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SPARE A THOUGHT FOR BARN OWL

Barn Owl, Ribchester, March 2021

THE RAIN IS HAMMERING ON MY WINDOW AGAIN this evening as normal service is resumed in East Lancs. A series of depressions is on its way across the Atlantic that are going to lash us with rain for the next few days. There’s a yellow wind warning too of gusts of up to 55mph. This has rather stopped my only enjoyment at the moment, birding walks, in its tracks and it looks like there will not be a decent day until next week. Although this is going to make me even more depressed than I already am it’s nothing compared to what our poor local Barn Owls will have to endure. At least I’ve got plenty of food and stuff to do indoors. Hunting is going to be very difficult for the owls over the next few days, for birds that rely so heavily on their hearing to catch mice and voles. That’s without the ever increasing acres of #greenconcrete with nothing living in it, cut right up to the bonsai-ed hedgerows. Despite all this we are still lucky to have Barn Owls around the village and presumably they will sit out the bad weather until it passes. Top tip, after a period of rain they will be hungry as hell, so Tuesday is looking particularly good with some sunshine, for them to be out hunting in daylight in the early evening. Pick your spot and wait for them to fly past on their terms, don’t go chasing them around.

A Barn Owl passes across the dark shadows of a wood in the evening sunhine

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HIGH ALTITUDE RIBCHESTER

Red Grouse (or Willow Ptarmigan!), Gannow Fell CLICK ON IMAGE FOR LIGHTBOX

ANOTHER HIGH ALTITUDE HIKE ON GANNOW FELL reached the dizzy height of 320m ASL! The sunrise was blocked by clouds and was not much to look at but birding was interesting again with a Short-eared Owl fly-through, sent on its way by angry curlews. Luckily some of the birds of the higher fells of Bowland swing by Longridge Fell from time to time on their travels. Other notable sightings included raven, woodcock and a minimum of seven stonechats. Red Grouse were again conspicuous with a couple of quite bold males, with large red combs. They are paired up now, the females much harder to see until they take flight with their attendant partners. The morning bird chorus of curlew, Red Grouse, Song Thrush, Blackbird, Chaffinch and Goldcrest also included a lone skylark, I do hope there are more up here this year! Down at the small reservoir, which was partly drained to fight the forest fire last year but has recovered to former levels, a couple of Grey Herons was present but none of the waterfowl (Mallard and Canada Goose) were settled yet. A female Reed Bunting here was another early returnee to the fells. The usual buzzard and kestrels were also present. All of this falls within 5km of my house, as do all of Alston’s reservoirs and wetland. I should get around to working out what my 5km from home list is.

Red Grouse, female - much more cryptically plumaged than the male, obviously.

European Stonechat males are starting to look quite smart now as their head feathers wear to their solid black bases.

Short-eared Owl, record shot of a rare visitor to the fell

Gannow Fell looks like it ought to hold the typical predators of Bowland like Hen Harrier, Short-eared Owl and Merlin but they are absent from this site, which is probably too small, too low and too disturbed?

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OTTERS ON THE RIVEBANK

Otter at Ribchester, presumably a female with a cub in tow. CLICK ON IMAGE FOR LIGHTBOX

A COUPLE OF OTTERS ON THE RIVER WAS REWARD FOR GETTING UP EARLY. An adult and a small cub, which got out of the water to have a look at me, too close for photos less than a metre away! I do not see many otters in Ribchester, they are quite mobile, usually secretive and active at dawn and dusk. Obviously they are unpopular with fishermen too but the coarse season does not have long left so the riverbank will be much more empty soon.

Birding was also quite good today with highlights: Mandarin (a pair on the river below Churchgates early on only); Woodcock and 15 Pinkfeet flying west. Curlews made double figures and they were singing a lot this morning. Lapwings reached 26, also with lots of display flight and song and a flock of Oystercatchers was at Hothersall again. The Fieldfare flock was still along the lane just past Lower Barn Farm, I counted 53 there and another six were upstream from the bridge. It was good to see some other interesting waterbirds along the river including Little Grebe (one upstream from the allotments), two Little Egrets (upstream from the bridge) and a scatter of four kingfishers, my first for several weeks and all from public footpaths! Birds of prey were also in evidence with buzzard, kestrel and sparrowhawk all putting in appearances. The Rib patch list is up to 77 for 2021 and 59 for March this year/74 all time, making it the second best month after February. It seems we get more winter visitors than summer visitors here.

You looking at me?

A more typical view in early morning pre-dawn light.

Ever stopped to appreciate what a terrific bird Blue Tit is? Could you colour one in correctly from memory?

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DANISH BLACK-HEADED GULL IN RIBCHESTER

Black-headed Gull, White V03S, ringed in Denmark in 2016 (Mike Watson).

BLACK-HEADED IS OFTEN THE COMMONEST BIRD IN RIBCHESTER in winter on my BTO BirdTrack counts. But where do they come from? Lee Parnell’s sighting in December 2020 of a bird colour-ringed in Zagreb, Croatia gave a clue that not all of them are from hereabouts. You could easily be forgiven for thinking they are, as Belmont Reservoir, home to the UK’s largest colony of them (11,500 pairs in 2020!), is only 15 miles away. So when Alexander I and saw a bird stood on the roof of his school on 1 March that bore a ring, White V03S, we were keen to find out where it had come from. Well it was a nice surprise to discover it was not a local breeding bird at all, in fact it was ringed as a chick at a colony on an island off the coast of Denmark, over 900km away! It was also interesting to discover that this is the first reported sighting of it since it was ringed in 2016, almost 5 years ago, on a tiny island of the Hirsholmene group off the northeast tip of Denmark. There are about 3,000 Black-headed Gulls on this island, which is also home to 1,000 Sandwich Terns and is a RAMSAR site.

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