D-Day

I have walked up Pendle Hill a few times but normally in good weather and I know how strenuous it can be. As a group of birders it is famous as a stopping off point for Dotterel and this was the target get species for the group outing.

Unfortunately being a Bank holiday the weather turned wet and nasty. There had been 7 birds the day before but they had left by 12.30. 6 of us started the accent at 10.45 and reached the split in the path or base camp. At this point Bren decided that the chest infection she picked up travelling back from Belize made the walk a bit too much. 5 of us pushed on to the summit and started the search. Meadow pipits, skylarks, wheatears were seen easily the song of curlews were also noted. We got to the wall and started looking for dotterel. I quickly found 1 then 2 more and a golden plover. As we all got on the birds were started to count and ended up with 6 of these wonderful birds.

A long walk down and a trip into Barley village helped us added a number of species such as woodland birds, warblers, ducks. A female blackcap was fly catching on the stream and a robin held about 10 flies in its beak on its way to feed its young.

We carried on checking the stream looking for the other D bird of the day. I quickly found the Dipper and got the rest of the group on to these smart birds.

A good outing for the group.

Keep birding

Chris