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MEDITERRANEAN GULL

Another adult Mediterranean Gull, this time over Red Bank, Ribchester CLICK IMAGE FOR LIGHTBOX.

MED GULL STOLE THE SHOW AGAIN on a glorious springlike day. The valley was full of bird song even after a frost overnight. Blackbird, Song Thrush, Dunnock, Chaffinch, Wren and Great, Blue and Coal Tits were all adding to the chorus. However, ever ungrateful, I had just complained that there was hardly any movement today (Black-headed Gull didn’t even reach three figures and Common Gull was down to its usual three or four instead of yesterday’s 33) when a small flock of gulls appeared ahead of me at Red Bank. I could see one was a Common Gull so why not photograph it? It would look great against a clear blue sky. As I was lining it up I noticed the others were Black-headed Gulls but the fourth bird was…BAM! An adult Mediterranean Gull with a half-black hood. I had plenty of time to lock onto it as it came past me on the top of the small hill, not far above eye level. You can see from my other mostly poor Med Gull photos from Rib that they do not always co-operate, and/or I have not always been ready in time/had the correct settings dialled in etc. They are very much a feature of the valley at the moment, Bill Aspin had five at Brockholes yesterday afternoon and Paul Holt also had five feeding in the show field at Salesbury late this morning. We had a walk along there in the afternoon but they were all gone by then. It makes me laugh that Mediterranean Gull isn’t really a typical gull of the Mediterranean in the same way that Yellow-legged and Audouin’s Gulls are and it’s scientific name actually means Black-headed Gull! Meanwhile Black-headed Gull has a brown head and a scientific name that means Laughing Gull! And so it goes on, what a mess!

The rest of the birding around the village was mostly things that have been around for a while now. Lapwings exceeded 40 again, with several displaying pairs. Curlews were singing their hearts out again but didn’t break double figures today, all presumably local breeding birds now. Oystercatcher has dwindled to only 15 (most have probably gone upstream to breed now) but one of the wintering Little Grebes was still at Red Bank. Fieldfares had increased to 62 and walking the fields north of Red Bank I found a flock of 10 Redwings near Eatoughs. However, the two other best sightings were a Peregrine on one of the pylons (probably the same youngster, which has been around for a couple of months) and four Teal on one of the hidden shooting ponds. Ha! They are not on it now and are hopefully somewhere safe instead. Interestingly an adult Great Black-backed Gull was hanging aound the sheep up here this morning, maybe it knows that some tasty afterbirth is on the way soon? I do not see many mammals around Ribchester but Brown Hares are particularly conspicuous at the moment, with 6 seen today. So February ended on 72 bird species, one ahead of January but more significantly my Ribchester patch year list moved up to 76 and February is now four clear at the top of the all time chart with 77. Probably just a product of the 12 BTO BirdTrack walks I did this month.

Common Buzzard (adult) over Eatoughs on a bright sunny morning.

Feel the power! Another pylon Peregrine.

Can you stand another Med Gull?

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WELCOME BACK TO THE FELL!

A ‘grey male’ Hen Harrier powers north across the fell in the late afternoon sunshine CLICK ON IMAGE FOR LIGHTBOX

WHAT A WELCOME BACK TO GANNOW FELL! A lovely walk in the evening sunhine with Phil in ‘High Altitude Ribchester’ was further lit up by a grey male Hen Harrier (we didn’t see it well enough to rule out a 3CY bird - thanks to my ID guru Pete Morris). It appeared over the main bog and simply flew north towards Bowland without changing course. Although they do not breed far away Hen Harriers are rare on Longridge Fell and never seem to hang around even though it looks like they ought to! Also here raven, stonechat and Red Grouse were all new for the year. This is the highest I’ve been in the valley so far but it is still less than 3 miles from home. It was also lovely to hear both skylark and curlew singing here too this afternoon and some of the grouse were quite bold, with inflated red combs and lots of clucking display flights. As I got out of the car back at home a pair of curlews flew over there too, I am lucky to live somewhere this happens!

I wasn’t expecting this male Red Grouse to fly onto a wall in front of me! Err Willow Ptarmigan. No chance of me getting used to that name!

My morning walk around the village was also quite productive after a cold start. There was a definite push of gulls upstream with 33 Common Gulls being the most I’ve seen here in a morning. Black-headed Gulls exceeded 500 and there were a few Lesser Black-backed Gulls, newly returned from points south. A couple of Mediterranean Gulls flew east among the Black-headeds. Their call reminds me of Frankie Howerd ‘s ‘Ooh’ as in ‘Ooh Matron!’ . Curlews were in double figures again with several singing in the fields around the village and lapwings were also very active, songflighting along the lane to Lower Barn Farm. It is so uplifting to have them back again! Groups of insanely noisy oystercatchers chased each other at the river, where there are now three pairs of Stock Doves which appear to all be squabbling over squatting rights to the stone barn of Waterside Farm. There was still a small flock of Fieldfares along the lane today but no Redwings again, they pushed off in the cold weather and have not returned. There may stil be a few hanging on in the woods but I didn’t see any. The day-roosting Tawny Owl I have been watching lately was back on its usual perch deep in ivy and a few other interesting birds like bullfinch and Little Grebe helped me over the 50 species mark. February now stands at 75, the highest total of any month so far, partly thanks to Phil’s Black-tailed Godwit in the week!

The regular Tawny Owl could be bothered to look at me today! Well, squint at least.

A (Northern) Lapwing in display flight, with club-shaped wings spread and whirring through the air. We’ere lucky to still be able to hear its lovely song in Rib!

One of today’s Med Gulls, its black hood still far from complete.

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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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