Viewing entries in
Birding

Comment

DABCHICKS BACK ALONG THE RIVERBANK

A Little Egret flies under the bridge at Little Town. They sometimes fly over it, I wonder how they decide?

‘I USED TO SEE DABCHICK ON THE RIVER BY THE SCHOOL’ said Geoff Rollinson the other day. I hadn’t seen a Dabchick (AKA Little Grebe) there so far in 9 years but amazingly the following day there it was, struggling upstream along the oppoosite bank! Since that sighting things went a bit crazy with 4 Little Grebes at Red Bank on Saturday and 3 from the allotments today. The Little Grebe also marked 100 birds for me in Ribchester this year. Not bad considering I hadn’t even seen 100 species here in total before the first lockdown.

November ticks away and now stands at 60 for the month and 65 all time. There are so many possibilities to add to this figure over the next few weeks. Little Egrets appeared both days this weekend but numbers have definitely dwindled as the autumn has progressed. It is not surprising considering up to 17 are roosting upstream at Sawley at the moment. The BTO BirdTrack walk yesterday managed 51 species. Nothing special, just a good selection of common birds.

A Brambling flew over the allotments this morning and there are still 3 figures of Fieldfares flying south. A small flock of siskins was the first multiple sighting this autumn. Kingfishers are still very noisy and easy to see at the moment, either along the brook near the Stydd or along the river itself, upstream from the road bridge.

Little Grebe at Ribchester (Mike Watson)

Comment

1 Comment

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


1 Comment

Comment

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

Comment

Comment

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!

Comment