Bill Aspin's Birding Blog 3: 2011

Sunday 25 December 2011

'Nordic' Jackdaw: River Wyre, Lancs - 24th Dec 2011.

Several Jackdaw in a flock of c40 showed Nordic characteristics in fields south of Shard Bridge, east of A588 opposite Shard Bridge Farm.

Peregrine

Thursday 1 December 2011

Local birding: Greenland White-fronted Geese - Rishton Reservoir, Lancs - 1st Dec 2011.

These two adult Greenland White-fronts found by Steve Grimshaw are only the third confirmed record of this subspecies for the East Lancashire Ornithologists' Club (ELOC) recording area, the previous two records both coming from Stocks Reservoir: 1 on 4th-22nd Jan 1983 and 1 on 15th Feb and again on 31st March 1996. Outside the ELOC recording area, but still in east Lancs, one was at Belmont Res 16th-19th April 1998. Thanks to Tony Cooper for researching past records. Superb birds and a great site tick for my old patch.

What is assumed to be the same Red-breasted Merganser as that present from 13th-20th November, and presumed long gone, dropped in from height at 12:30, so it is clearly feeding elsewhere! A 1stw drake Shoveler also present.

Recently, I have been suffering from my worst bout of blogging lethargy since I started a birding blog back in May 2005. I have a few posts to catch up on which I will try and do if I can summon up the will to do so!

Sunday 23 October 2011

Pomerine Skua - 20th Oct 2011.

Saturday 8 October 2011

Local birding, Lancs: Red-throated Diver, Belmont Reservoir - 8th Oct 2011.

Nipped up to see this moulting adult Red-throated Diver found by Belmont local patcher Steve Martin this morning.

Sunday 2 October 2011

Solitary Sandpiper: Nateby, Lancs - 2nd Oct 2011.

All credit to Stuart Piner for finding Lancashire's first Solitary Sandpiper this morning. My visit coincided with the onset of heavy rain, but despite the weather and distant viewing, an educational and distinctive bird I thought.

Wednesday 14 September 2011

Lancs: Grey Phalarope's, Gannet - 14th Sept 2011.

A single Common Tern, 2 Dunlin and 1 Green Sandpiper were the meagre rewards from three hours on the local patch, Brockholes NR LWT, during the morning.

Late morning, and a call from Cllr. John F. Wright saw me heading for the Lancs coast and specifically Fairhaven Lake, Lytham St. Annes where a Grey Phalarope had been present for a couple of days, and which was a "photographers dream" according to Cllr. Wright.

Above: Grey Phalarope - Fairhaven Lake, Lancs -14th Sept 2011.

The Phalarope was indeed superb, but with things to do I elected to return home via the Preston by-pass.

Upon reaching the A59 road bridge over the River Ribble at Penwortham, a glance upstream as I drove across revealed something on the water that looked like a large, mainly brown bird with a paler head. I couldn't eliminate the possibility of a Gannet from the view, so I pulled in at the first available layby and walked back with binoculars and DSLR to find a wrecked 2cy Gannet. Excellent.

Walking towards the centre of the bridge to obtain a few record shots, I glanced at the water below to be stopped in my tracks with a naked eye view of what looked to be a Phalarope on the water mid-river!

Below: Grey Phalarope on stretch of River Ribble in vicinity of A59 'Guild Road' Bridge, Preston, Lancs - 14th Sept 2011.

Above: Taken from the A59 road bridge.

The Phalarope then flew upstream and landed distantly, just upstream from Penwortham Bridge. After much frustration trying to find a route to get closer to the bird, I eventually succeeded briefly before the bird disappeared and it took the best part of another hour to re-find it, this time well downstream of the A59 road bridge. Both the Phalarope and the Gannet was last seen steadily drifting downstream on the ebbing tide, c500m downstream of the A59 bridge.