Friday 10 April 2009

Proper spring

A great couple of hours birding this morning, with our first wheatears of the year (I thought I'd missed them all) . One peregrine was seen, and Hope Point held a good fall of migrants which included willow warbler, blackcap and a good number of singing common whitethroats.
A couple of swallows were seen winging in over the cliffs, and later in the day the lovely chattering sound of house martins filled the air.
Three wheatears were seen on the undercliff, the first found by the Kingsdown pointer and two more on the stony area at the far end.
One decided to take a bath in a puddle, giving us the chance to crawl near (grown men!) so when it emerged onto the nearby rock we had it in our sights.
Ah, that's better. I do like to freshen up after a long flight.
There were no other photo-opportunities, and we decided against pishing into the wind.

5 comments:

Warren Baker said...

Migrants got as far as hadlow too steve. I think your Wheatear photo is a lot better than my effort. Although I suppose I could of crawled across the plough!

Greenie said...

Steve ,
Interesting bog . I didn't realise that down there , you use dogs , although I've never heard of the breed , to find your migrants .
As for 'pishing' , I find that it never works properly when the wind is blowing .
As for Warren's comment , that seems to me like a good way to lose one's manhood .
Warren was awarded a prize in your quiz , does that mean that it was a Coot after all ?

NW Nature Nut said...

You got some great photos of a beautiful bird!!

Phil and Mandy said...

Lovely shots of the Wheatear Steve, Happy Easter, Phil and Mandy

Mary said...

What a beautiful bird and wonderful photos of it! I looked to see if we had anything like it....only way up in Canada apparently.