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| A good place to undip a dipper... |
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| Burbage |
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| Burbage - Whinchatteriffic |
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| The perils of birding |
I
spent a very pleasant and crisp (not freezing cold, as the locals claimed) few
days in the Peaks District, in Derbyshire. It definitely felt like a halfway-point between Amersham and the Lake
District - with fields of grain, rolling green hills, and more impressive rocky
features covered in gorse and heather. There was some great bird action about in the hills!
I
was pleased to finally catch up with the elusive White-throated Dipper,
and got long and satisfying, if distant views, as it sat there like a blob of chocolate-covered
marshmallow. Dipper undipped, very
nice. It was spotted on a very small section of faster-moving water on a long stretch of mostly stagnant river.
Common Redstarts seemed to be ‘everywhere’,
as I encountered at least five on a hike near Monyash. One
female was following a Spotted Flycatcher around quite closely, to the seeming
confusion of the latter.
My
bird of the trip was definitely the Whinchat. As I was making my way around the circular valley feature at Burbage, I
kept looking at the habitat thinking ‘There have GOT to be Whinchats around!’ Several hundred metres before returning to
the parking lot, I spotted a small brown bird perched on a rock, and it didn’t
feel like another Meadow Pipit. I wish I
could bottle the feeling that washes hot and cold over me when I get my first bino-view
of a long-awaited lifer (and it looks just like it does in the book!) - if I could, I reckon I’d be rich.
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