Saturday, April 06, 2013
A pleasant surprise
"A rubbish shot of a curlew near water," I hear you cry. "So what?"
Yes, but this was unexpected water, a chain of sparkling pools in the heart of the downs.
As well as gulls, lapwings and pied wagtails, there were two tiny waders. They landed, seemed uneasy, and flew to the other end of the flood. I was unable to relocate them, but it seems likely they were dunlin.
Greger sat on the bank and had a coffee while I walked further along the track. There was a sudden "whoosh" which made me instinctively duck, and I was aware of a small bird speeding away from me over the fields while a larger bird crash-landed in one of the bushes. It was a sparrowhawk. I just had time to admire its blue-grey plumage before it disentangled itself from the twigs and flew off over the flood - spooking everything as it went.
We stopped to look at something and a short-eared owl rose from the rough grass at the side of the track. It floated low over the ground and landed in the middle of the field, where it was dive-bombed by gulls.
Two stone curlews were seen well from the track.
The sunshine was brilliant - almost too much. But the wind is still icy; and the bad news is that this persistent wind from the north-east is probably a result of the Arctic warming up (which in turn is a result of global warming), and is therefore all our own fault!
// posted by Christine @ 1:59 PM 
