Saturday, April 14, 2012
Spring is shaping up!
Even Martin Cade of Portland Bird Observatory reckons it's a good one so far, and he's not a man given lightly to optimism.
We went west, and started the walk badly by taking a too-narrow footpath through a field of wet rape and getting soaked legs and feet. I did quite a lot of moaning, and we almost returned to the car. Thank goodness we didn't.
Wayland's Smithy, a Neolithic long barrow, was unusually quiet so I took a pic of it from the Ridgeway.
There's a scrubby paddock on this walk that I've always scanned for redstarts, but I'd never seen one - until today! Two males were foraging and calling.
Greger got his first good views of male redstarts and was suitably impressed. I could have stayed there for hours but we were both tired and our feet were still wet, so we began the last climb.
At the start of our walk, the horse had been standing stock-still on the other side of the hill. He had watched our progress with interest but otherwise remained motionless. And now he was here as we approached the hill from the opposite side.
He looked very imposing on the skyline, and until he moved his head he could have been something put there by Anthony Gormley. Angel of the West.
Perhaps he'd been a police horse in London, for instance, and couldn't quite get to grips with the peacefulness and the wide open spaces.
// posted by Christine @ 10:54 AM 
