More than a splash of yellow , 17th May 2010

A Day out in the field yesterday was a very welcome break from the studio. I had to do some tidying chores out at Southdown farm. It was a glorious day with high temperatures with a nice SW wind that took the edge off of the heat.There was a profusion of yellow everywhere with the oil seed rape in full flower in many fields. It’s been a while since I had time to check out things on the farm so I got a quick heads up from Colin. He admitted himself that he has not had the time he would have liked to check what’s been coming in. Luckily for us there are a number of other birders that regularly check the farm for rarities and more regular visitors to the farm. Collins main comment was how few Migrants that we usually see are missing. The Dartford Warblers that are usually around in healthy numbers are way down. The others on the low side are willow warblers , House Martins , White throats. It’s not all doom and gloom though as a Hoopoe was seen recently , lots of Kites including a Black Kite. Swallows are here and so are the Swifts that are screaming through the local village. I asked him if he had seen much evidence of Partridge numbers and he said he had heard them at various points on the farm and had seen a nesting pair on the corner of Mushroom Field. On my way round the farm I came across a few white throats a good number of Yellowhammers and some Cirl Buntings . Skylarks were in full song all over the farm. Stock doves , Rooks and also a host of Finches were making good use of the recently ploughed Soar Mill field. The Local Peregrines have managed to fledge at least one young, a tiercel I think, this is very early . They have moved the nest a little up the coast towards Bolberry . I hope to see them soon on the wing around the farm. Curiously the only raptor seen was a solitary Buzzard riding the updrafts coming off of the coast. I was hoping for a peregrine or even a Hobby. The Kestrels were even missing. One very, very opulent bird in full glory at this time of year was the humble Cock Pheasant. Lots of them around the farm and they really are doing well here ,showing all their summer splendour.

Enjoying the great outdoors.

Today saw me and the Kids in the country. I love having Joe and Maisie come with me to the great outdoors, Joe is usually less than enthusiastic at first and today was no exception though

once he's out there he has a great time.I wanted to take a load of branches we'd trimmed from one of the tree's in the garden and put them to good use in the Pheasant pen and near to the

feeders we have around the place at Aveton.I also needed to check on the numbers of paired Partridges we could see today,and generally have a nose to see what was about. So I hitched trailer up,bundled kids and some provisions provided by my domestic goddess , oh and

grabbed the Camera as there was no way I'd get any sketching done but did'nt want to miss a thing.

Well by the time we had got to the fields the Kids were already into the food.No suprises there then!! Now the deal is that when we get to the fields I let them get into the back of the Landy,which they love ! Standing in the back as we go round the fields. They are very good actually and do exactly as I tell them by holding on tight to the grab handles at the back and sitting still. They love bumpy ride and end up in stitches. They threw themselves into lugging the off cuts of tree round the place I only wish I'd had the presence of mind to photograph them doing it . I disturbed a group of four partridge near the pheasant pen and saw wrens and a few robins around the pen no pheasants though.I topped up the feeders and removed one that had Squirrel damage.

A beauty of a Buzzard wheeled around above us while the Kids demolished the remainder of the supplies. I did get a couple snaps of it befor the troops were getting bored with clambering around in the Landy So I got them topping up the feeders raound the pen area. The feeding is so important this time of year and the amount of shoots that just stop feeding amazes me . The hen birds in particular need the extra reserves for egg laying soon to come , not to mention the smaller birds that benefit from it . So we carry on and hopefully give them an exta helping hand.
We moved up into the next fields to check where I'd seen a pair of Partridge by the old pen that I left there . I stopped the truck about fifty yards from the pen to glass it to see if they were there. Noticed a group of linnets rise from below one of the other feeders nearby. At first There appeared to be nothing there but my eye caught the slightest of movements from inside the pen.

Yes there the plump form of a grey partridge. I Let the Kids look through the bino's at the Partridge ,joe was so pleased he actually found it by looking through them. I coasted the landy past the pen and stopped a little furter down the hill on closer inspection there were two inside and the feeder looked still quite full . I left them and drove on to the next feeder.

We bumped another pair near to this one and a load of Larks and Yellow Hammers making use of our handouts. We headed back up the field and I snapped away at the Larks floating around us as we moved through the stubble. Joe steered as I controled the clutch so we crept forward

which he and maisie found quite amusing to say the least.I let him steer where he wanted as we were in a very large stubble field. Got some respectable shots too using this method ! Bet Simon King never used that one !By now Maisie was onto " I'm Hungry Daddy" cos it must have been all of half an hour since the snacks had been exhausted , so we decided to take a break head to Modbury and raid the co op for further picnic supplies. Which consisted of pack of mini sausages , punet of strawberries, three packets of crisps some jumbo cadbury's buttons, a Kinder Egg, and

some Bournvile dark choc all washed down with a couple Fruitshoots and a bottle of water.We took our bootie back to the fields and dinned alfresco overlooking rolling countryside and river below , I took snaps of Stonechats fliting from fence posts to snatch insects in the grass. We then headed on to top up and check more feeders saw a couple more pairs of Grey's which is encouraging and took snaps of more Skylarks and flocks of linnets in the stubbles.

Then headed back taking the winding route past the tidal road stopping to look at Egrets and Waders on the low tide feeding frenzy. Joe hogged the Bino's but was obviously enjoying the experience and had forgotten he actually didnt want to come this morning.! I snapped some more Curlew, Redshank ,Oystercatcher,Common Sandpiper and Swans and Mallard, It was a beauty of day and the sun was on its last golden hour the route home took us past Ringmoor and Langston my other bit of flying ground . I noticed and pointed out to joe the stragling V formation of a group of Golden plover high in the sky above Sevenstones cross and explained aboutwhy some flocks of birds fly like that. We stopped to see if we could see if they put down but came up with a blank. We did watch a nice gathering of Yellow Hammers though, roosting in the Hawthorns near the big barns by Langston cross. It was a nice end to a relaxed outdoor's day Maisie had long since sucumbed the the gentle rocking of a moving car and was out like a light and me and Joe chatted about Falcons and how camera's work and how this works? and what does that do? and why do birds do this and why they do that and Which dinosaur was itthat made birds and so on, so on, so, on .