I'm not supposed to be birding at the moment. The latter half of the week has been taken up by a series of routine hospital appointments for Lyn (and therefore me), so I cleared all thoughts of birding out of my mind.
But yesterday a Whatsapp ping came from John Oates at Earlswood. He'd found a Rock Pipit at the bottom end of Windmill Pool. Thirty minutes later it had moved to the causeway, so I cracked and went for it. It was pouring with rain and I dipped. My only compensation was the first Snipe on the rafts there of the autumn.
This morning John confirmed it was still there, and after a brief bit of negotiation I went to try again. I arrived just before the Malthouse car-park gates had been opened, so parked in the lane itself. Shortly after I'd got out of the car two Ring-necked Parakeets flew over.
I joined John and Janet on the causeway and John tried to point the Rock Pipit out. The problem was that it was walking along the bottom of the dam and was only viewable from the causeway looking into glaring sunlight. Eventually I spotted it and we tried walking down the dam to get a better angle. This failed and the bird was flushed by a dog-walker, allowing us to see it flying off towards Engine Pool.
Now I had to leave, so I'm doubly grateful to John who has allowed me to post a superb photograph he took of it before I got there.
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| The Rock Pipit - John Oates |
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