Saturday, January 25, 2014
Oxfordshire
We couldn't get excited at the prospect of a long walk today so we drove to Blewbury and followed the narrow concrete road out to Churn Farm. I wanted to see if there were any floods here, as there were back in April last year. But there was hardly any water lying in the fields at all - which is good for the farmer, of course.
We took the track towards Upper Chance Farm. The scrub on the left held a stonechat.
I thought that would be the birding interest over, but as we walked back along the road to the old bridge, two partridges took off from the verge and flew away over the fields. I'm hopeless at identifying partridges in flight - but, I hadn't seen the bold face markings of a red-legged; and sure enough, just as they landed, one turned and faced us, showing the plainer face and the black belly-spot of a grey partridge. First greys I've seen for a few years. Our walk was six kilometres, so better than nothing.
While I was typing this (just before 4.30 pm), a violent weather front passed through. The wind got up to a roar and the rain started to pelt down. When I looked out into the dusky light the trees were bent over and the rain was almost horizontal. It's calmed down now.
// posted by Christine @ 8:52 AM 
