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ELOC CETTI'S WARBLER

Cetti’s Warbler, Barrow Upper Lodge 6 November 2020

BARROW UPPER LODGE DELIVERED A COUPLE OF SHOCKS, first of all the first Bearded Reedling in East Lancs since 1981 on 4 November and then a Cetti’s Warbler on 5 November. I was surprised news of the reedling did not get out until after dark when a good number of us could have seen it but thankfully Mark Breaks was super quick with the Cetti’s Warbler, allowing me to connect with it via a visit to the post office in Clitheroe a couple of hours later. I’d been thinking of this one in Ribchester, given they are regular at Brockholes just a few miles downstream but it was a nice surprise today nevertheless. New birds for me in ELOC nowadays are few and far between. It was also nice to catch up with John Metcalf at the lodge. I recall Bill Aspin describing him as an ‘Ornithological Cyborg’ in about 2005, owing to his uncanny ability to latch onto good birds here. Even John needs Bearded Reedling for East Lancs and he has probably seen more birds in the ELOC recording area than anyone. Barrow Upper Lodge last hosted Bearded Reedling back in 1978, it is slowly returning to nature now that the fishery closed down and has fallen into dereliction. Its banks are becoming overgrown and much less disturbed so it looks a good bet for Water Rail and bittern now too! I went back again on 6 November and spent some more time watching, well mostly waiting around for, the Cetti’s Warbler.

Cetti’s Warbler was first recorded in the UK as recently as 1961, in Hampshire and then bred for the first time in 1972, in Kent. It has continued to go from strength to strength and by 1996 there were as many as 574 singing males in 26 counties. It has continued to increase since then. There has only been a handful of records in East Lancs but maybe it is about to follow Little Egret and become a regular sight and sound along our waterways? That would be nice!

Cetti’s Warbler, Barrow Upper Lodge, 5 November 2020

Cetti’s Warbler, Barrow Upper Lodge, 6 November 2020

Catching up with East Lancs’s very own Ornithological Cyborg John Metcalf


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RETURN OF THE BEAST

Great Black-backed Gull, patrolling the River Ribble near Red Bank, Ribchester - look at the size of that bill!

THE BEASTS ARE BACK! Both days this weekend, in fact on all three of my BTO BirdTrack walks along the riverbank, featured a Great Black-backed Gull. I don’t see many of these brutes in Ribchester and they are special in that they are ‘natural feeders’, shunning the attraction of Whinney Hill tip at Accrington in favour of patrolling the river. I am guessing they are looking for dead salmon at this time of year or maybe anything that has been washed up on the riverbank following the high water on Thursday? With a 1.6m wingspan and weighing up to 2kg this is one of the biggest birds on the river and they always look massive as they cruise along, typically much lower over the river than the other large gulls. I don’t think I’ve been so excited about a GBbG since I saw one in Hungary around 20 years ago, where they are also quite rare. Two of the three were first calendar year birds and the other a second winter. I love the marbled effect of the intricately marked upperwing feathers! Another feature of my walks this weekend was the Little Egrets feeding in the shallows where flotsam had accumulated and I also noticed that the Black-headed Gulls and even magpies were also taking an interest in it.

Woodpigeons were still pouring south in small tight flocks on Saturday 31 October but they had more or less dried up by Sunday, albeit in awful weather. They do not seem to like to migrate into a headwind and rain! No surprise. Goldfinches peaked at more than 130 today, they are clearly on the move and also on the move, out of their pens, were pheasants, also in three figures today for the first time during my walks here. Let’s hope the shooters hurry up and shoot them! Rooks seem to be feeding more towards the village at the moment, they have stayed to the east/southeast of the village until the corn fields were cut and ploughed. There is still plenty of Kingfisher activity (along the river behind the allotments is a good place to watch from) and a flock of 27 Pinkfeet flew west for a change on Saturday! Gav Thomas also caught up with them as they passed over Redscar Wood downstream towards Alston.

Saturday marked the end of October, hitherto an unknown month for me but I finished on 70 species, which is a little more than I expected. In fact it seems that all months, except for the neglected June, July, November and December are around the 70 mark. Winter visitors making up for the missing summer visitors and vice versa. November got off to a fair start with 48 today.

Leaves are fast disappearing from the trees, with only oak still in more or less full leaf. Hawthorns have been bare for a few weeks and sycamores are now joining them. I saw numerous helicopter seeds spinning down to earth in the wind this weekend. The river was fairly low at just over 1m at Ribchester School by Saturday but it had peaked at 4m on Thursday night, owing to the heavy rain from yet another Atlantic depression and the fact that all our fields are waterlogged right now.

Goosander - there has only been one young bird hanging around near Ribchester recently

Goldcrest in an almost bare Hawthorn at Red Bank, Ribchester. They join tit flocks at this time of year.

Eurasian Sparrowhawk, male on the roof of a cow shed at Lower Alston Farm. There are lots of small birds here for it at the moment.

My Ribchester BTO BirdTrack patch - almost all my efforts go into the SW six km squares from the vilage westwards, by far the most productive area.

October ended on 70 species, only 3 behind the best month so far, September. I’m guessing that November will be on around 70 too by the end of the month.

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AUTUMN SLOWDOWN ON THE RIVERBANK

After the rain followed blue skies and birds of prey: Peregrine, Eurasian Sparrowhawk and Common Kestrel

THE RIBBLE VALLEY AROUND RIBCHESTER IS QUIETLY SETTLING DOWN FOR WINTER, I didn’t see a single summer migrant this weekend and our winter visitors are now arriving. A couple of BTO BirdTrack walks along the riverbank were pretty quiet, mostly owing to another series of heavy showers tracking across East Lancashire. There was nothing new for the year this weekend and highlights were rather few. Woodpigeons are still on the move south across the river and I tallied a total of around 460 over the two days but most of the winter thrushes have pushed through now. Redwings barely made three figures after the big numbers last weekend and Fieldfares didn’t even pass the 40 mark. Little Egrets peaked at four on Saturday and there were only a couple of Grey Herons around, there were no goosanders and I haven’t seen a goldeneye yet this autumn. I guess they will probably appear next month? The best sighting of the weekend was another (or the same) juvenile Peregrine that was toying with Carrion Crows over Red Bank today as the sun came out after this morning’s torrential rain showers. A sparrowhawk and kestrel followed in blue skies but the farmland around Ribchester was otherwise very quiet today. The hawthorns are bare now but they do hold a decent berry crop, the fields are waterlogged and I noticed a nice looking flood pool in a field above Parsonage Farm that I haven’t check before. I will have to include it on my regular walk now!

Early morning on the riverbank

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RISE OF THE WOODPIGEONS

Part of the cloud of woodpigeons over the Ribble Valley on Sunday 18 October

HARDLY EXCITING BUT THERE’S A BIG PUSH OF WOODPIGEONS GOING SOUTH AT THE MOMENT is what I wrote on the East Lancs WhatsApp group yesterday. Well that was yesterday and the ‘big push’ by Ribchester standards was only 216. Today the estimated number was around 1700, including one mega flock of around 1200 birds that was flushed from the direction of Red Bank/Old Park Wood by a hot air balloon. I’ve not seen something like this before! Other highlights of my BTO BirdTrack walks around Ribchester included a flock of nine Whooper Swans that flew east low over Lower Alston Farm while watching a male Brambling and a Tree Pipit feeding in the same insect-laden sycamore! The Brambling was only my second in Ribchester. They are very uncommon here. The other main feature of the weekend was the arrival of the winter thrushes, Redwings and Fieldfares (780 and 145 respectively logged over the two days). They were everywhere in small groups. Redwings were feeding on the grass by the allotments, bursting out of every hawthorn and filling the bushes at Red Bank. Fieldfares were all only seen in flight, ‘chacking’ overhead. Blackbirds peaked at a minimum of 41 on Sunday, again they seem to be everywhere at the moment. Robins too, ticking away in the dark on my pre-dawn walk to the riverbank.

Another Peregrine powered over Red Bank towards the village and nine Little Egrets flew upstream on Saturday morning. There were still a few swallows around on Sunday morning with groups of three over the allotments and Lower Alston Farm. Surely these will be the last of the summer? A couple of skylarks were on the newly-cut maize field on Saturday with a good number of Pied Wagtails and Meadow Pipits but they were not here again on Sunday. The wagtails were chasing them non-stop so no surprise they had gone. I saw three Long-tailed tit flocks on Saturday but no luck yet with the hoped-for Yellow-browed Warbler despite much searching! A Noctule bat on Sunday morning along the river was nice and it is also interesting to see that Herring Gull has now replaced Lesser Black-backed Gull as the default large gull in the skies.

October now stands at 69 species and is therefore the fourth best month of the year on my Ribchester patch behind September, August and May in that order. The Rib year list is now on 99! One to go, what will it be?

A collage of one of Sunday’s nine Whooper Swans

Eurasian Skylark - a rare sight on the ground in Ribchester!

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