After a lazy day on Saturday, we were back out yesterday after Turtle Dove. Unfortunately they’re now classed as a rare breeding bird, so we shouldn’t tell you where we were, but moods will help a famous clergyman find the way.
The 9 mile walk over the Downs and along the river gave us nice views of Corn and Reed Bunting. There were plenty of Cetti’s and Reed Warblers, including one that did a perfect Common Tern call, but they were not photographable. A Whinchat moving on a line of fence posts was a nice surprise, but again it was too cold for Hobbies.
Arriving on site, it was noisy: Nightingales (at least four), Whitethroats and Lesser Whitethroats were in full rawp, but no Turtle Doves, although we knew they were present. So we waited… and waited. I was patrolling up and down the stream that they frequent, whereas Karen stayed put. A very distant perched bird was probably a Hobby, but too far away to identify with confidence. There was a marked lack of Cuckoo, and still no Turtle Dove.
After four hours Karen decided to check down the other end, leaving me to watch at the place we had them last year. Within minutes she phoned to tell me that she had one purring. I dashed down but arrived 20 s after it had been flushed by a dog walker. Aaaargh! Quarter of an hour later it briefly purred, but low behind the thickest hedge in Sussex. On the list, but you want to see a beautiful bird like that. A long silence ensued, and we assumed that it had moved on but the moment I walked down the track it started up again, and eventually popped into view, vanishing as soon as I raised the camera.
Now to walk back and find a Barn Owl on the brooks (our plans of having a meal in a pub first were history). Almost immediately we found a distant Short-eared Owl: normally I’d prefer that to a Barn Owl, but I’ve seen loads this spring. No Barn Owl, despite another 2.5 hours of waiting and patrolling the river bank. Eventually, cold and somewhat miffed, we started the long trek home, arriving at just before 11 pm.
The constant patrolling upped the distance to 25 miles, a bit more than I had bargained for. Even so, it was a good day, if laden with frustration.
