Boy, where has the time gone? One minute it's early September and I'm looking forward to lots of exciting autumn birding, then it's suddenly mid-October and it feels like I've hardly been out!
Well, that's not strictly true - I have had a few visits to Aldcliffe and environs but I've not exactly come back with a bulging notebook.
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| North Ronaldsay |
Plus, I spent the last week of September on North Ronaldsay, in Orkney. And that was pretty much dawn till dusk birding for 6 days. Our stay on this magical isle didn't coincide with The Big One (that came several days later) but we still found and / or saw plenty to entertain us.
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| Rustic bunting by Mark Witherall |
Highlights included
rustic,
little and
ortolan bunting olive-backed pipit,
bluethroat,
red-breasted flycatcher,
barred and
yellow-browed warblers plus plenty of birds I don't see enough of in this part of the world;
great northern diver,
great skua,
black guillemot,
purple sandpiper,
Lapland and
snow bunting,
ring ouzel,
grasshopper warbler and common migrants such as
redstart and
spotted flyctacher. Not too bad really.
Back in Lancaster and a trundle around the patch on October 1 revealed the following highlights:
1
whinchat
5 chiffchaff
1 green sandpiper
17 house martin (appeared to be moving through as opposed to lingering local birds)
7 gadwall
5 tufted duck
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| Better gate than never |
Though perhaps most significant was the appearance of the new gate by Keyline. Will this be enough to stop the increasing number of rat-runners using the cycle track as a short-cut? Let's hope so.
I can't help but think this is the absolute least that could have been done to solve the problem of unauthorised vehicle use on this track.
I expect one or two farm contractors will soon 'forget' the lock the gate behind them and it isn't beyond some drivers (such as those who clearly removed the no vehicle signage at the Aldcliffe Hall Lane end) to just cut through the locks. A couple of set-in bollards part way along the track may have been preferable...
Talking of house martins (see above), there were still 7 birds at the Willow Lane colony on Sunday 8 October. I haven't seen any since so I expect they've finally headed south.
This morning I had a good wander around the area, starting at FAUNA. I was pleased to my first local patch redwings of the autumn (already spotted on North Ron and at Leighton Moss earlier this week) - 3 were with 5 mistle thrush. I coudn't see any little owls in the usual spot.
After the initial promise provided by the redwings the next couple of hours were something of a dreary slog. A lone chiffchaff was the scant highlight from the cycle track while a kingfisher brightened up an otherwise dull Freeman's Pools.
Other typical odds and sods included sparrowhawk, gadwall, little egret, reed bunting etc.
Meanwhile, my day job allows me to see regular bearded tits, purple heron, marsh harrier and the like, so I'm not doing too badly. I will try to get down the patch a bit more frequently, and after one or comments about the lack of posts here of late will endeavour to keep Birding Aldcliffe up to date!
Jon
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