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CATCHING UP WITH SOME BREEDERS

Eurasian Reed Warbler, East Lancs.

THE LAST COUPLE OF WEEKS WERE QUITE PRODUCTIVE in catching up with some of East Lancs's rarest breeding birds. These included Grey Partridge, which is down to only a handful of sites, notably on the grassland of the West Pennines to the south of Burnley as well as Eurasian Reed Warbler, which is only a sporadic breeding bird, mostly owing to a lack of suitable phragmites reed bed habitat. A pair found by ELOC stalwart John Metcalf was building a nest, with the male singing occasionally. 

I was hoping that the recent torrential rain would have produced an interesting passage migrant, like Common Scoter for instance but no luck yet. June is a very good month for them in East Lancs, with the presumably failed breeders returning to the UK for the winter, taking a short cut to the Irish Sea across the Pennines and stopping off here. Project hobby has not been a success yet despite a lot of time put in but there have been a couple of sightings now quite nearby so hopefully it will be soon! 

ELOC year list 140. Grey Partridge 141. Eurasian Reed Warbler

Eurasian Reed Warbler, East Lancs.

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THE BIRDS OF BRITAIN AND EUROPE

BIRDS OF BRITAIN AND EUROPE was one of the jokes my Hungarian friends used to make in the 1990s before they had joined the EU. That is 'Britain, which is near Europe'. Part of the European Union but always on the sidelines and never really 'mucking in' or feeling 'European'. It was strange walking around East Lancs today contemplating the reality that pretty soon the situation will be reversed and they will be IN and we will be the outsiders. How times have changed? Meanwhile the ELOC area was quiet again today. I checked Stocks and Alston in the hope of a Common Scoter to no avail. Very strange that Stocks did not have one yet by the way! Again there were no additions to the ELOC little year. I am seriously running out of steam for that at the moment. However, there were a few interesting sightings, notably eight crossbills in the plantation on Gannow Fell. Other notable things were: Common Cuckoo (one over Gannow Fell); Eurasian Curlew (four flew high west over the fell, calling, presumably on their way to the coast); Common Sandpiper (a pair with a fluffy chick at Ribchester Bridge, where there was also a Common Whitethroat songflighting); Kingfisher (one flashed past the new hide at Stocks and headed into the forest!); Great Crested Grebe (eight adults at Stocks was my highest count there); Barnacle Goose (22 flew up the Hodder Inlet - where do they come from and where are they going to?); Garden Warbler and Blackcap were both still singing at Stocks but the cuckoos seem to have gone quiet now. Earlier in the week a crossbill over Longridge Fell and a Little Owl at Wetter's Bridge, Waddington were notable. On the insect front a Bilberry Bumblebee was stranded on bramble flowers by the new hide at Stocks, first one I've seen this year.

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MIDSUMMER IN EAST LANCS

Common Crossbill, Gannow Fell

MIDSUMMER IN EAST LANCS IS USUALLY QUIET like this. It is becoming difficult to add to the little year total and my wanderings this weekend did not produce anything special but more notable sightings included 31 Common Crossbills at Gannow Fell, some of the red males singing. They were roaming around the moorland this time rather than migrating and were feeding on both spruce and Scots Pine cones.  Also here was a Common Cuckoo mobbed by Meadow Pipits, a pair of Common Stonechats with at least 2 juveniles but there wasn't anything on the move over the fell today. The curlews still seem to have young but there was also a dead young jay by the roadside. Yesterday morning produced an amazing brood(s) of 18 Goosanders being tended by one mother on the river at Alston, one LRP and four Gadwall at Alston Wetland where the Lesser Whitethroat was still singing on both days along Pinfold Lane. Common Whitethroat was also still singing there. However, the low point was not managing to catch up with the Common Scoter on Clowbridge, which had moved on but the time I got there. Plenty of time left for that one though! 

Western Roe Deer in cotton grass at Gannow Fell (you can just about see the ears of her fawn standing in front of her).

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IN PRAISE OF CURLEWS

Eurasian Curlew, Kemple End.

THE LOCAL CURLEWS APPEAR TO HAVE YOUNG NOW judging by the amount of noisy activity over the Birdquest office at the moment. These photos were taken from the car park! This near-threatened bird has declined across its range it is still fairly common in East Lancs for the time being. One wonders for how long though with such early silage cutting in most of the lowland areas? Let's hope that some of the work done by the RSPB can help this special shorebird. They have always been one of my favourite birds, going back to childhood days in Weardale and the countryside would feel empty without them.

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