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RIBCHESTER DIPPERS

White-throated Dipper, Ribchester 25 August 2021

THAT’S RIGHT, DIPPERS! They are very uncommon this far downstream on the River Ribble in Ribchester and are even nore unexpected in summer. My previous two records in the last 10 years were both in winter. They are even rarer further downstream at Brockholes! I was very pleased to see two of them chasing each other around the island by the school on 25 August but later heard from Simon Small that he had videoed one by his garden in our street earlier in the week. No doubt one of the same birds! It will be interesting to see if they stick around, unlike my previous dippers here. A juvenile Goosander is still about, seeking safety in the most public of places on the river. Another Osprey on 25 August took the year’s tally to seven (it feels odd for osprey to be relegated to the ‘other sightings’ category now) and it was a different bird to the one which has been hanging around the lower valley area for the last few weeks, this bird had a blue colour ring on the left leg. Two flocks of shorebirds passed the benches on 24 August, one of 9 snipe and the other of 43 lapwings! Little Egrets continue to fly downstream to roost on most evenings and a hobby scythed its way through the swallows over the Lower Alston Farm maize field at dusk (2015) on 26 August. The lovely weather for evening watches of the last few days has been very welcome and my 2021 Ribchester patch list now stands at 101. Despite many hours of effort, dipper was the only addition for weeks.

Osprey sighting no.#7 for the 5KO!

Goosander, juvenile Ribchester

Sunset over Red Bank

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DAMP RIVERBANK

A young Blackcap finding a ready supply of insects at Red Bank

IT HAS RAINED EVERY DAY FOR WEEKS NOW. Today was no exception although the forecasted storm did not occur during my walk along the riverbank. Everything is damp, especially the air. The variety of bird life is slowly increasing again and my walks usually exceed 40 bird species. Four ravens over Red Bank was a welcome sight as was the Spotted Flycatcher, which continues in the dell there. The hedgerows are alive with parties of young Blue, Great and Long-tailed Tits accompanied by a Chiffchaff and a couple of Willow Warblers. Grey Herons are still just ahead of Little Egrets at 5-4 today but their days are certainly numbered. This morning’s walk even had a few butterflies (scarce around Ribchester at the best of times) including Gatekeeper and Speckled Wood. There were also Brown Hawker dragonflies on the wing patroling the hawthorns at Red Bank and along Shorton Lane.

Evening watches this week produced an Osprey on 19 August, which roosted by the river in the herons’ favourite dead tree in Old Park Wood but sadly was not present again in the following days. Seven curlews NW and a single snipe over on the same evening was also notable. There was still a couple of swifts among the Sand Martins. House Martins and Swallows on 21 August, they will soon all be gone and with the maize crop at Lower Alston Farm much reduced this year there are fewer swallows roosting there, maybe around 20 this week. Things feel more exciting now that we are approaching September and there will soon be many more migrants on the move.

Spotted Flycatcher at Red Bank, always welcome!

Look downstream at Red Bank, the silage grass meadow monocultures looking unaturally green today.

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RISE OF THE MED GULL

State of this! A Mediterranean Gull in heavy wing moult over Ribchester riverfront today

THE RISE OF THE MEDITERRANEAN GULL CONTINUES! It is interesting to relate my increasing ad hoc local sightings to the fortunes of this bird in the UK. Mediterranean Gull first bred in the UK in Hampshire in 1968 and increased slowly to around 100 pairs by 2000 and then 600-700 pairs by 2010. The current popluation was estimated at around 1200 pairs in 2013-17. This increase is part of a westward range expansion from its ciore areas around the Black Sea that started in the 1950s and in winter our breeding poulation is boosted by more birds from Europe taking it to around 4000 individuals during 2011-15. I imagine that this figure is even bigger now. So, they became so common that I now see one or two around my village in East Lancashire in almost every month of the year, usually when slurry spreading on the silage meadows of the dairy farms causes wandering birds to linger a while. Another reminder that not everything is heading for the exit, these, Little Egrets and ospreys are certainly welcome addiitons to the bird life along the river on my local patch.

Med Gull easily passes in a crowd on the river in Ribchester…

…until it takes to the air and flashes its white wings!

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AUGUST OSPREY

Western Osprey, Old Park Wood, Ribchester, 15 August 2021

THE OSPREY WHICH HAS BEEN PRESENT IN THE VALLEY AT BROCKHOLES FOR THE LAST FEW DAYS made a visit upriver to Ribchester’s Old Park Wood stretch of the Ribble this morning. It perched in a tree overlooking the river for a while before flying off downstream. Bizarrely I heard it at Red Bank about half an hour earlier without realising what it was. I had been concentrating looking down the viewfinder while photographing a Spotted Flycatcher there and had not looked up when I heard the strange high pitched call. It called again at Old Park Wood and the penny dropped! That’s osprey number #5 for me in the Ribchester 5kO this year so far.

The riverbank was a little more lively today. The chirping calls of Sand and House Martins filled the air overhead and a couple of swifts were around, the village breeding birds have departed now. Willow Warbler and wren were singing at Red Bank, where treecreeper and bullfinch were also heard. A flock of lapwings flew downstream opposite the school and a Little Egret fed in the shallows there, prancing around trying to disturb fish. Numerous other egret sightings included at least four birds. The shrill calls of young Lesser Black-back Gulls could be heard as they begged from their parents while flying south over the valley, this has been a feature of the last couple of weeks. Other good birds lately were a hobby over the garden at breakfast on Friday 13th and a Great Crested Grebe in breeding plumage just upstream from the allotments on 10 August.

I imagine osprey will probably breed in our area before too long, it has bred in Lancashire this year after all!

Little Egret - a year-round resident on the Ribble at Ribchester

Little Egret feeding activity

Spotted Flycatcher, an unobtrusive and scarce breeding bird in the lower Ribble Valley

Great Crested Grebe is seen regularly on small reservoirs and lakes in the lower Ribble Valley but it is very uncommon on the river itself at Ribchester with only 1-2 records per year.

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