Despite being late April, it was a cold and frosty morning that greeted me when I woke up; a particularly uninspiring scene when setting off to look for summer migrants. Still, the wind was limited and the sky largely clear, so I ventured out as per and began my walk before settling down for work.
As I descended Perseverance Road I could see a bird moving
up the valley, clearly flashing black and white as it flapped. Presuming this
would be one of the summering Lesser Black-backed Gulls, I received quite the
shock when I raised my binoculars to see that the bird was in fact an Osprey.
Because of my positioning, the bird was already level with
me and would only be flying away from me at this point. Sadly I was flanked by two
of the taller dry-stone walls in the area, so had to grab a few shots while I
could before running down the road to a more open area where I would be able to
continue watching the bird fly away. The unclean background made it difficult to
get nice photos, but still a vast improvement on my three immediately preceding
Soil Hill Ospreys.
This is my fifth time seeing this species on Soil Hill, the
fourth in the Spring. It was certainly a livener for the morning and got the adrenaline
pumping. It is one of those birds that is always exciting to see, no matter how
many times you have seen them before, especially in the UK context.
Soil Hill: Canada Goose, Mallard, Common Pheasant, Red-legged Partridge, Feral Pigeon, Stock Dove, Common Wood Pigeon, Northern Lapwing, Eurasian Curlew, Common Snipe, European Herring Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Osprey, Common Kestrel, Eurasian Magpie, Western Jackdaw, Rook, Carrion Crow, Great Tit, Eurasian Skylark, Barn Swallow, Willow Warbler, Common Whitethroat, Eurasian Wren, Common Blackbird, European Robin, Northern Wheatear, Dunnock, House Sparrow, Pied Wagtail, Meadow Pipit, Eurasian Chaffinch, European Greenfinch, Common Linnet, Lesser Redpoll, European Goldfinch, Common Reed Bunting,