutes the week before, but when it did return it only made a few circuits before landing out of sight of both the Staple and even Roll-up viewpoints, its massive wings popping up from behind some rocks the only clue. The seabird colonies of Bempton is one of the top birding experiences in the UK and I said this before, isn’t it ironic that so many of us are obsessed with seeing something that should not be there instead of just enjoying the spectacle of the regular birds? It’s nice to have your cake and eat it though! The walk to the cliff top through uncut hay meadows full of Tree Sparrows, linnets, Corn and Reed Buntings, Meadow Pipits and skylarks addded to the enjoyment of a special day. I should make a note for next July that the excellent kebab shop in Flamborough stays open late but only takes cash!

The albatross crosses the gannetry on the arch below Staple Newk

Photobombing gannet

The view looking east of Staple Newk, the chalk cliffs that form Flamborough Head are magnificent!

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PENDLE GOLD

A lone European Golden Plover with the Ogden Clough in the background.

PENDLE HILL STILL HOLDS SEVERAL BREEDING PAIRS OF GOLDEN PLOVER, usually high up on the peat hinterland. Their mournful song flights are far carrying and add to a wonderful soundscape of ascending skylarks, parachuting Meadow Pipits and clucking Red Grouse. Twite and Dunlin also used to breed up here but were long gone before I arrived in East Lancs in 2005. I’ve never managed to get too close to goldies, they’re usually quite wary on Pendle but I’m quite happy to settle for a few in-landscape images that I took with Phil Larkin earlier this spring.

A pair of golden plovers on Pendle Hill

Golden skylark at dawn

Cold pre-dawn light skylark, still warming up after the overnight frost

Dawn breaks over the Pennines to the east of Pendle

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FIRST SILAGE CUT

Mediterranean Gull (second calendar year) over Ribchester CLICK IMAGES FOR LIGHTBOX

THE FIRST SILAGE CUT OF THE YEAR BROUGHT AN INFLUX OF GULLS TO RIBCHESTER, including at least three Mediterranean Gulls - two fine breeding plumaged adults and a second calendar year bird, found by Phil Larkin, the first time I’ve seen one of these here. Sadly that’s about all the dairy farming regime in the lower valley is good for in terms of attracting birds but it’s an ill wind! The freshly cut grass exposes food for the gulls and I saw the Meds eating several worms while I was there. Along with the Meds there has been a noticeable increase in the number of black-headed gulls, also mostly second calendar year birds (i.e. hatched last summer) and these have spent a lot of time dip-feeding in the foam lines on the river as well as feeding on the fields. I’ve never seen Med Gulls dip feeding here unfortunately, as it is a great way to photograph gulls, at eye level down on the riverbank as they fly into the wind.

There have been a few swifts over the village this week but I am yet to hear a whitethroat singing here this year, although for several reasons I haven’t done nearly as many walks this month as earlier in the year. The weather has been thoroughly depressing lately. Late March was nicer. Other highlights included a male sparrowhawk ripping a House Sparrow apart in the cedar tree in the garden of Churchgates, probably the best view I’ve had of one, it was so preoccupied it didn’t seem to notice me. There is a large starling flock around the fields near the farm at the moment, it’s that time of year when the youngsters leave their nests and go off into the countryside with their parents. They seem to have done quite well despite the weather!

Alston produced some High-Arctic-breeding shorebirds in the last week, grounded by the heavy rain - one (or two?) turnstones, a Wood Sandpiper and a Sanderling (I missed the latter), as well as double figure counts of Dunlin and Common Ringed Plover. It was a privilege, as always, but there is still time for something else in the next week or two. At last, the House Martins seem to have arrived too, with over 20 hawking in the rain over number one reservoir this afternoon in the company of swallows and a few Sand Martins.

Med Gull flight shots with the heather of Longridge Fell in the background

Dip-feeding Common Black-headed Gulls on the River Ribble at Ribchester

An Arctic-bound Ruddy Turnstone in its gaudy breeding plumage stops off at Alston

Soggy Roe Deer doesn’t seem to notice me for some reason?

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MIGRATION SLOWDOWN

This Barn Owl was slowed down too, to 1/30th of a second

APART FROM A SMALL NUMBER OF WHIMBRELS still passing through Alston, spring migration seems to be fizzling out now in the lower Ribble Valley. I’m not going to be posting breeding bird news from now on as they tend to attract too many bird photographers but there is still time for the latest migrants, the highest-Arctic-breeding shorebirds to make an appearance like Red Knot and particularly Sanderling. I see the wind is due to veer to the west again and the showers it will bring give us hope of something grounding in our area. The easterlies today were hopeless, with nothing new at Alston where I photographed this Barn Owl the other day. The light levels were too low for anything other than a half-hearted motion blur but it’s a start. There are still plenty of Little Ringed Plovers on view from the Pinfold Lane screens along with regular shelduck, Gadwall and teal. The gathering of hirundines and swifts has been nice too but in reduced numbers now. I can almost feel the rush of air as swifts zoom past close by!

Meanwhile on the riverbank at Ribchester a pair of Common Sandpipers looks to be breeding somewhere nearby and Grey Wagtail is regularly carrying food from the river into the village somewhere. I have tried a few sessions from the benches but there has not been anything of note on the move. I was distracted a few times by the Song Thrush singing from the direction of the Churchgates that imitates whimbrel in its repertoire of mimicry! It is around this time that our attention usually moves uphill to the fell, where there is still lots of rough habitat with some actual food for birds in it.

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