Sunday, September 04, 2011
The Downs (yesterday)
It didn't rain, but the sun barely showed its face during a windy 9-miler from Bury Down. Having bought Cornish pasties at Chieveley Services we did the stretch from the car park to the second horse jump in record time, in order to eat them while they were still hot.
A whinchat was on the far side of the gallops, and a woman walking her dogs flushed it over towards us. It landed in a nearby hawthorn, allowing me to get a record shot.
There were loads of swallows and house martins over West Ilsley, and plenty of warblers in the hedgerow on the Catmore road. But no more migrants were forthcoming until just after Scutchamer Knob, when two wheatears were seen foraging out on the field next to the Ridgeway.
A whinchat was hunting from the fence, though whether a different bird from the morning one on Cow Down I couldn't say.
The only presentable photo I took was of the benchmark number on the Fore Down triangulation pillar.....
.....and, considering it stood absolutely still and I was able to walk right up to it, that's not very good either.(Fore Down name from trigpointingUK.com with www. prefix)
// posted by Christine @ 3:31 AM 
