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GOLDENEYE, GOLDENEYE, GOLDENEYE

Goldeneyes on the River Ribble, just upstream from Ribchester

GOLDENEYE! I can’t help saying this in the style of Tina Turner’s James Bond theme song.

See reflections on the water
More than darkness in the depths
See him surface in every shadow
On the wind I feel his breath

[Dave Evans/Paul Hewson]

These words could have been written about this awesome duck rather than James Bond. I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited by a goldeneye either. I got a WhatsApp message from birding friend Phil, who had found them this morning just upstream from the bridge at Little Town. We missed it last year but then again we don’t usually search upstream from the village. I guess we will now. The two adult drakes were throwing their heads back in display to make things even more exciting. One of the effects of lockdown has been to send me right back to the start so I’ve been looking forward to catching up with Goldeneye on the river again. As you can see from the charts below, I’ve had a few before at this time of year in Ribchester and it is also the best time of year nationally (by recording rate at least). We don’t know how long they have been here but it is possible they have been pushed off a frozen lake somewhere?

Goldeneye - Ribchester weekly maxima

Goldeneye - BTO BirdTrack UK reporting rate

Goldeneye - BTO BirdTrack UK reporting rate

Today saw a few other additions to the Ribchester year list in the form of Lesser Black-backed Gull, Lesser Redpoll and Eurasian Sparrowhawk taking it to 63. So, in three days I’ve seen the same as in the whole of December! Today’s walk also included checking some of the wooded cloughs towards Salesbury on the south side of the river, the first time I have walked some of these areas. They look great for woodcock but there was no sign today. A pair of Little Egrets flew by the early morning watchpoint and the Canada Goose flock has built up to 268, taking the top spot as commonest bird on my BTO Birdrack walk. They had even pulled in a couple of Pink-footed Geese and the sight and sound of the roost take-off on the riverbank was pretty impressive. There were still 4 snipe today on unfrozen stretches of water around the village and at least 77 lapwings passed through but the snow had mostly melted by lunchtime in the sunshine.

Pre-dawn Canada Geese leaving their roost

Little Egrets over Ribchester Village

This male Kestrel was hunting small birds on the riverbank today, no wonder there were hardly any Pied Wagtails and Meadow Pipits about.

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RIBCHESTER LIST DC

Northern Lapwings were a feature of the New Year weekend, brought to the riverbank by the recent snow

BACK TO THE BEGINNING ON THE RIVERBANK was much more fun than I was expecting. The weather has been transformed by a big area of high pressure, which has blocked the endless series of depressions and with it came snow, frost and ice. Wonderful stuff and just what was needed to cause birds to get on the move again. Things had slowed down in December and this weekend saw an influx of birds to the riverbank. It was also a great way to take my mind off the equally endless mental depression owing to Covid-19-related news. There is nothing like the natural world to put a smile on your face! New Year’s Day always marks the start of a new year list for birders and at 58, it took me two days to see more than half of the number of species I saw in all of last year (50 is usually my benchmark daily total in January but a good day could see 60).

The biggest feature of the weekend was bad weather-driven lapwings, with a tally of 131 on New Year’s Day and 91 on the 2nd, many of them were heading east for some reason, into even worse weather. Up to 25 Common Oystercatchers were gathered at Red Bank and up to 7 Common Snipe were on the riverbank itself, no doubt driven from frozen fields higher in the valley. A flock of 7 Eurasian Teal at Red Bank and 3 Eurasian Skylarks over our watchpoint behind the allotments were also bad weather related. A male bullfinch in the middle of village was unusual, a flock of 7 Redwings was in my street itself and a Treecreeper in Peter’s garden was his first there for 20 years apparently! However, the highlight of the weekend was a first winter Peregrine along the power lines, they are expert at using the pylons as cover and it sneaked out of the back a couple of times, so I have to resort to a collage again to show its markings. The absence of slurry on the meadows meant there were only a few gulls around this weekend, so starling became the commonest bird on the patch, followed by Mallard and lapwing! Great Black-backed even tied with Herring Gull at 9 a piece on the 2nd, I haven’t seen this happen before. One Little Egret clings on but we couldn’t manage a kingfisher at all this weekend.

Ice, snow and a little cloud usually means a nice sunrise on the riverbank.

Blue Pendle from Red Bank

Blue Red Bank. The once lovely woodland here is slowly dying/slipping into the Ribble.

Powerline Peregrines always slip out the back

Peregrine collage

Young Common Gulls are cool-looking birds

Well at least the tightly-cropped hedgerows can be used to create interesting effects

Treecreeper in the village on 1 January, rusty tinge to the flanks, long hind claw, uneven step in the primary bar, well what else?

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DULL

Mediterranean Gull, Ribchester 27 December 2020

DECEMBER HAS BEEN HEAVY GOING with mostly dull, overcast and very damp weather. That combined with bad news very close to home of the Covid-19 pandemic has meant a rather subdued Christmas in Ribchester. The leaden skies persisted but at least the throng of Black-headed Gulls attracted by the slurry spraying in the fields along Boat House Lane had up to two adult Mediterranean Gulls in tow. The green concrete is good for something, although the slurry is not great for the environment, the nearby brook ran dark and stank of it all weekend. Among the hundreds of gulls were a few Common Gulls and almost 100 Herring Gulls, which is way more than we usually see on the ground around the village. Two Great Black-backed Gulls patrolled the river on Christmas Day, maybe the same adult and second winter that have been around for a couple of weeks now and three Little Egrets on Boxing Day was another local highlight. An influx of lapwings has been noticeable over the holiday period too, with maybe as many as 37 on Boxing Day. A flock of 23 oystercatchers at Hothersall was also maybe very early returnees, encouraged upstream by the mild weather? There were several hundred starlings in the fields too, almost enough for a murmuration! However, we have yet to see a goldeneye this winter and Goosander is all but absent. Little Grebes continue on the river at Red Bank and a kingfisher was along the river at the ‘promenade’ in Ribchester today. I am stuck on 103 for the year as time runs out, maybe I will be able to add one more by New Year’s Eve? It has also been interesting to see that some folks lack the common sense not to mix at the moment. Seven cars was the maximum on one drive, the owners of the property usually have two on it. Maybe if they had family members in hospital they would change their minds? No wonder the pandemic rumbles on.

An old willow leans over the Ribble behind the allotments at Ribchester

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SLOW START TO DECEMBER

Little Egret, the only one around Ribchester today (Mike Watson)

THIS MORNING’S BTO BIRDTRACK WALK ALONG THE RIVER WAS BRIGHTENED UP BY FIVE SKEINS OF PINKFEET totalling 226 birds and all heading southeast. We often see them moving just after the weather improves but they are still going mostly southeast towards the beet fields of Norfolk at the moment. Phil had an early Goosander and happily cormorants appeared to be more or less back to normal. I wonder what happened last weekend? Seven Lapwings were logged and two Great Black-backed Gulls flew downstream but things were otherwise very quiet.

A single Little Egret was hunting widely in the fields between Lower Alston Farm and Red Bank but it did not settle, it was probably have difficulty finding anything to eat in the sterile ‘green concrete’ fields. On the other hand the thrush flock was still feeding in the recently sown field between Lower Barn Farm and Boat House. Fieldfares dominated with smaller numbers of Redwings, Song Thrushes, Blackbirds and two Mistle Thrushes.

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