Christine's walking & birds blog

Dorney

The hard, cracked mud on the common where the flood has dried up is beginning to grow a little muddy again and show signs of green life; and no doubt there are plenty of insects there as well. This evening two wheatears and a whinchat had dropped in; this was my first local returning wheatear and my first whinchat for the whole year, so despite the drizzle I took a couple of record shots.

Two dunlin were together on the Eton Wick flood, and at least two teal were there. As I stood on the common peering over the reeds a peregrine came flying from behind me; it was too dark to see any plumage details so I don't know if this was the juvenile that buzzed the flood last Friday. What I did notice was the powerful flight of the falcon and the fast, whippy wingbeats. 

Then I realised that one of the dunlin was in the air, zig-zagging away over the field with the peregrine in hot pursuit. The falcon seemed to give up and I last saw it disappearing over the trees to the east. A hoarse "treep" was heard from the dunlin that had stayed put. After perhaps a minute the pursued dunlin came swooping in from the Jubilee River side and landed on the far, grassy margin of the flood where I couldn't see it. But I heard another "treep".