Psilos Bird Journal
Saturday June 17th 2006
     
"When birding is a bonus" (page 2)
It was a perfect idyllic scene. Ducklings on the water, swallows and house martins sitting on the wires and nesting under the bridge. Yellow hammers and treesparrows singing in the hedgerows on the other side of the canal.
 
A pair of blackbirds were busy feeding their brood with the male loudly proclaiming his territory from the tallest telegraph pole.
 
 
Suddenly from the peace there is chaos and a swarm of angry swallows and martins suddenly appear across the fields. The target of their fury is a female sparrowhawk hunting low behind the hedgerows. With so much noise the lone hawk stands no chance of surprising anything. She flies on and peace is restored once more.
 

 
Mid afternoon and the temperature is starting to drop. We take a walk along the path on the other side of the canal. Here we find a fabulous old barn dated at 1701 and a corn silo that is still being used. This is an arable farm and the swallows and tree sparrows that are nesting here love it. The tree sparrows were also taking advantage of the only puddle that was around to have a bath.
 
Over the wheat fields the swallows were hawking. We stood for a while trying to capture them in flight but I failed miserably. The light was dancing on the wheat confusing the camera making focusing difficult and so in the end I gave up. Even a passing tree sparrow seemed beyond me today..sigh...
     
     
This swallow was one of a pair nesting under some rickerty old stone stairs.
 
 
As we were leaving we almost walked straight passed this handsome little guy. Tree sparrows are one of my favourite birds. It was a real pleasure to see them today. All in all not a bad day. Photographically I struggled all day and failed to get many shots that I wanted but I am not so concerned. There will always be tomorrow and it is a priveledge just to sit and watch mother nature at her very best!