A hard slog

The past few days has seen me out in the field a lot, but with little reward. After putting in the hours it can be disheartening when the ornithological return is minimal. It could be pointed out that my venues of choice are hardly inspirational - Epsom and Walton Downs, Banstead Heath and Canons Farm - but there again my expectation levels are hardly set to high. There have been moments of some compensation, with a displaying pair of Lapwings and a light trickle of Meadow Pipits overhead, but it is hardly the stuff of legend. This sort of disappointment isn't just the lot of the inland birder either, as my chums at Dungeness go through exactly the same feelings, although their measure of success and failure is on a far more loftier scale. There was so little to look at on one particular afternoon that I spent a few moments snapping away at this cock Pheasant - I liked the contrast between its gaudy plumage and the dour stubble - this sort of thing happens when you are scratching about trying to winkle out that goody!

Comments

Simon Douglas Thompson said…
I envy your ability though to be able to do your not seeing stuff on the downs...my running takes me past rubbish tips and disused gypsum quarries, sewage farms and railway lines, and power stations on the river.
24 March 2015 at 15:51
bob smith said…
Lovely photograph of Pheasant in situ. Like you I have a patch where its hard work with little reward in terms of new birds
or anything above the average. However, I find that the aesthetic value(for want of a better word) of observing for example clouds, sun on water etc is part of the patch rounds. In fact I make it a discipline to note features of the changing environment and this goes into my notebook.

Best Wishes

Bob
24 March 2015 at 18:53
Stewart said…
We say that too Steve, my mate John and me wander about checking small corners of habitat to see birds when the rest of the country is rubbish! I like Bob's comment above, nice one Bob, keep the notebook going .
24 March 2015 at 18:57
Stewart said…
We say that too Steve, my mate John and me wander about checking small corners of habitat to see birds when the rest of the country is rubbish! I like Bob's comment above, nice one Bob, keep the notebook going .
24 March 2015 at 18:58
Steve Gale said…
Simon: your habitats are most probably better for birding, if not as picturesque.

Bob: I can appreciate what is before me far more than my posting suggests. There are times when the birding is secondary!

Stewart: Without our challenge I may well have given up weeks ago, but I'm pleased that I haven't. I'm in it for the whole year now, and the best is yet to come...
24 March 2015 at 22:20
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