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Birding

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RETURN OF THE PINKFEET

Pinks in and out of the mist today!

THE WOBBLY CALLS OF PINK-FOOTED GEESE OVER THE VILLAGE has been a feature this weekend so far. In fact a couple of flocks have passed over the house in the dark while I was looking at my photos for this post. There has been a massive push of Pinkfeet over the last few days down the east coast, Twitter has been alive with them so it has been great to join in the excitement as some of them chose to cross the Pennines and fly down the Ribble Valley. They have all been heading west here, a total of 236 in 7 flocks since the first on Friday evening. It is fantastic to have them back!

This blog post could easily have been ‘Golden Plover - new for me in Ribchester’ instead as one flew over calling at Red Bank, also heading west, presumably a little lower than usual thanks to the low cloud base/mist. Phil has seen them in the fields at Salesbury before but not in recent years. It brought up 120 species for me in Ribchester, not bad for somewhere with no notable habitats. Other migrants today included a few summer visitors still around - by coincidence c.120 hirundines on the wires at Osbaldeston Hall and hawking low over the river there was a magnificent sight. They were mostly swallows but included around 10 House Martins as well.

A late Common Whitethroat was in an isolated riverside hawthorn . We tallied seven Common Chiffchaffs today, including one daft bird singing at Red Bank. Another very conspicuous bird at the moment is jay, they seem to be everywhere in the northwest right now, or maybe just more visible as they rush around stashing food for the winter? The juvenile Osprey seems to have moved on now though, it took my 5KO sightings to 13 this year! Finally, I thought our eight Little Egrets was pretty good until I learned that 46 roosted at Sawley this evening!

Golden Plover collage in the mist over Red Bank

A late Common Whitethroat, surely the last of 2021?

Chiffchaffs are dull compated to Willow Warbler! Look at those short wing tips too!

Very dark legs and only a couple of flecks of yellow = chiffchaff

A damp Red Bank with a low cloud base hanging over the Ribble Valley this morning, there are plenty of hawthorn berries for the Redwings, which will soon be here again for the winter.

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FIRST PEREGRINE OF THE AUTUMN

Peregrine, juvenile over the White Bull in Ribchester, 14 September 2021

LOCK UP YER PIGEONS! The first Peregrine of the autumn wheeled into view over the White Bull on my way home tonight, a pristine juvenile bird only just over the rooftops. It was obviously prospecting the village for an evening meal and was five days earlier than last autumn’s first on 19 September. I was very sorry it appeared after Phil and Lee had gone home - it would have looked great from the benches, assuming it passed that way. Peregrine is a regular feature in the lower valley during the winter but they range widely so you can never be sure of when and where they will appear.

Also around this evening were Little Egret (up to four recently), a kingfisher (it seems to be fond of the large willow on the island at the moment), a flock of 11 lapwings over, several Grey Wagtails (which also roost in the island willow), a sparrowhawk dangling an injured leg and a couple of buzzards of note. Five swallows were around Lower Alston Farm, they are becoming scarce now and a large salmon flopped out of the water almost around the bend upstream from us. The cold easterly wind felt like autumn this evening so I didn’t stay until dusk.

A Little Egret flies upstream past the benches this evening

Ribchester sunset on the riverbank, looking east towards Pendle Hill

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GREEN WARBLER AT BUCKTON

Green Warbler, Buckton, East Yorkshire 11 September 2021

SOME NUMBERS INCREASED BY ONE THIS WEEKEND. That’s about what my birding amounted to. First of all a Pectoral Sandpiper at lunchtime on 10 September at Alstion Wetland, found by Gavin Thomas, was a new bird for the Ribchester 5KO and the East Lancs ELOC area for me. It spent the brief few minutes I was there creeping around the far shore of the wetland lagoon, so basically rubbish views before I had to go and move my car so Phil and I decided to shove off home/back to work.

Secondly the Green Warbler at Buckton in East Yorkshire moved my UK list on by one as well. Many thanks to Rocket for the lift and another grand day out. The warbler kept us waiting in the dell for almost three hours, which is bascially Mark Thomas’s ringing station project. Top marks and many thanks to him for his years of hard work that culminated in this 8th record for Britiain and only 2nd for the mainland. The crowd of birders assembled by the dell had been instructed by Mark to stay back and he did a brilliant job of keeping it a pleasant atmosphere with no-one rushing the bird, which returned to a small crab apple tree, surrounded by willows waving in the wind in the middle of the dell. It was apparent that some folks still need to spend some time getting know Willow Warblers, of which there was a couple and a Yellow Wagtail flew north, calling. I have been talking about what next after White-tailed Lapwing and Sykes’s Warbler from Central Asia, so what next then?

Oh and there was the Black-browed Albatross on Staple Newk at Bempton Cliffs RSPB reserve as well, a bit distant and then it flew directly out to sea to continue the series of poor distant views. This didn’t seem to matter too much, it was great to catch up with some friends today as well.

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ANOTHER LAPWING ON A DIFFERENT RIVERBANK

White-tailed Lapwing, Blacktoft Sands RSPB Reserve 27 August 2021

WELL AT LEAST MY VIEWS OF WHITE-TAILED LAPWING IN THE UK ARE STEADILY GETTING CLOSER. I reckon the range of each one has halved from a very distant flight view (Caerlaverock) to the distant through-the-fence view at Seaforth and now this, at the back of the scrape from Xerox hide at the RSPB’s Blacktoft Sands reserve. Although it spent most of its time out of sight behind the reed island I guess this added to the drama when its black-and-white wings flashed onto the stage. Alexander was competing in Sheffield today so it wasn’t much of a detour to show him somewhere special. He even endured a queue for the hide wait and then another spell waiting for a second one minute view before we left. I love Blacktoft, mostly as its always been kind to me. I’ve seen quite a few new birds here and haven’t missed anything yet on my very occasional visits since my first ever Marsh Harrier on 6 June 1981, to Hudsonian Godwit and Red-necked Phalarope in 1983, Red-necked Stint in 1986 and Montagu’s Harrier more recently. Back to the present day, once it appeared, the White-tailed Lapwing stalked the back of the very shallow muddy lagoon passing Green Sandpipers, Ruffs, Teal and Water Rails before it wandered out of view. A Spotted Redshank flew over calling, a couple of Marsh Harriers floated over the vast reedbed and a male Bearded Tit hopped around at the base of the reeds. What a nice selection of birds in a lovely setting. I’ve commented this is probably the worst-looking White-tailed Lapwing I’ve seen but it looked great from a distance today!

Here’s how I prefer to see one, driving up to it in a field in Oman.

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