LANCS: Week in Bowland.

Another week of fieldwork in Bowland completed with the undoubted highlight being a delightful male Whinchat this morning in Whitendale. A real "stonking" male in full breeding dress (much nicer and more crisp than the one above photographed at Wanlockhead in D&G last May), the Whinchat shared his domain with an (almost) equally stunning male Stonechat and his partner. In fact it's been a good week for Stonechats for me with several birds found in suitable breeding habitat.

Whinchat territory in Whitendale, Bowland May 2009.

Dunsop Valley - the disputed "Centre of England". Note the cleared hillside with conifers being replaced by native woodland in the future.

Other highlights this week include a Peregrine darting across the front of the car near Tower Lodge and spooking Curlews and Mallards, a couple of Dippers on territory and a singing Lesser Whitethroat on the A6 as I drove into Bowland yesterday.

Dipper territory in Whitendale, Bowland April 2009.

Of course the weather can be very changeable here too!

Off to the Solway for the Bank Holiday weekend. Been some Poms on the Cumbria side this evening and west D&G has been good (Glaucous Gull, Kumlein's Gull & Green-winged Teal), so fingers crossed!