MEANWHILE BACK IN EAST LANCS

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Barn Owl number four this week!

BACK IN EAST LANCS spring migration is starting to pick up pace. Northern Wheatear and Ring Ouzel were back in one of their regular haunts last weekend, Common Chiffchaff was singing at work this week and shorebirds have returned to Alston, including Little Ringed Plover and Common Redshanks. An afternoon at Stocks today added another four, thanks to hanging out with the Breakses, notably an Osprey, which spent the whole evening at the reservoir including catching a large fish, which it had to swim to the shore with, it was obviously either too weak to take flight with, or the fish was simply too big? Fantastic stuff, albeit rather distant. Hirundines swarmed over the waters here - Sand Martins as well as a few swallows and a pair of Red-breasted Mergansers were my first of the year in ELOC. Other interesting sightings included roding woodcocks and a couple of oddities, a leucistic Carrion Crow and a presumed Lesser Black-backed Gull X Herring Gull hybrid. So my ELOC little year plods on but I will stay miles behind the front-runners as I'm not twitching any of the uncommon birds that have been turning up lately.

ELOC Year List: 91. Common Redshank 92. Little Ringed Plover 93. Northern Wheatear 94. Ring Ouzel 95. Common Chiffchaff 96. Sand Martin 97. Barn Swallow 98. Western Osprey 99. Red-breasted Merganser

IBISBILL

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Ibisbill, Choglamsar, Ladakh

IBISBILLS WINTER IN SMALL NUMBERS IN THE INDUS VALLEY in Ladakh. These strange shorebirds are unique in filling an almost dipper-like niche along the fast flowing mountain rivers of the Himalayas and surrounding ranges of Central Asia. Their long curved bill is used to glean invertebrates from the shallows around invariably rounded stones along the edges of rivers and streams. In fact it is difficult to find a photo of them that does not have defocused smooth limestone rocks in the background. My first were almost 20 years ago in Nepal but here they were constantly disturbed by folks extracting gravel from the riverbeds for road construction. It was nice to see them relatively undisturbed along the sacred Indus in Ladakh, prayer flags fluttering from the nearby iron bridge across it at Choglamsar. Another unique feature is their purple legs during the breeding season (apparently the legs of ibisbills change color to a crimson similar to the bill shade shortly after death!).

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Ibisbill, Choglamsar, Ladakh - the waters of the sacred Indus turned rose gold in the evening light.

THE MOORLAND MADNESS CONTINUES

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Pendle Hill trig point looking towards the lights of Burnley.

THANK GOODNESS THE RAIN SEEMS TO HAVE STOPPED at last and both hikes up Pendle Hill this weekend were dry. That's 13 times so far this year. I could even see some daylight on Sunday after which I went for a spin around some of my old Bowland patch adding skylark at Champion Moor and stonechat at White Greet to the ELOC year list in the process. A male Brambling, found by Nigel(!), was on the feeders at work on Wednesday and Thursday and a small flock of 6 Lesser Redpolls was near the board house at Stocks today. No owls this week and I am still to see both Short-eared and Little in the ELOC recording area this year - a sign of how badly they are both doing these days unfortunately. There are also still quite a few other soft birds missing too, like kingfisher, Green Woodpecker and Red-legged Partridge for instance. I'm still not really trying though!

ELOC year list 89. Eurasian Skylark 90. Common Stonechat

WAITING FOR STORM IMOGEN

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Trumpeter Swan, Ribchester (it's still here in case anyone is interested, unringed but wing-clipped it has been here for over 10 years now).

THE HIGHLIGHT OF THE WEEKEND WAS A FLOCK OF FIVE SHELDUCK flying west over Alston Reservoirs at Longridge, while watching gulls arrive to roost on No.4 reservoir on Sunday afternoon. There were no scarce gulls amongst around 500 gulls of five species, one Great Black-backed was the most interesting. Oystercatchers have built up to 22, many must be getting ready to head upriver again and three Goldeneye was the only other notable sighting. I hiked up Pendle twice again, both times up and down in the dark during gaps in the rain, that's 11 times so far this year. I'm looking forward to being able to go up during daylight again soon. I heard Golden Plover on the summit both times as well as a Tawny Owl calling from Ing Ends in the valley below and a Barn Owl was sitting on a stone wall by the roadside on Saturday morning. Most peope now think I'm completely nuts but I quite enjoy hiking at night, the lights of the Colne Valley shining far below and the dark void of Pendle Hill make a nice contrast. I think it goes back to when I did the White Rose Walk on the North York Moors when was a kid in the 1970s. Storm Imogen is due to hit tomorrow, more strong winds and rain from the North Atlantic. Well at least it managed not to spoil my weekend walking.

ELOC year list 88. Common Shelduck