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CURLEW SINGING IN THE SUNSHINE

There are few better sounds in nature than the song of a curlew! (Mike Watson) CLICK IMAGE FOR LIGHTBOX

CURLEWS ARE BACK AND SINGING AGAIN around Ribchester. This has got to be the most welcome spring return of any bird locally after they make their way back to their breeding grounds in the pasture around the village, from a winter spent probing mud at the coast. I’ve been looking forward to it more than ever this year, after a grim winter of bad weather and Covid-19 lockdowns. We saw a couple of very noisy birds today, or ‘whaups’ as they are known in Scotland. Alexander is lucky he will be able to say he remembers curlews singing around his home village, I guess a bit like folks who remember Corn Crakes or my great uncle Barker telling me in the 1970s that he used to have Red-backed Shrikes on his farm near Lechlade in the Thames Valley. Although they are long-lived, curlews need to raise 0.5 of a chick every year to sustain their population and in places where there is no predator control a study in northern England quoted a mere 15% breedng success rate! Down here in the valley there are lots of Carrion Crows and although they are controlled to an extent (I still counted a flock of up to 180 last spring!) the biggest threat to curlews comes from the very early cutting of silage (to achieve three cuts per year for the dairy industry). Hats off to the farmers who look after their curlews, there is no better sound than their bubbling call, which I am still lucky enough to hear from my bed at home and also from my desk at work. I am not sure for how much longer though.

Other interesting sightings around the village in recent days included a skylark over Lower Dutton today, a cracking view of a female sparrowhawk, taking in the morning sunshine in a hawthorn hedge at Little Town (they are usually off like a shot at the sight of me) and a small flock of lapwings, which hangs on by the river upstream from the village in a meadow, once crossed by a Roman road. A pair of oystercatchers was around here too, looking quite settled. Bird activity was generally quite low today but we very much enjoyed a lucky spell of sunshine and blue sky before the rain set in again. The Ribchester bird counter for February edged up a little to 62, some way off January’s 71, which is also my all time total for February, with a couple of weekends still to go this month.

The symbol of ELOC (East Lancashire Ornithologists Club) still hangs on in the Ribble Valley (Mike Watson).

The glare of a female Eurasian Sparrowhawk, taking in the morning sunshine (Mike Watson).

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MORE HARD WEATHER ON THE RIVERBANK

Goldeneyes reappeared on the river again this weekend at Ribchester, probably owing to the hard weather

AFTER A WEEK OF HARD WEATHER ON THE RIVERBANK goldeneyes were back! Both females, one of them had a particualrly bright orange bill tip. Terrific stuff! Great Black-backed Gulls have been conspicuous too, showing a lot of interest in a spot where I suspect there is a dead salmon. Identificable even by the naked eye from far away, owing to their massive wingspan compared to the other gulls along the river, one of them even had a pinkish flush around its bill! Sadly one of the young birds also has a c3m fishing line hanging from its gape. Thanks to some careless fishing person. It was interesting to see that the other Great Black backs were harassing it. I have seen this behavoir with gulls that had plastic bags caught around their legs etc. Maybe they spot a sign of weakness or it just triggers some other kind of instinct?

Other hard weather movements included another small influx of lapwings, with 138 logged on Saturday but the hard weather has also cleared out most of the fieldfares, I had my first blank for ages on Saturday and only 18 on Sunday. There is still a handful of redwings around though. Predictably other birds have moved on, like most of the Pied Wagtails but I was surprised to see a flock of 51 Meadow Pipits near Boat House. I didn’t see a kingfisher this weekend and both heron and gull numbers were well down, other products of the freeze. However, despite more than a week of subzero temperatures and a severe wind chill there is a still a curlew around and up to 47 oystercatchers, I think they are relying on daylight hours if not temperatures as a sign that spring is on its way. I do not think I have ever looked forward to a spring more than this one. We are all desperate to get some freedom back, not to mention some uplifting birds and birdsong!

Finally it is worth mentioning another effect of hard weather, if birds do not move on then they often get hungry and tamer as a result. I haven’t been so close to a buzzard around here before. Happily I haven’t seen any signs of persecution of them locally and they are doing very well. Even the corpse that Gary found on the riverbank a couple of weeks ago came back with a 'failed to thrive’ PM verdict. Meanwhile the search for woodcock and Water Rail OFFH (‘on foot from home’) continues.

A rather tame Common Buzzard (streaked breast = first winter)

Common Buzzard take-off

It is great to see that at least three Little Egrets cling on despite the cold weather.

Total beast! Great Black-backed Gull as usual patrolling the riverbank looking for something dead tasty.

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STORM CHRISTOPH AFTERMATH

Little Egret motion blur

ALTHOUGH OTHER PARTS OF THE NORTHWEST GOT BADLY FLOODED IN MIDWEEK BY STORM CHRISTOPH, Ribchester was left more or less untouched. The flood barriers went up on Monday and the rain continued all day on Tuesday and Wednesday and some of Thursday but its intensity in the Ribble Catchment wsas obviously less than further to the east and south of here. The river level at Ribchester School peaked at 4.51m in the early hours of Wednesday and then started to fall, a brief upturn around lunchtime after the morning’s heavier rain reacehd us did not last long and soon it was on its way back down to its usual level of around 1m. This was a relief for the folks on the frontline of Greenside and the poor Ribchester Arms, which really does not deserve to be flooded again and by the weekend things were back to normal. It is always interesting to see what the high water has left behind, as well as taken away. The old fridge at red Bank has gone, presumably downstream and there is now a huge tree trunk on the bank just upstream from the ‘Tush’. When I know a storm is coming I get woken up by the rain hammering on my window and can’t help having a quick look at the Enviornment Agency’s website, which reports the river level here. It was nice to be able to relax again and only worry about Covid-19 and Brexit.

The Ribble in spate from the path to the Roman Baths, this is around 4m deep and running like a train

The main threat to houses in Ribchester comes from the brooks, rather than the river itself. They back up and creep around the the village. This is Boyce’s Brook, behind our street, which has burst its banks.

Alexander looks at the hastily deployed flood defences on Greenside in Ribchester.

The Saturday BTO BirdTrack walk along the river produced 53 species again, this time in the snow, the highlights being a pair of Mandarin that flew downstream at Lower Barn Farm. A young Peregrine caused panic among the many birds on the meadow opposite the allotments early on and a trio of drake Goosanders was very nice! Lapwings had flicked their hard weather switches and were back around the village, with 22 noted. Two Little Egrets and two dabchicks were also on the river from the allotments and the pinkfeet keep coming and three skeins of 26, 9 and 9 (maybe the same last two groups?) flew over, the first two heading west and the third going south. Small birds were generally few, only one Redwing was noted and there were no fieldfares west of the village on my walk today. A group of only four Long-tailed Tits had probably lost some of their family, I haven’t seen a group of this small size since last spring. A kingfisher flew by the school on my way back and there is often a pair of Stock Doves in the two trees on the oposite bank, I wonder of they are going to nest in the old barn that was formerly home to Little Owl?

In poor light conditions why not have a crack at motion blurs? Black-headed Gulls in this case.

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UPSTREAM AGAIN

The impressive 70m long Grade II listed Ribchester Bridge, built in 1775. The centre span is 23m wide.

THE GOLDENEYES LAST WEEKEND have encouraged me to check upstream of the village on one of my weekend BTO BirdTrack walks. There was still a adult female Goldeneye diving close to the bank just upstream from the bridge in the early morning but she had gone by the time I returned. Other highlights upstream were a kingfisher near the bridge, a flock of 19(!) Mistle Thrushes in a field at Salesbury, where they outnumbered Redwings and Fieldfares. I don’t recall seeing that before! A snipe was in the marshy fields in this area and the total for the morning was another above-benchmark-for-January 53. Everything has melted in the valley now after the midweek snow and things are getting back to normal. There were hardly any lapwings around today for instance. The birds that visited us in the hard weather birds seem to have moved on. It is amazing to think that work started on Ribchester Bridge in the same year that the American War of Independence began, 1775!

I checked downstream on Sunday recording another 53 species taking my Ribchester year list to 72, but again, no Goosander at all. I also found a dead cormorant, which had bled profusely from its mouth, presumably shot. The highlights today were a flyover Linnet but much better a lovely singing Mistle Thrush below Parsonage Farm. A Stock Dove was singing at Red Bank, one of three sightings and a couple of skeins of Pinkfeet passing overhead, one west, the other east also raised my spirit. Little Egret and Little Grebe were both on the river upstream from Lower Alston Farm and a herd of six Roe Deer, including a buck with fine antlers was spotted today. Raptors were also in evidence with a kestrel, two sparrowhawks and six buzzards. A sign of spring at Hothersall is the flock of Oystercatchers at their regular gathering spot, that has built up to 27 now. Walking around the village is heavy going at the moment with the sodden ground, every step was an effort going uphill. There is a yellow rain warning from tomorrow onwards, which will no doubt raise water levels on the river. It could be interesting.

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