This morning was gloomy and miserable, low misty cloud, and several bands of drizzle. I parked at the patch beneath Bannams Wood, glanced towards Morton Bagot and headed off in the opposite direction.
My wanderlust took me in the direction of Badbury Hill about a kilometre east of my usual stomping grounds. Why? Well I was just curious to see what was there.
It turned out that Heart of England Forest had got there first, and most of the land was the usual new trees and wide rides. However, there were a few agricultural areas beyond the hill, mostly involving fields of stubble and brassicas.
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| Badbury Hill |
If I wanted to see farmland birds (and I did) I was to be disappointed. The only birds interested in the brassica fields were over a hundred Woodpigeons. The stubble was pretty dead for birds, one Skylark.
The woodlands contained all the biodiversity, but it was pretty much the usual stuff. Remarkable numbers of Blackbirds (41) out-numbered all the other thrushes, although these did include a Mistle Thrush.
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| You can't beat a gnarly old tree trunk |
I was hoping for buntings, but saw just one Reed Bunting. This is not to say I didn't enjoy the morning. Not a single dog-walker crossed my path, indeed no humans at all. I was truly getting away from it all.
The bad light meant that the camera stayed in my bag until I was almost back at Bannams Wood, but eventually I spent some time trying to get a shot of a Nuthatch.
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| Nuthatch |
Finally, I thought I'd share a picture of a male Great Tit with a largely white tail which has been visiting the feeders in our garden.
When I first saw it at the beginning of November I thought it had lost some inner tail feathers making the white outers more prominent, but I now think it has a genuine plumage aberration.
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