Took off, this afternoon, for Blacktoft Sands. The last hour, as the light faded, was wonderful. A barn owl quartered over the reed-beds, marsh harriers too. A buzzard caught the thermals and a kestrel hovered. Wigeons whistled, and a cetti’s warbler sang (once heard, never forgotten). Best of all, two pairs of goldeneye seemed to think that spring had already arrived, with both males displaying to the females. They shook their wings and threw their heads back, a performance accompanied by a rattliing call which sounds like a stick being dragged along cast-iron railings. Then the males started fighting – on the water, under the water – while the females looked on impassively. For an hour the world belonged to the birds.
Pic: Creative Commons…
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