UK Diary 12-22 October 2009

Long-billed Dowitcher, Cockersand - thanks to the finder Stuart Piner

17 October 2009 Lancashire Long-billed Dowitchers. Increasingly frustrated by the meagre returns for my efforts inland I headed for the coast again, starting at the mouth of the Lune Estuary at Cockersand where the dawn air was filled with the bubbling calls of curlews and the excited cackling of Pink-footed Geese getting ready to leave their roosting grounds for the green grass of the Fylde. A pair of Twite (at least one of which was un-ringed) was foraging on the piles of tide line flotsam with Meadow Pipits and Pied Wagtails at Bank Houses. Four Little Egrets were out in the channels on the incoming tide, two Grey Wagtails and another Twite flew south, calling, a Rock Pipit was along the sea wall and on Crook Skeer small flocks of waders were scattered across the mud, mostly Common Redshanks and Dunlins. Eventually the smart juvenile Long-billed Dowitcher was located amongst the redshanks, feeding actively, probing the wet mud in a snipe-like fashion. A couple of juvenile Grey Plovers and a juvenile Curlew Sandpiper had also joined the gathering. As the tidal surge raced past us upriver the waders were forced closer but as the mudflats were covered they eventually dispersed, the dowitcher to the south around Plover Scar and out of sight. Also here were: Great Crested Grebe (two offshore); Common Shelduck; Common Eider (drake); Common Kestrel (two); Common Goldeneye (female); Grey Partridge (three in a grassy field next to the Abbey from Plover Hill); ten more Grey Plovers flew north with a group of Dunlins; Ruddy Turnstone (c.30); European Golden Plover (c.100 in fields inland along Slack Lane with c.300 Northern Lapwings); Common Oystercatcher; Black-tailed Godwit (four); Tree Sparrow (four around Bank Houses with several chaffinches and greenfinches) and Common Reed Bunting (c.10).

Top two: Long-billed Dowitcher (juvenile), Cockersand and below Twite and Pied Wagtail, Bank Houses

Upstream the Conder Pool was strangely deserted at the highest tide, with only three Little Grebes. There were, however, some high-tide-roosting waders on the saltmarsh at Conder Green, which included: Spotted Redshank (one); Bar-tailed Godwit (two juveniles) and Black-tailed Godwit (five) in the company of Eurasian Curlews, Common Redshanks, Dunlins and Common Snipes as well as Common Teal, Eurasian Wigeon and Mallards. Drifting past on the river were a redhead Goosander and a Red-breasted Merganser, within a few metres of each other at one stage and a female Merlin was perched on a log of the opposite side of the river.


Long-billed Dowitcher (juvenile), Banks

At Old Hollow Farm on Banks Marsh on the south side of the Ribble Estuary, I met up with East Lancs birders Bill Aspin, Dave Bickerton and John Wright. At first we were hampered by a heat haze in the afternoon sun but after a couple of hours Bill’s persistence paid off when he picked up the juvenile Long-billed Dowitcher (presumably one of two he and John had found here last week), sneakily hunched against a mud bank with a handful of Black-tailed Godwits. Soon after its discovery it obliged by feeding in the shallow water of the pools for a while, another juvenile again with rather plain tertials. Prior to this year’s amazing sequence in the northwest there were ten records of Long-billed Dowitcher in Lancashire, four of which were on the Ribble marshes. The grazing marshes here are very atmospheric, one of the few places on the Lancashire coast where one can ‘get away from it all’ and we enjoyed some excellent birding in addition to the main attraction with two lingering summer visitors in the form of a fly-over Yellow Wagtail, seen and heard calling very nicely several times plus a Northern Wheatear. Other waders included: Curlew Sandpiper (three juveniles); Spotted Redshank (one); European Golden Plover (two); Red Knot (one); Dunlin (c.50); Green Sandpiper (two) and Common Snipe (c.10). Also here were: Little Egret (three); Grey Heron; Pink-footed Goose (c.300 over); Common Shelduck; Common Teal; a juvenile Marsh Harrier was mobbed as it crossed the wader pools; a female Merlin caused havoc amongst the waders and eventually whacked a small passerine, presumably a Meadow Pipit; a pair of Common Ravens and a Common Buzzard appeared to have found something interesting out on the marsh; Stock Dove (four with several Common Wood Pigeons and Common Skylarks (c.50). I didn’t manage any hirundines today and neither yet winter thrushes nor Goldcrests.

Above: one of the last Northern Wheatears of the year and below: Dave and John at Banks

We also paid a visit to the RPSB’s brand new Hesketh Out Marsh reserve in the later afternoon. The reserve was opened to the public on 10 October and is part of their Ribble Estuary strategy. Its vast tidal scrape, which will also act as a sea defence, screams potential. Bill said, ‘we are looking at the future of Lancashire birding’. There were a few pioneers already on the society’s embryonic mud creation including a Little Egret and Black-tailed Godwit with several Common Redshanks and Eurasian Curlews. Towards dusk the two ravens flew east calling and a distant Common Stonechat perched a top some distant dead flower stems and as the sun set a female Merlin dashed across the reserve from the direction of Longton. We are all looking forward to returning soon.

Hesketh Out Marsh