I wasn't intending to do any birding today but late morning I received a message from Terry H letting me know that he had found a stunning ♂ Whinchat alongside a Wheatear in the sheep field at Tanwood. As I have mentioned many a time on this blog I am a great lover of the 'chat' family and as it was only a couple of miles up the road I decided to pop there late afternoon to see the bird.
On arrival I soon picked up the Northern Wheatear alongside a Pied Wagtail in the field. Shortly afterwards fellow birder and retired man of the cloth John C arrived. Whilst we were chatting a Hobby went through flying West. This was my first Hobby of the Spring and these agile raptors are always welcome sight in my book.
After our natter John walked down the lane and located the Whinchat in the orchard opposite. It then flew across the lane and back into the sheep field...giving us both great views of this stunning bird.
This area was so productive this afternoon with a Lesser Whitethroat singing from deep within the hedgerow opposite and a distant Cuckoo heard calling from Chaddesley Wood. 2 Curlews also dropped into the field and started feeding.
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Beautiful, very pretty bird filmi. I am greeting
ReplyDeleteA good day out? I love the video, fantastic.
ReplyDeleteWell all of that was definitely worth going out for, nice piece of video too!
ReplyDeleteBeen hoping for a spring Whinchat here Jase, nothing so far, but then Ive only had two spring records over ten years :-)
ReplyDeleteZielonaMila - Thankyou
ReplyDeleteBob - Cheers mate..it was a good day
Jan - Definitely...they are stunning birds plus the Hobby was a bonus!
Warren - Same here mate...I've only had 2 Spring Whinchats at Shenstone in the last 5 years. I tend to do much better with them on Autumn passage
I miss the British birds but have been enjoying the Tui's , fantails and Pukeko's around our property here in NZ.
ReplyDeleteSounds fantastic Robert! Both countries have such a diverse range of birdlife
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