My dad's not well at the moment and, even though I managed to get up to Canons Farm this morning, little else was getting any space in my thoughts. I tried to take my mind off things by really focussing on finding a Common Redstart and/or a Ring Ouzel - I made repeated visits to Slangs and Legal & General (what I make to be the respective 'hotspots' for these two birds) plus gave most other parts of the farm a good flogging throughout an eleven hour stay but I didn't find my quarry. Five Wheatears, about eight Swallows and a Lapwing were all I could muster.
I needed to leave to visit dad at hospital and, just as I was walking from Legal & General to the car, a brief 'chack chack' and a 'Blackbird with silvery wings' dashed out in front of me and dived into a holly bush. Crap - I was sure it was a Ring Ouzel but didn't quite get enough on it to shout it. It seemed to drop down and I waited for it to appear at the edge of the field but only a couple of Blackbirds did. Eventually, after an agonising twenty minutes, the Ring Ouzel popped out and I managed to get a poor record shot in the fading light before a dog walker flushed it. I got to the hospital just about on time, dad seemed reasonably okay but he's not out of the water yet...
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| Ring Ouzel |
