Saturday, October 09, 2010
North of Lambourn
The promised brightness after a dull start never materialised today, and we walked almost eleven miles in a gusty though warmish wind with the views enveloped in a grey mist. My target bird was stonechat.
We had lunch on the grassy fort ramparts at Uffington, with a dozen of so meadow pipits to watch and singing skylarks to listen to. Later we took afternoon coffee at our usual lunch-place at the top of Whit Coombe.....
That was after spotting a whinchat at the bottom of Crog Hill. It was a bit of a borderer, flying from side to side of the track. I think on this fence it was an Oxfordshire whinchat.......
......while on the rail of the gallops, it was probably a Berkshire whinchat.....
We enjoyed the walk. It gave us some much-needed exercise and blew the cobwebs away. And although there was no stonechat, I'm always happy to see whinchats and wheatears. They give rise to thoughts of moors and mountains and keep the summer going just a little bit longer.
// posted by Christine @ 1:21 PM 
