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RIBCHESTER RIVERBANK

Frozen debris on the riverbank, a product of the recent storms.

AN EARLY MORNING WALK ALONG THE FROSTY RIVERBANK produced 37 bird species including one new one in Ribchester for me, Common Raven, which flew across the valley calling. A pair of Common Buzzards circled to the north of the village, a pair of Common Goldeneyes were on the river and two Common Kingfishers were the highlights of a pleasant walk. The three oystercatchers are still along the river as well and a total of six Grey Herons was my highest so far. I have just started to record my local sightings on www.ebird.org. I heard that they will probably enter an agreement with the BTO evenutally but their online input form is by far the most user-friendly. A Song Thrush in hedges near The Boat House was the only one I have seen so far this year and the long-staying Trumpeter Swan was still on the river - I wonder where it came from? The main asset of the patch is the river but there is other potential in the bird feeders around the village as well as the tall trees of the church yard.

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OUCH!

Great Northern Diver (or Common Loon) in evening sun at Brixham Marina

AN ATTEMPT TO PHOTOGRAPH THE SHOWY YELLOW-BILLED LOON at Brixham Harbour in Devon failed, Elvis having 'left the building'. Another product of the recent storms it presumably moved on once the sea calmed and it had fed up for a couple of weeks. Even the Great Northern Divers were on their way out of the harbour too, with only a couple left in the marina in the evening and another two juveniles on the sea off the breakwater. There had been around 10 Great Northerns in the morning plus two Black-throated Divers, a Black Guillemot and an Iceland Gull. The previous day's estimate was double this figure. Brixham harbour has seen previous invasions, it was used by US marines in Operation Overload - the 1944 D-Day landings in World War 2. Around 20 Purple Sandpipers were resting on the old jetty near the harbour mouth, a Slavonian Grebe was off Berry Head, a couple of gannets followed fishing boats in Tor Bay and the tamest Ruddy Turnstones I have ever seen were trying to steal bait from the fishermen's boxes. Also around the harbour were a Common Raven and several Grey Seals. As the sun dipped below the hills behind the town, so did I and the long journey home began.

The same bird a few minutes later against the sun - it is amazing how different they can look!

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QUIET RIVERBANK

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QUIET RIVERBANK

The Ribble at Ribchester - waving goodbye to blue skies and Altocumulus clouds for the next week or so.

THE RIBBLE WAS QUIET AT RIBCHESTER TODAY with generally few birds around and nothing of any real interest. Three Goosanders and three Common Oystercatchers were disturbed by a couple of canoeists that paddled slowly downstream flushing every single waterbird as they went, I hope this hobby does not catch on here! There were also three Northern Lapwings at the school bend and I heard a kingfisher downstream from the Boat House. A Common Buzzard floated slowly across the valley, right over the village and a lone Fieldfare was competing for hawthorn berries with blackbirds in the lane next to the tennis courts. A Grey Wagtail brightened up the dairy farm and there were also Meadow Pipit and Pied Wagtail here. I didn't manage to find a tree sparrow today or a Reed Bunting and many of the hedges have been manicured recently to match the green concrete that surrounds them. There were even fewer birds in the early afternoon with a Little Grebe and a sparrowhawk of note but the best sighting of the day was from the spare room window - a flock of c.75 Pink-footed Geese west over the village, calling, on their way to the coast.

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WINTER SOLSTICE IVORY

Ivory Gull incoming!

THE BIGGEST INFLUX OF IVORY GULLS TO THE NORTH SEA IN MY LIFETIME included one at Patrington Haven, just upstream along the Humber shore from Spurn Point in East Yorkshire. Turned up by a local birder doing his WEBS count, it was first found feeding on dead fish by the pumping station. It is ironic that the huge recent winter storm surge, which brought it here, also provided some food for it in the form of freshwater fish killed by the inundation of the Winestead drain by seawater. Birders have since topped up this supply of course!

The Ivory Gull was present from first light but only visited the pumping station three more times over the course of the day and each time rather fleetingly. I love birding the Humber shore, with its big skies and the mighty river itself, six miles wide at this point. Mumurations of Red Knot swirled over the silver water, many hundreds of golden plovers passed overhead and the air was filled with the calls of curlews and geese, which included c.50 Dark-bellied Brent Geese in several small flocks. At one point three Peregrines drifted east together, towards Spurn followed soon afterwards by a Merlin, zipping across the saltmarsh. However, it was the rare high Arctic gull that lit up the shortest day of the year - it is nice to think that the evenings will be a little lighter starting tomorrow!

Ivory Gull, Patrington Haven

Brent Geese flying along the Humber shore at Spurn

Ivory Gull watchers at Patrington Haven

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