There had been a report of
three Whinchats and a Redstart yesterday and so Dave and I went to see if they
were still there today.
This was only my second visit
to this site, which can be quite productive, being a footpath that follows the
valley north. There are plenty of
excellent habitats including a pool and a stream that runs through the valley
with a band of un-farmed land.
Dave and I walked the path,
which initially appeared to be quite quiet.
However on reaching the second hedge running into the farmland there was
obviously quite a few birds. There were
plenty of Yellowhammers in the hedge and six Skylarks on one of the
fields. We suddenly had a brief view of
a Redstart disappearing into the hedge and after a patient wait obtained good
views. We walked further along the valley seeing at least two Buzzard and a
single Willow Tit, which is now quite a rare bird in Leicestershire &
Rutland. We walked back to the car and
as we had not seen the Whinchat we went to Stoughton Airfield where three had
also been reported yesterday. We looked
from the gateway onto the airfield but there was no sign and so we returned to
the footpath at Little Stretton.
We met Colin Towe there who
had seen them yesterday and so we walked back into the valley with Colin. We reached the same hedgerow we had seen the
Redstart and a single Whinchat flew and perched on top of a hawthorn bush. We saw it a couple more times but there was
no sign of the Redstart. Colin and I
continued further to check out a flock of Lesser Black-backed Gulls that were
on a recently ploughed field. As we
approached the field we had five Buzzard and a Sparrowhawk soaring overhead and
on then looking to see the gulls we were surprised to find they had all flown.
Juvenile Common Buzzard
Small Copper
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