GREAT GREY SHRIKE AT STOCKS

Great Grey Shrike - East Lancs has a great track record for this fine bird

A dawn to dusk effort in the AONB with Mark Varley was saved at the death by a combination of Ian Walker and the sharp eyes of Mark Breaks. I managed to catch up with East Lancs's latest Great Grey Shrike as the sun set at Stocks, in the willows next to the School Lane car park. On a lovely clear evening it was still in view at 1644! Unfortunately my poor photos aren't good enough to age it. After a sinful stop at the A59 Scottish restaurant I headed into Bowland. It was minus six celsius there this morning and in the freezing cold a singing White-throated Dipper at one of the regular nest sites was a nice start, its mate nearby bodes well for the spring. Another promising record today was a pair of European Stonechats at White Greet, hopefully, after the last two winters having decimated their numbes in Bowland, they can refill the Upper Hodder with their offspring. Apart from an extensive search of the valley for the Marl Hill Great Grey Shrike the other main feature of the day was the westward passage of Pink-footed Geese. We had at least 367 in several flocks from Marl Hill to Stocks (counted from photos) but Allen Holmes and the Breaks family had even more. Maybe more than 1,000 migrated west through the area today on their way to graze the winter grass of the Fylde. We checked the tops at Cross of Greet and Bowland Knotts seeing only Red Grouse in both places (except for three starlings flying south over the cross, the first I have seen up here) and we did a lot of scanning to no avail with only a handful of Common Kestrels and Buzzards to show for our efforts. Ironic that after spending hours in more remote areas of Bowland someone else should bowl up at a well-covered site and find a/the shrike. There must be a message here somewhere but we enjoyed a great day in a lovely corner of England nevertheless and I can think of worse places to spend my time. Other interesting sightings were: Goosander (drake just upstream of the bridge at Newton); Peregrine (two north at Marl Hill); Fieldfare (around 50 in the Marl Hill area); Eurasian Siskin (Marl Hill) and at dusk I heard two Tawny Owls at Stocks and another two at Slaidburn. It was also good to see the Riverbank Tearooms open again today after redecoration.

Joe celebrates sending another customer upstairs to his more expensive room at the Riverbank