Up with the lark again this morning and out on the moors once again. With a bit of time to spare I decided to have a look at some likely spots for Ring Ouzels. So far I've seen 3-4 birds this spring, all in "traditional" spots, so I thought I might try some untried sites. One visited this morning looked spot-on: a nice deep rocky clough, a few trees and flanked by heather and bracken with a bit of grazed areas for feeding. It was well off the beaten track too, so not disturbed. The decline of the Ring Ouzel in the UK has been attributed to several factors, involving theories relevant to breeding season, migration and wintering areas. It's thought that some Ring Ouzels have been displaced from nesting sites by the spread of Blackbirds and Mistle Thrushes into moorland areas. So far I had seen very few of either in Bowland this spring, and mainly in plantations in in-bye. Also Cumbrian birders had commented that Ring Ouzels nest alongside Blackbirds in quarries there, so could this really be a prohibitive factor? Well, despite my optimism I failed to find a Ring Ouzel this morning and did see Blackbird (a male) and Mistle Thrush in prime Ring Ouzel habitat. Of course this means absolutely nothing at all with such a small sample, but isn't it ironic that one of our finest summer visitors may be usurped by some of our commonest birds and not because of the much maligned raptors in the uplands? Food for Peregrines......sorry, I mean thought!
Anyway I did see a few birds this morning. Carrying on from yesterday's theme I spent a fair bit of time concentrating on Whinchats, returning to an area where I'd previously found 5 birds. This particular fell slope with large patches of bracken appears to be well populated and at least 7 Whinchats were on show this morning. This included a juvenile (along with 4 males, 2 females) and all were in close proximity of one another. Initially I found this "grouping" of Whinchats rather strange but the latest Atlas of the Breeding Birds of Lancashire & North Merseyside mentions "clusters" of Whinchats and indeed states that "loosely colonial nesting" had been observed. Well, there you go .......
A fine adult Med' Gull, Dipper, a very confused juvenile Stonechat (with the Whinchats, but later reunited with its parent) and Peregrine mobbing a Buzzard all noted in rather dreary conditions, but a Badger running directly at me as I walked along the road was amusing.
Thanks to Steve Flynn and Pete Woodruff for their Whinchat related comments regarding the last post (Chat Room) by the way. Nice to see a bit of optimism and read some positive comments about one of our summer visitors at last.
.
0 comments:
Post a Comment