24th October : Merlin.
Along with Stewart, I visited Gallows Bridge Farm today, arriving at midday after a lengthy detour due to the fact that those wonderful HS2 folks had shut the Wendover bypass, causing a massive snarl up with the traffic re-routed through Wendover.
As we pulled up in the car park a Kestrel was hunting from the fence posts bordering the entrance field, a Skylark could be heard singing as three rose up & promptly dropped back down again, on reaching the first screen the Kestrel glided past so close, that if you had your hand sticking through the opening you would have been able to touch it, moving on along the path there is now another screen where previously we stood & peered through the hedge, a quick scan produced nothing..... only mud & water.
Settling down in the first hide Stewart's keen eyes quickly spotted a Great White Egret stalking through the long grass with it's head & neck just visible.
As we watched the GWE making it's way through the grass a pair of Stonechats appeared alongside it & began flycatching from the tops of the grassy stems, after a while they flew off across the reserve towards the path to the seasonal hide, GWE made it's way down to the edge of the pool, but for some unknown reason I didn't try to photograph it. Stewart spied the Kingfisher as it touched down for a nano second on the branch placed there for it.
As we made our way towards the second hide we could hear the whooshing of wings similar to the sound Swans make in flight, which we presumed it to be the GWE taking flight as it was nowhere to be seen as we slowly opened the viewing flaps. A group of Mallards floated on the pool, to the left of the hide a pile of brash provided flycatching perches for another Stonechat as it moved back 'n' forth between the pile & the nearby fence for the hour we were in the hide.
At the same time a Buzzard used another fence post as a watch point, as a second Kestrel did like wise on a distant tree.
Time was getting on so we made our way back to the car, had a chat with a couple we met on our last visit, on reaching the car park we scanned around once more just in case, spotted two flocks of Lapwings in the distance, numbering some four hundred birds.
As we stood there I noticed a small blob in a distant tree, had to quickly set up the 'scope... well it looked like a MERLIN to me, Stewart agreed, managed to shoot some dodgy video, sent it to those we know, they agreed, always exciting seeing a Merlin. It sat there for about a minute bobbing it's head, made it's way along the branch, stretched it's wings, dropped down behind the hedge below & was gone, seconds later a flock of twenty Meadow Pipits appeared from behind the hedge, did the Merlin manage to grab one???? or did they all get away????
Merlin video below.
Images : Copyright © Don Stone.
