Christine's walking & birds blog

Yesterday I returned to West Berkshire/Oxfordshire to look for the harrier, walking first to the stubble field where we saw it on Saturday. There were loads of linnets, and a yellow wagtail flew over calling. I drove on through West Ilsley, to try West Ginge Down - one of the hunting grounds of last winter's hen harrier. There was a short, sharp shower of rain here, but nothing out of the ordinary.

Finally I drove to Bury Down and walked along the Ridgeway, turning onto Cow Down as great dark clouds massed in the west. In the place where I saw two redstarts last year, I heard a couple of hoo-eets but they were distant and I couldn't see anything.

Then the wind got up even more and the rain began.


I crept under this hawthorn tree as an elderly man in thin summer clothing sought shelter on the other side of the track. The wind grew stronger, raking across the downs carrying rain sideways, soaking and chilling you in seconds. This was no shower, and I began to wonder if it would ever end.

When I finally emerged, I was relieved to see the elderly man walking back to Scutchamer Knob. He must have been frozen.

I took the photo just after the rain stopped, and looking at it, you wouldn't think that possibly the most violent storm I've ever encountered on a Ridgeway walk had just passed over.