Male redstart, 4 May 2017 Here's my male redstrart on the perch he favoured for years. He or his progeny.
This spring the redstarts of Scout Scar escarpment seem to have grown more wary. Perhaps it's a response to the volume of walkers during lock-down, and many are setting out early in the hope of finding solitude. Redstarts are singing and displaying, but they are far harder to see. This slender whitebeam was perfect for him and me, rising above the cliff- top and showing the bird well.
This spring the redstarts of Scout Scar escarpment seem to have grown more wary. Perhaps it's a response to the volume of walkers during lock-down, and many are setting out early in the hope of finding solitude. Redstarts are singing and displaying, but they are far harder to see. This slender whitebeam was perfect for him and me, rising above the cliff- top and showing the bird well.
I could hear a redstart singing from Scout Scar escarpment, where the cliff descends sheer and at its highest. Impossible to see the bird, so I walked south to find a vantage point where I might look back and scan the cliff face. Whitebeam rise from the limestone cliff, some of them rising above the cliff- top. The cliff faces west so in the morning the sun takes some time to rise high enough to illuminate it. I know the redstart will sing from a sunlit tree, to warm himself and to be seen. His song is tantalising. If I try to come closer a kink in the cliff-edge forces me east and away- so the trees outlined against the sky are lost to view. I cannot find him but there's something secret and magical about the cliff and the sunlight and shadows that play over the trees.
Everyone walks the escarpment edge, for the vistas. To thrive, to breed successfully, the redstart needs seclusion. And finds it so near and yet so far, just below the cliff. Inaccessible and safe. That's the magic of the hanging wood.
LInnet and redpoll, breeding in thick gorse and juniper, have it harder. Especially where dense gorse habitat is also beside a popular path. I hear redpoll frequently but they call in flight and the best place to see them well is on the feeders of Foulshaw Moss, closed during lock-down.
Everyone walks the escarpment edge, for the vistas. To thrive, to breed successfully, the redstart needs seclusion. And finds it so near and yet so far, just below the cliff. Inaccessible and safe. That's the magic of the hanging wood.
LInnet and redpoll, breeding in thick gorse and juniper, have it harder. Especially where dense gorse habitat is also beside a popular path. I hear redpoll frequently but they call in flight and the best place to see them well is on the feeders of Foulshaw Moss, closed during lock-down.
Dingy Skipper flew low over vegetation, a mere flicker of brown. Through binoculars I could see a pattern of rich sunlit browns. I thought at first my two images had missed it. Zooming in, I spied a black and white striped antenna. My first image of a Dingy Skipper. Next day, I saw Dingy Skipper in flight but they vanished.
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