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SUMMER SLIPS AWAY

A fresh juvenile Willow Warbler peers down from a hawthorn bush

WILLOW WARBLERS WHISTLING IN THE HEDGEROWS, A SIGN THAT SUMMER IS SLIPPING AWAY in Ribchester. As well as their subtley different calls, their bright orange feet, lemon-washed underparts and long wing points distinguish them from chiffchaffs, which usually reappear after the midsummer quiet a little later. Species diversity is still quite low in early August but other signs of autumn today included the first cormorant for weeks, a couple of Little Egrets and a major movement of 102 lapwings, flying downstream ahead of the thunderstorms to the east. There is no reason for them to linger. Typical birds of the riverbank were still around today including kingfisher, Grey Wagtail and Common Sandpiper by the school and several flocks of Sand Martins as far as Red Bank. Two jays flew over and landed in the hedge by Lower Alston Farm and several Gatekeeper butterflies were at Red Bank.

Willow Warblers are a very welcome feature of the early autumn around the village

Willow Warbler, a more typical view

Lapwings heading west, downstream towards the Ribble Estuary

The riverbank of the Ribble at Ribchester is quiet again with just a few fishermen now that the paddling and swimming day-trippers seem to have gone

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OPERATION SHELDUCK - FAIL

Eurasian Curlews in heavy wing moult, on their way northwest over Ribchester

AFTER 11 ATTEMPTS AND OVER 30 HOURS OF EVENING SCANNING from the benches by the school at Ribchester in July, ‘Operation Shelduck’ is finally over, with a zero return. I was trying to catch some on their cross-Pennine flight on their journey to moutling grounds, which might now only be in the Humber Estuary, rather than the Waddensee in Germany as historically. I picked mostly clear evenings this month with a light westerly breeze, as recomended by Bill Aspin and I watched until after sunset. Well maybe I started a little too late, or they simply went through en masse on the evenings i missed or maybe they take another route eastwards? Either way I didn’t manage a single one and it is still missing from my Ribchester patch list despite (probably) breeding within 5km near Alston. I’ve seen it flying over Longridge Fell on my way to work previously but nothing from down in the valley at Ribchester yet. I’ll try again next year.

The shelduck vigils weren’t a complete waste of time though. I enjoyed watching Kingfisher, Common Sandpiper and Grey Wagtails on the river by the school and latterly small groups of up to five Little Egrets have been making what are presumably roosting flights downstream. Uncommon birds this month included a Great Crested Grebe on the river at Hothersall and a Spotted Flycatcher at nearby Red Bank, where they bred last year.

On a couple of evenings flocks of curlews flew over, heading northwest calling. They are in heavy wing moult at the moment and I guess they’re on their way to Morecambe Bay? Now I’ve got a pretty good sample of counts right across the year for Ribchester, the BTO Bird Track charts are starting to show the full picture of their presence here. The first returning birds appear at the end of January/first days of February, with small numbers passing through until early March, by which time the handful of local breeding pairs are established. Then foillows a peak in early May of presumably European breeding birds staging before their migration (as shown by sightings of colour-ringed birds at nearby Alston). Sightings of the local breeding birds continue until July ( I hear them calling at dawn over our house as they fly down to the riverside meadows to feed), then post-breeding passage starts, followed by a few sightings of birds flying over into autumn.

I didn’t check Alston much lately, the mud on the wetland is bone dry like concrete now and Grimsargh also lived up to its name when I visited, apart from a nice Roe Deer.

Ribchester curlew sightings - all time weekly maxima

Little Egrets fly to roost along the river at dusk

Roe Deer at Grimsargh Wetland

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ANGLESEY ELEGANT TERN

Elegant Tern, Cemlyn Bay 8 July 2021

THE LAST TIME I VISITED CEMLYN BAY ON ANGLESEY WAS 33 YEARS AGO THIS MONTH, to see the popular and long-staying Bridled Tern (when it was still a very rare bird indeed!). I recalled that it necessitated arriving at first light, in time to overlook the tern colony on the tiny island in the lagoon there, before it left to go fishing. I think we might even have nodded off on the pebble beach tombola that encloses the lagoon while waiting for it to return hours later. I definitely remember what a lovely spot it is (and also thinking how sad it was that the view to the east is dominated by the horrible Wylfa Nuclear Power Station - why did we build so many of them in beauty spots, Heysham excepted of course!). So the chance to return and see the Elegant Tern found there a few days ago was too much to resist. Before the albatross the other day my most recent UK lifer was the Bearded Vulture (uncountable) and before that it was The Norfolk Eastern Yellow Wagtail so two opportunities within a couple of hours of home in a week is most unusual for me! Elegant Tern is still a true mega in Britain, with previous English records in 2002, 2005 and 2017, and one previous Welsh record, also in 2002. The Cemlyn Bay tern is one of the three seen in northwest France this spring (the other two are still there and breeding - quite astonishing for a bird of the Pacific coast of North America!).

The Elegant Tern tries to attract some attention with a small fish.

Just as in 1988 I arrived at dawn after dawdling along the North Wales so-called expressway with its at least one million 50mph speed limit sections and the Elegant Tern was already on show in the Sandwich Tern colony, strutting around in the long vegetation, sometimes only its super long, thin yellow orange bill visible as it threw its head back trying to get some attention from the Sandwich Tern ladies. Unfortunately they were probably all too far advanced in their breeding cycle to take any interest, the colony was full of well-grown Sandwich Tern chicks and even some flying juveniles. At 0610 it flew off and out to sea, returning at 0727 with a small fish in its bill. Now armed with a fishy offering, it became even more animated in its attempts to attract a Sandwich Tern mate, flying around in front of us several times as well. Eventually it gave up and spent some time resting before going back out to sea after another couple of hours. I enjoyed watching it for such a long time, against a deafening cacophony of the tern colony, with birds leaving and returning sometimes only inches over our heads. I heard the Sandwich Terns at Cemlyn number around 1,000 pairs, at what must be the best colony to watch in the UK, and there were smaller numbers of Arctic and Common Terns as well, including several second calendar year Arctics. Other interesting birds on the lagoon included three Dunlin, single curlew, Little Egret and Red-breasted Merganser and some oystercatchers with well grown chicks, fabuious stuff! A steady movement of gannets passed the mouth of the bay heading west.

Long slender bill with no gonydeal angle.

Longish shaggy crest and white rump just about visible in this image

Arctic Tern adult lined up with some Ox-eye Daisies growing on the shingle bank.

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BEMPTON ALBATROSS

Black-browed Albatross from Staple Newk, Bempton RSPB reserve, 5 July 2021

AT LAST I MANAGED TO SEE AN ALBATROSS IN THE UK! The words ‘at last’ are well-justified in this case. My first miss was a week on Unst on Shetland in 1990, just about as far away from home as I could get in the UK at the time, when I was in Hertfordshire. This coincided with ‘Albert Dross’, as it was cruelly known (one of my pet hates is calling birds, and walruses for that matter, daft names), taking a week off from his ledge on the cliff face. After running the gauntlett of the bonxie colony at Hermaness, I recall lying on the ground and peering over the edge of the immense cliff face (double the height of Bempton!) to where the albatross usually sat on the top of a prominent buttress. It wasn’t there. The disappointment was crushing even though I did see some other nice things in Shetland but to add insult to injury as soon as I got home, the Pallas’s Sandgrouse turned up near where I had been staying and I wasn’t able to go back for it. The urge to see an albatross in the UK waned after I saw thousands of them in New Zealand and more recently the South Atlantic, where we even cruised past Steeple Jason in the Falkland Islands, home to the world’s largest Black-browed Albatross colony (tens of thousands filled the sky like a swarm of insects). However, albatrosses are special and the thought of seeing one in the North Atlantic/Western Palearctic/UK remained appealing. Apparently not appealing enough for me to rush down to the viewpoints from the Eastern Crowned Warbler at Bempton in 2016, I didn’t want to ‘go off and do something else badly’ until I had managed a decent photo of the warbler, so I ignored it until had gone. It has just taken 5 years to prove that was the right decision! In the meantime I was late to the Bempton albatross party in 2020 and missed it again, even sleeping in the car and trying again the following day to no avail.

Back to 2021 and the clifftop viewpoints on the RSPB’s Bempton reserve. I arrived in late morning after enduring commuter traffic, lorries, roadworks and at least one million tractors on the cross-country journey from East Lancs, to meet Johnny Mac coming away from the morning sighting. Not the first time he’s turned up by chance just when I needed some help. Staple Newk (the most easterly viewpoint, pronounced ‘Stapple Nuck’ it means ‘pillar corner’) was where I should head to and happily the albatross was still sat on the sea to the east of there, just about visible in binos (no details) and only a little better through a scope (orange bill, but the first bird I was shown was a black-backed young gannet, just to add a little more stress!). Not long afterwards the albatross flew in and proceeded to give repeated awesome views as it circled the gannetry on the arch below the viewing platform, before finally landing out of sight around the corner of the cliff. Phew, that was something! I waited for another 8 hours for it to return, passing the time with my old pal Duncan, who had missed in by 10 minutes the week before, but when it did return it only made a few circuits before landing out of sight of both the Staple and even Roll-up viewpoints, its massive wings popping up from behind some rocks the only clue. The seabird colonies of Bempton is one of the top birding experiences in the UK and I said this before, isn’t it ironic that so many of us are obsessed with seeing something that should not be there instead of just enjoying the spectacle of the regular birds? It’s nice to have your cake and eat it though! The walk to the cliff top through uncut hay meadows full of Tree Sparrows, linnets, Corn and Reed Buntings, Meadow Pipits and skylarks addded to the enjoyment of a special day. I should make a note for next July that the excellent kebab shop in Flamborough stays open late but only takes cash!

The albatross crosses the gannetry on the arch below Staple Newk

Photobombing gannet

The view looking east of Staple Newk, the chalk cliffs that form Flamborough Head are magnificent!

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