Moments


A strange day. I was out birding for most of it and for the majority of the time struggled to see very much at all - few thrushes, paltry numbers of finches, same old, same old. The woodland did have more song than of late, in particular Great and Marsh Tits, but it was hardly a cacophony. But having said that, there were some great moments...

Best of all was a happy reconnection with my favourite bird, the Hawfinch. A flock of eight were being faithful to the treetops that run along the road between Headley Heath and High Ashurst. I last saw them moving towards Box Hill; a noisy Raven was hanging around the fields close to Nohome Farm on Walton Downs; and last but by no means least, two Barn Owls were hunting together over the fields of Canons Farm. One even landed on a fence post just 25m away from me. My fumbled attempt to take a photograph would have made the final cut of any Laurel and Hardy film.

Botanical infusion came courtesy of a fair amount of Grey Field Speedwell (above) out in flower across Car Park Field (Walton Downs).

Comments

Simon Douglas Thompson said…
I did notice a couple of speedwell in bloom over the weekend
12 February 2019 at 20:07
Steve Gale said…
Many speedwell species flower year-round down here Simon
14 February 2019 at 19:56
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