Can we have some mud please?

Common Blue Damselflies have appeared around the margins of No. 1 Pit this week and the sunny weather has produced many butterflies. Pretty quiet on the bird front though with very few migrants apart from the odd Wheatear (above). With no muddy margins on the Main Pool we're bereft of passage waders (apart from Common Sand's and the odd Dunlin) and therefore intense observer coverage is lacking. The massive coastal Lancs Arctic Tern passage hasn't penetrated inland either. Anyway, highlights as follows:

30 April - Quarry: 210 Whimbrels in roost at dawn, Hobby over Boilton Wood at lunchtime.
1 May - Quarry: Tree Pipit early AM, Hobby late afternoon, 140 Whimbrel roosting and 1st smr Little Gull at dusk.

2 May - Quarry: 187 Whimbrel at dawn and Grey Partridge (site goody!). Work today was interrupted by a quick dash back to the quarry mid-morning. A Black Stork seen over Leyland appeared to be heading this way but an hour so scanning the valley from "Mount Brockholes" (the eastern banks of the Main Pool!) produced nowt. Bullfinch was a good fly-by though. The Whimbrels made us wait this evening, not arriving until 9 PM. In the end 122 assembled - a respectable total but it seems like last year, we are not going to reach the spectacular figures (up to 400) of previous years. 1St smr Little Gull again this evening - must be the same bird lingering.

3 May - Quarry: Another dawn vigil (accompanied by Angie for the third consecutive morning!) with 130 Whimbrel on the Main Pool. The cool easterly winds made us head for shelter in Boilton Wood where we had Tawny Owl. Apparetly very little in the form of migrants early AM at least. However the HOUSE SPARROW seen as I was locking the gate on leaving the site is a Quarry Mega and my first Brockholes sighting. Oh the joys of patch birding .....

Redstart & Pied Fly.

Bit of "off-patch" birding this morning took me to the Brock Valley on the edge of Bowland. Parked the car and straight away the strident song of a male Redstart could be heard. A stroll down the path produced another target bird in the form of a male Pied Flycatcher in dispute over a nest box with a Great Tit. The Redstart took a bit of locating as it sang from the top of the trees but finally gave itself up. Dipper on the river was my first for some time. Another visit in a couple of weeks should produce Spotted Flycatchers.

Quarry's been OK this week. A couple of Garden Warblers that have taken up residence at the M6 end of the site have been popular. Infact this should be renamed "Sylvia Corner" as you can notch up Whitethroat, Blackcap and at times Lesser Whitethroat here too (usually early mornings though!). Water level's too high for wader passage this Spring - at least for them to stick around anyhow - and the Groppers seemed to have moved on. Marsh Harrier over the site the other day - shame I wasn't there too.

Whimbrels in the mist ......

Bit of a change in the weather since last weekend! We had our first rain for several weeks and the fleece has come back out for early morning quarry visits. Sedge Warblers and Whitethroats have arrived at the quarry and one, maybe two male Grasshopper Warblers have been reeling near the Main Pool. Terns are quite scarce on the patch so a Common Tern on 22nd was nice. Finding uncommon or rare birds is only half the fun of patch birding though and the evening gathering of Whimbrel using Brockholes as a "staging post" has been enjoyable. Last night Little Gull popped in as we were counting and I'm sure there'll be other "incidentals" before the Whimbrel gatherings tail off in the second week of May.

I snapped the pics this morning just after dawn at the quarry. You can just about make out some of the 127 Whimbrel in the lower picture taken just before they started calling, then flew off east up the Ribble Valley to feed in the fields.

Dotterel and Ring Ouzels at Pendle Hill, Lancashire.

The thought of flocks of Ring Ouzels and a couple of Dotterels was just too much, so Angie and I headed for Pendle Hill this morning. On arrival we scanned the slopes and soon found our first 3 Ring Ouzels. These are one of my favourite British birds and I get a real thrill out of seeing these (almost as much as Med' Gulls and my all-time number one: Hawfinch). Anyway, in the top pic you can just make out 4 Ring Ouzels (3 in the tree and one on the wall - careful of that swine Blackbird), as well as a male Wheatear at bottom left.

Every now and then they would feed in the open but always at a fair distance from the path. We only ever saw six at one time, although we suspected more were present and up to 19 were seen earlier this morning.

Dotterel is of course "the" Pendle bird. The female pictured above was accompanied by a very drab male and as usual they were quite approachable.

A brief evening visit to Brockholes Quarry today produced nothing of note. But you just have to check, don't you?

Lesser-spotted Woodpecker ......

....... That's what I didn't see! Yet another sighting of the elusive Lesser-spot yesterday, so I made an early morning effort on the woodland edge of Brockholes this morning. Started a bit too early actually as Tawny Owl was calling. A Cuckoo singing strongly just off-site is a good quarry record (only my second ever here) while I was scanning the ploughed fields in the hope of Ring Ouzels (no luck).

The shingle area bordering No 1 Pit (top pic with M6 in background) still holds 3 White Wag's and a couple of Wheatears but the coastal Lancs Redstart arrival didn't appear to penetrate inland - not a far as Brockholes anyway. Still only 20 Whimbrel in the roost this evening.

The reports of staggering numbers of migrant Ring Ouzels on the higher areas in Lancs is just getting too tempting, provoking some "off-patch" birding.

Evening Quarry visit pays off .......

Bit of spare time in the evening of 18th, found me back at Brockholes again for my first "Whimbrel Experience" of the year. By the time I arrived there were already a couple on the Main Pool - see pic above of the "sneaky pair", doing their best to blend in with their surroundings ..... not! Anyway, Whimbrel action was pretty pathetic when I happened to look up and see a raptor overhead. "OSPREY!" Brilliant. This bird appeared to be contemplating a plunge very briefly but decided against it and wheeled off up the Ribble Valley. Realising it was gone 8 PM, I thought it might roost in one of the woods above the valley, but alas it continued in a generally northerly direction. Better still, the Osprey was appreciated by three other quarry regulars present monitoring the Whimbrel roost. Oh ...... 16 Whimbrel came in too!

Sunny, but blustery at the Quarry.

Lunchtime visit to the Quarry today (18th) started nicely as a Yellow Wagtail flew over the Main Pool and landed out of sight near No. 1 Pool. On relocating this scarce quarry bird I found five White Wag's in the same area. The White Wag's were a little more confiding than the Yellow Wag, which eventually took off to the north over Boilton Wood.

This afternoon's birding was enjoyable, despite the cold westerly wind. The lone Whimbrel continues to "skulk" around the islands on the Main Pool, Common Sand's are up to 7 birds now and single Swift still around. Local birder Zac made the first count of the Whimbrel roost last night with 9 birds present.

Birds at Brockholes and Moths at home .....

The sunny afternoons have been perfect for strolls along the banks of the Ribble watching Goosanders (above) and Kingfishers but very few migrants have been grounded.

Migrants continue to just trickle in, depite unseasonal Mediterranean-type weather for April. Willow Warblers are well established now and 16th saw the first Swift arrival with Hirundines over the Ribble. Today (17th) saw the first Whimbrel appearing at the quarry too, with a bird on the Main Pool at midday. The Spring roost should build up over the next two weeks.

The acquisition of a moth trap has broadened my horizons a bit this year too. As you can see I'm no good at photographing them, but it's getting addictive. So far we've had Early Thorn (top), a few Hebrew Characters (above), Common Quakers, a Clouded Drab and a Pug sp. (couldn't ID that one for sure).

Brockholes Quarry.

Despite the winds swinging round to a promising direction and the rest of the UK being littered in migrants, we seem to be a little light on the "good bird front" at the quarry of late. OK, so the scoter and gull-fest of mid week was nice and I arrived at the site "post-Osprey" one morning, but there's been little more than a trickle of common stuff so far this week. Willow Warblers have arrived with a handful of passage Wheaters, Common Sand's have taken up residence on No. 1 Pool and there's a couple of White Wag' records. The hot afternoons have been graced by lots of butterflies including Peacocks, Large White, Speckled Woods, Small Tortoishells and a single Common Blue. Looks like that first site record of Ring Ouzel will just have to wait ........

Above: Oystercatcher and Tree Sparrow taken by the River Ribble adjacent to Brockholes.

Signs of things to come from Brockholes.

Common Scoter may not be "big news" in Lancashire (thousands winter off the coast near Blackpool), but it's a good record at the Quarry. With the first proper site record (there was an old one from the adjacent River Ribble) only a couple of years ago, there has been a spate of birds, including a flock of 20+ in the summer of 2006. However, it's still a noteworthy bird there so had to take a look at the female on the Main Pool yesterday. While I was standing around chin-wagging with some of the quarry regulars a couple of adult Little Gulls dropped in too. These graceful creatures spent a short time hawking insects in their tern-like behaviour over the Main Pool before departing to No. 1 pit.

Record shots of the scoter and a view to the east from the quarry compound towards Bowland above. Not long now before we'll be watching the gathering of roosting Whimbrel arriving from this direction.

Easter Bowland Jaunt, 7 April 2007.

Dodging the Bank Holiday traffic and crowds, we drove into Bowland for the afternoon over Easter. A Common Scoter on a small dam-side pool at the head of the valley was unusual, and reminded me that we're due one at Brockholes this Spring. Two or three pairs of Stonechats, a couple of Wheatears and Red Grouse were seen as we walked up the valley. We found our target bird too, as a Ring Ousel flew across the valley calling. Unfortunately this male landed out of sight so here's a pic of one I took a couple of years ago at the same locality.

All quiet at the Quarry.

A pleasant enough stroll in rather dire conditions (overcast with cold westerly wind) this morning at Brockholes Quarry. Only new arrivals were a Common Sandpiper and at least one House Martin, but no sign of any Willow Warblers yet here. Indeed winter's still hanging on with Goosanders and Goldeneye on the river. Plenty of residents paired up though, including the above Pied Wagtail and Kingfisher.

Migrants trickle through ......

A good few hours at the quarry so far this Easter weekend. Spent some time scanning the valley from the compound mound towards Bowland in the hope of raptors to no avail in these sunny, but chilly conditions. The elusive Boilton Wood Lesser Spotted Woodpecker has been just that too (so far), despite a few hours trawling there on Good Friday. First site Wheatear of the year, 1st summer Med'Gull, a handful of Sand Martins, single Swallow, Blackcap and several LRP's about all I have to show for my efforts so far. Can we have some south-westerlies please?

Above: Sunset over the Main Pool looking towards the M6 and one of the "Gang of Six" on the old sludge pit.

Brockholes Quarry, Preston.

As the Spring progresses my attention turns away from the estuary towards the river valley, particularly Brockholes Quarry. Situated alongside the M6 just east of Preston, it's an ideal "patch" being only 6 miles from home. So far this year the birding's been pretty slow (the winter's always quiet, maybe due to lack of observer coverage), but as migration kicks in we can expect some decent birding here. Last autumn was superb for Black Terns and the long-awaited Little Stint quarry tick finally fell! See the culprits pictured above from October 2006. Star bird was of course the Glossy Ibis (see older posts).

A good week on the Ribble.

Plenty of good birds over the past week and even a few summer migrants in the shape of Wheatears and Sand Martins. Perhaps the most excitement was at Brockholes Quarry on 30th March when an Osprey flew up the valley and then it, or another one was seen by other observers nearly two hours later. First Swallow of the Spring that day and an adult Kittiwake too. Other highlights included Ruddy Ducks and Scaup, at least 3 Little Stints and Curlew Sandpiper at Marshside, but little of note seen on the north shore (although the Glossy Ibis is still at Warton). Green-winged Teal's showing exceptionally well from Sandgrounder's today still too.