VERTEBRATE FAUNA OF THE BLACKPOOL DISTRICT 125 



Both the Tree and Meadow Pipits are common, the former being more 

 local than its congener. The character of the coast is unsuited to the Rock 

 Pipit. The bird, however, occurs irregularly, chiefly in winter, and was reported 

 many years ago to have bred near Heysham. An example of Richard's Pipit 

 in the possession of the writer was killed at Fleetwood in 1 868. 



The Tree Creeper nests in suitable localities, especially in the Ribble and 

 Hodder valleys ; and the Nuthatch formerly occurred in the wooded slopes 

 of Wyresdale, but has not been noticed for many years. 



The Goldcrest breeds in scattered localities where the spruce fir abounds ; 

 on the approach of winter, its numbers are considerably increased by immi- 

 grants from the north. Mr. H. W. Robinson reported the nesting (for the first 

 time in Britain) of the Firecrest near Lancaster in 1927, a full account of which 

 will be found in ' The Ibis ' for that year. 



Five of the British Tits are resident. The Long-tailed, Cole and Marsh 

 Tits, breed sparingly, mostly in the easterly portion of the district. 



The Great Grey Shrike has been shot at Ribbleton and the Woodchat 

 (according to Mitchell) at Lancaster. The Red-backed Shrike has nested, 

 but is now very irregular. The Waxwing is a sporadic visitor. 



Eleven Warblers are included. Both Whitethroats, the Blackcap, Sedge 

 and Garden Warblers are tolerably common. All three Leaf Warblers are 

 present, but the Chiffchaff is rare. The Reed Warbler had bred but is very 

 rare and local. The Grasshopper Warbler nests in suitable localities, and a 

 specimen of the Barred Warbler was shot near Fleetwood in 1 898. 



Six true Thrushes are found, four of them as nesting species. Numbers of 

 small dark thrushes, akin to the Hebridean race, pass annually on migration ; 

 their place of origin is as yet unknown. The Ring Ousel nests on the higher 

 ground, where it usually arrives in March. The Redstart is absent from many 

 of its old haunts ; its visits are fewer and its numbers vary from year to year. 

 The Black Redstart has been noted and is probably fairly regular on migration. 

 Press reports of local Nightingales have become of late years something of an 

 annual affair, the songsters invariably turning out to be night-singing Song 

 Thrush or Sedge Warbler. The only record for the district which ornitho- 

 logists have deemed worthy of attention is that of the late Robert Standen, 

 who stated (' Field Naturalist,' 1882) that in June, 1871, he twice saw the 

 bird at Whittingham, near Preston, and that it sang for nearly a fortnight, 

 when it was driven away by attempts to capture it. The Nightingale, however, 

 is excluded from the body of Mitchell's work, though that fact does not 

 necessarily condemn the record. The Stonechat nests in the vicinity of the 

 coast, and the Wheatear is found breeding in similar haunts as well as on the 

 moorland slopes. The Whinchat is less common and more local. The Green- 

 land Wheatear, like the White Wagtail, is a regular bird of double passage 

 along the west coast. 



The Dipper haunts the streams throughout the hill country and its 

 borderland. 



The Spotted Flycatcher is common and generally distributed ; the Pied 

 Flycatcher has bred but is generally a rare and irregular visitor. 



