Saturday, October 06, 2012
A strange day at Combe
We arrived to find the sky full of ravens. There were fifteen to twenty of them tumbling and displaying (many of them, as Greger pointed out, in pairs) and the air was full of their ringing calls: a resonant, rising croak.
Two wheatears were near Chat Junction, but little else was seen until we were back on Walbury Hill. This is one of three stonechats along the main track.
The meadow pipit is preparing for a bath on the top of the chalky downs, although from the picture, this could be a wetlands scene; and as if to reinforce this illusion, a calling snipe zigzagged over to the south.
I thought that three or four small dark birds further along the fence were twite, but they proved to be lesser redpolls.
A yellowish warbler was also along the track; I think it was a chiffchaff.
It had been a nice walk on another lovely day, and we packed up and prepared to go. Greger turned the ignition key - and got just a whirring noise. Oh dear. He phoned the breakdown people who said they would be with us in about an hour; and we discussed what we would do. If we had to leave the car at a garage in Newbury, we could get the train to Taplow and then walk up into the village.
Meanwhile I watched the antics of a group of hippyish people filming some stunt or other with a pennant. The area was full of land-owners and their employees on account of the shoot, and when the hippies climbed the fence to do their stuff in the field, a Land Rover came swiftly lurching over to send them packing. They returned to the path and trudged up to the gibbet, where they stood in a group silhouetted against the sky while the pennant fluttered in the breeze. I couldn't read what it said on the pennant, but it all helped to pass the time.
Just as the hour was up, a cheerful chap arrived in a red van, attached jump leads to the battery - and the car started! Hooray! Greger will be buying a new battery next week.
// posted by Christine @ 3:42 PM 
