Leaving the learning centre, I can hear a Robin calling from somewhere nearby. I look up to see it perched on the roof of the learning centre singing its lungs out.
I headed towards the cow field to make they hadn’t gone any more midnight adventures. As I reached the field a Pied Wagtail fly past in a blur of black and white. Looking out over the field towards the cows the sky seemed alive with bird activity. Swallows darting in all directions, groups of Goldfinch jumping from one tree to the other and Chiffchaffs flying this way and that as well. I stood and watched the birds dancing in the sky for a while before passing the cows down a very muddy path into the light house field.
At the gate I noticed some Stinking Iris in fruit beside the path. The berries a bright orange almost red colour. Looking back at the cow field I could see one cow desperately stretching over the wall to reach the leaves it had deemed the most delicious.
At the top of the gully a Hawthorn seemed alive with Goldfinch hopping about it branches. I carried on admiring the Swallows circling around all the time. As I reached one of the higher meadows the bushes to the side of the path seemed to buzz with bird life again. A Great Tit broke cover as well as a Chiffchaff and some more Goldfinch.
I noticed what I thought to be a Pigeon flying about my head, it wasn’t until I took a second glance did, I realise it was in fact a Peregrine Falcon. Its stripped underside clearing visible for all to see and admire. It then disappeared behind a hedge only to reappear over the next meadow.
On my way back I popped into the bird ringers who were experiencing a very busy morning, with over a hundred birds caught already. The largest number of which was Chiffchaff, but they had also caught Pied Wagtail, Fire Crest, Gold Crest, Swallows, Sky Larks, Linnets and Goldfinch to name just a few. I think they will be set to catch a possible 200 as the nets were still filling up even as they busied them selves ringing and releasing the birds.