NORMAL SERVICE WAS INDEED RESUMED WITH A DESPERATELY DULL, DAMP DAY that felt like twilight from dawn to dusk. Alexander and I did another BTO BirdTrack walk upstream from the village and found some brightness in nature to lift our spirits. The best was undoubtedly the trio of Goldeneyes that was again just upstream from the bridge. ‘I can see their golden eyes!’ was proof of a nice look at them. We searched the woods on the south bank for woodcock without any luck but a Goldcrest and a smart male Bullfinch made our efforts worthwhile. Alexander spotted a Brown Hare running through a woodland, which was very exciting for him, I don’t think he’s seen one inside a wood before. Walks upstream are not usually as varied as going downstream from the village but a total of 45 was respectable for a couple of hours. We saw a snipe in an icy meadow and a kingfisher dashed past on the Ribble, the first of the year. The two Little Egrets were both upstream from the bridge, maybe as there is less disturbance here and a large flock around 80 Herring Gulls wsa on the ground at Salesbury. Back in the woods Jay and a couple of Great Spotted Woodpeckers were noted before it was time head home. Again Redwings were very scarce with only two in Stewart’s Wood and Fieldfare was absent this time. Despite the grim weather we had a great time in the mud now that the paths are defrosting but there were quite a few folks fishing and there was a lot of traffic on the roads around the village. Lockdown 3 is very different to Lockdown 1 it seems, when silence prevailed.
Blue teal over the Ribble at Red Bank, Ribchester
TODAY MARKED THE LAST DAY OF COLD WEATHER for a while. I have enjoyed walking on the frozen fields around Ribchester but from tomorrow it’s back to rubber boots and a quagmire of mud. The early watch on the riverbank produced a pair of Barn Owls hunting over the sheep field behind the allotments. What a great start! Now the cold weather has persisted since New Year some birds seem to have moved on. There were few Black-headed Gulls around today, no snipe or Grey Wagtail and again, no kingfisher. I did manage 54 species though, which is above the benchmark for January. The other highlights were 5 teal on the shingle bank at Hothersall and a female/immature goldeneye that flew upstream past the allotments. There were three Little Grebes here as well and the Canada Goose roost contained 269 birds, making it the commonest bird on the walk again. There were still 20 lapwings and 25 oystercatchers around as well as two Little Egrets, six Grey Herons and 18 Meadow Pipits. They will all no doubt appreciate the warmer weather on the way. Small bird highlights included 6 nuthatches and 12 Tree Sparrows as we detoured via Parsonage and Singleton Farms checking the brooks in these areas. Again there was no sign of woodcock. We only saw a single Redwing - there were four in my street when I got home. They have almost finished the cotoneaster berries now so nothing left should there be any waxwings, which looks very unlikely now. A flock of 59 Pink-footed Geese flew overhead at Parsonage Farm, heading towards the Fylde, as usual their wobbly calls were heard long before the ragged skein of geese was spotted. Raptors were represented by buzzard, kestrel (on pylon T37 as usual) and sparrowhawk but the biggest surprise was a Small Tortoiseshell butterfly on the wing near Stoneygate Lane, no doubt disturbed from hibernaton somewhere by the warm sunshine in the late morning.
Pink-foooted Geese heading NW over Parsonage Farm, Gav Thomas could see them from Alston while we were watching them overhead.
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
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.
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?