Stonker

After the sarcasm of the last post, today delivered birding justice. One advantage of tramping around the same fields and not seeing anything, is that when something does turn up, it sticks out like a sore thumb. Hence, a slim passerine perched on this dead tree 500m away had me firing off a record shot immediately, although no sooner could I focus and the bird was off

Clearly a stonking male Northern Wheatear. And what did it do? Fly off, never to be seen in Cuddesdon again? It only flew directly at me and landed on a nearby exposed branch in full late afternoon sunlight:

It even stayed long enough for me to take some wobbly, hand held video footage. Check out the bit when my daughter, in a backpack behind me, laughs out loud and startles the Wheatear. Even then it did not leave.



Out here this could be as good as it gets this Spring. Stonking bird though.