I love to hear the skylark singing on my early morning walks with Ted, our young Labrador. Even on the rather barren, open field behind Scatterdells Lane there are still plenty about. The path runs beside a nice thick hedge, the next one across the field must be half a mile away! The other side of it is a hay field, and then the gardens of Scatterdells Lane, a much friendlier habitat for most of the birds. But the skylarks love to soar and sing above the wide open field. The hedge is a perfect place for Yellowhammers, old favourites from my days on the farm where we always had a lot of these birds. The brightly coloured males sit on the top of the hedge and lustily sing their a-little-bit-of-bread-and-no-cheese song to mark their territory and attract a mate. For me these are the sights and sounds of the lovely mornings of late spring and early summer.
I was just enjoying the sight and song of the Yellowhammer when I spotted another bird perched on the top of the hedge. It was not singing, just having a good look round. It was not familiar to me, having pale buff under-parts and a brown body with a distinctive white eye stripe. As Ted got closer it flew low across the wide open field, before landing on a lump of stone. As it flew away from me I could see a white rump with a very unusual T-shaped black pattern on its tail. Over breakfast all the bird books came out, and Im now sure it was a female Wheatear, not a bird we usually see around here. They come to us in spring from Africa and head for the heath-lands and uplands of Britain, so this one must have been on its way north.
I love to see my old favourites but it’s nice to see something thats a bit out of the ordinary for a change.
Wendy Bathurst