Saturday, November 05, 2011
A walk with a wheatear in it can't be bad, despite the gloomy weather. We had found a sheltered spot on the flank of Lowbury Hill and were stuffing our faces with Cornish pasties when this rather unhappy-looking wheatear appeared on a post about ten metres away.
The bird had the odd, hunched appearance of a robin in winter. It perched on the fence-posts for some time, flying down now and then to forage; and by the time we left it was running about on the grass looking a bit more normal.
We followed the same route as last week, getting glimpses of raven and peregrine and seeing flocks of fieldfare and redwing. Climbing again towards the Ridgeway we were surprised by a short-eared owl rising from the ground ahead. It gained height quickly, followed by a rook or crow which hectored it for some time.
In fact there were two owls and they were being bothered by quite a few smaller birds as well as the corvid.
In fading light we had good views of the owls in flight, looking rather bat-like as they evaded mobbing birds high above the downs.
We were very tired when we reached the car, just before dusk.// posted by Christine @ 2:04 PM 
