The Flycatchers are coming too.

Pied Flycatcher. Brian Rafferty.

I note with much interest a Pied Flycatcher having been found at Barbondale today, an early record for our area where you would expect to see the species in maybe a weeks time especially if the weather stays anything like it is at the moment, maybe a couple of days earlier  in more favourable conditions, but 11 April is definitely an 'early bird' SEE HERE. 


My intentions are to visit Barbondale before the month is out, probably sometime in the last week of April, by then my hopes are pinned on finding a few more than one Pied Flycatcher. I also have hopes in finding more Stonechats here than was the case last year when - despite five visits - I found not a single bird in keeping with other places. 

BR's photograph of the Pied Flycatcher above is interesting in that, noting plumage detail it obviously isn't a mature bird but a first summer male.

Spotted Flycatcher. Brian Rafferty.

I soon hope to be on the trail of the other 'flycatcher' the Spotted Flycatcher, but this bird isn't expected to appear in my records until maybe up to a month later than the Pied Flycatcher in early May. Amongst the many places I can find the Spotted Flycatcher I'll have a keen eye in the Marshaw/Tower Lodge/Trough Bridge area in Bowland to see if 2012 can uphold its record of being the best place to find the highest number of the species in the LDBWS recording area. I'm also reminded of finding my first record of breeding Pied Flycatcher in this area in 2011 including young being fed on 16 June, so this summer looks more exciting than ever for me. 


And talking of Barbondale and Bowland....

Dipper. David Cookson.

....here's another bird - the Dipper - I'll be seeing plenty of at both these locations.

Kestrel. David Cookson.

And yet another one, the Kestrel. Thanks to BR for the excellent photographs of the 'flycatchers', and to DC for the Dipper and the Kestrel. 

On Sunday evening last I watched a Peregrine Falcon on and around the spire of St Peters Cathedral in Lancaster. I made an error made in my last post 'The Cuckoos are coming' when I claimed I hadn't seen a Cuckoo in 2011 until 2 June, in fact I heard one on Birk Bank on 28 April.