by Stephen R Halliwell
In the mid-1980’s Paul Morgan, the current (2010) Chairman of The Preston Society - probably better known as the Preston Bird Watching and Natural History Society - collaborated with other bird watchers to produce a book entitled “Birds of the Preston Area 1943 – 1984”. It was a compilation of all the available records of occurrences of birds during those years, and served as a brief introduction to the subject.
A more relevant version of the book was much overdue, and the present production, published only on this website, not only brings the record up to 2008, but also includes Paul’s text from the 1985 book at the start of each species’ account. Records since 1985 have been obtained from Fylde Bird Club Annual Reports, records given to me by Stuart Piner, who, from 1999 kept records of occurrences of birds at Myerscough Quarry, and W.A. (Bill) Aspin, who gave me his records of occurrences of birds at Brockholes Quarry from August 1998 when he first kept observations there, up to and including 2005. Peter Ross, a member of Preston Society kindly allowed me access to his diary records from Cuerden Valley and several other South Ribble sites. Some notable sightings have been taken from the “Birds of Lancashire and North Merseyside” Steve White, Barry McCarthy, Maurice Jones: 2008, but there are probably many others that remain hidden away in notebooks.
It is important to remember that this report does not pretend to be, and was never intended to be a significant contribution to science, but it is intended to give relative newcomers to bird watching, an idea of what may be seen, where and when. The main difficulty has been that the area that Paul chose for his recording area over-lapped the recording area of certainly three and probably four other recording areas – those being Fylde Bird Club, whose area covers north of the River Ribble and west of the A6, Chorley Naturalists, Lancaster and District Bird Watching Society, and East Lancashire Ornithologists, who now record the birds of Brockholes, despite it being within the City of Preston.
The geographic area that Paul used was the Hamilton Arms (formerly) on the A6 at Garstang, as a northerly extreme, Naze Point at Freckleton in the west, the De Tabley Bridge in Ribchester in the east, and the Royal Ordnance factory (formerly) at Euxton in the south. Where possible I have used exactly the same area with the exception of having included Warton Marsh to the west of Naze Point. Having included Warton Marsh it made sense to include Hesketh Marsh on the south of the river, but the available records from the latter site were so few that it hardly features in the report.
The order used follows the systematic listing used by the British Trust for Ornithology, and in that respect varies from the earlier publication.
Finally, I hope that readers can gain some use from the pages of the report, and that it may inspire someone to produce another one in another five years or so!
Part One: Mute Swan - Ruddy Duck
Part Two: Red-legged Partridge - Common Crane
Part Three: Oystercatcher - Grey Phalarope
Part Four: Pomarine Skua - House Martin
Part Five: Richard’s Pipit - Corn Bunting
Part Six: Escapes or birds of unknown provenance & Early and late dates for migrants, with medial dates.