Obviously my Welsh Genes don't do well in temperatures above 17C so with a potential 34C on the cards today I felt an early start was in order. Amazingly I managed to get up at ten to five, yes there is one in the morning!! With time of the essence I decided to stay local and do the walk along Bullfinch Lane. It was still warm as I set out, the Moon was looking pretty magnificent!
I turned off the main path at the usual spot, a Green Woodpecker flew into a large Oak Tree but I couldn't winkle it out of the foliage, there were a few Swallows over the paddocks and there were six Linnets on the wires which were nice to see though pics were poor in the pre-sunrise gloom.
 |
| Rabbit |
 |
| Beast in the field, was hoping for a Cattle Egret, not seen one locally as yet! |
 |
| Wolstonbury Hill |
 |
| Linnet |
At this point as I followed the path the boundary changed from bramble to a fence as I cleared the Bramble, to see the open view over the fence a Roe Deer coming the way did the same, which is how I found myself eye to eye with a Roebuck,approximately 15 feet away!! Usually I would expect it to bolt, but it decided not to, rather it looked at me with mild surprise threw a variety of poses before wandering off. It may have been the fact that his missus was on the other side of the path, I hadn't noticed but she didn't hang around bounding off immediately !
 |
| Roebuck |
 |
| The Doe doing a runner |
A pretty amazing encounter!
At this point The Sun decided to rise, possibly the least spectacular Sunrise I've ever seen!! tried to get a bit arty through the trees!
 |
| Sunrise through the trees |
 |
| Possibly my most atmospheric obligatory HPP Church pic I've managed so far! |
I wandered down the lane, Blackbirds, Robins and Dunnocks including juveniles of all and a Song Thrush the best of it!
 |
| Young Robin |
 |
| Song Thrush |
I got to the end of the lane where the fields open up, they haven't slashed the hedges this year, which is probably for the best after the battering they have taken over the last few years. This seemed to have improved things, I heard four singing Yellowhammers, saw several Linnets, Whitethroats seemed to have done alright as well. I heard a couple of singing Chiffchaffs as well as seeing several working their way through the hedges. The two fields where the Owl was in the Winter are full of Skylarks though the long grass makes it difficult to seem them on the ground and you know how bad I am at flight shots, though it was nice to see them flitting about, more food flights rather than song flights though I did hear a couple singing. No sign of any Owls, so don't think they hung around to breed hopefully will be back next year.
 |
| Skylark the only one I saw on the ground |
 |
| Yellowhammer |
 |
| Linnet |
 |
| Linnet |
 |
| Common Whitethroat |
 |
| Skylark |
 |
| My usual poor attempt at Skylark flight shots, new camera hasn't made a lot of difference |
 |
| Chiffchaff |
As I wandered about I noticed a couple of tiny blobs on a dead tree, the other side of the A23 turned out to be three Woodpeckers, I juvenile Green Woodpeckers and two Great Spotted Woodpeckers! i saw 5 Green Woodpecker in all this morning!
 |
| Blackbird |
 |
| Green Woodpecker and Great Spotted Woodpecker |
 |
| Great Spotted Woodpecker |
 |
| Juvenile Dunnock |
 |
| Starling |
 |
| Swallow |
With 8 o'clock fast approaching and the weather turning Scorchio!! I decided to head home before I melted !! One of the best days I've had locally for a while, shows the benefit of an early start, not sure what has happened to the farm at the bottom of Bullfinch Lane, the hedges haven't been cut and the fields don't have animals on them this year, some respite for the wildlife, hopefully if someone else takes over they will be sympathetic to the wildlife!
In other news our Swifts continue to delight and frustrate in equal measure, we not exactly sure what is going on in our box, we see adults coming and going but no real sign of any youngsters, others in our scheme are reporting noisy young-uns in their boxes, with them sticking their heads out as well, we are thinking that ours may not have started as early as we thought or possibly the first lot failed and they are trying again, we did find an egg with a dead chick still inside underneath the box a couple of weeks ago. Still fun watching them screaming around the box, I have counted over 40 above the village and others have counted 50 plus! Apparently we have 13 occupied boxes in the village!!!
 |
| Swift |
