Whinchats are birds that are fairly easy to see around my neck of the woods, but I’ve been too lazy to go up and see them so far this year. Last night I remedied this with a visit to Broomhead Moor, with my mate Andy, a frequent wanderer of that area who managed to locate them for us pretty much to the nearest stalk of bracken! We watched a family party – a pair and at least two juvs – flitting around the rocks and bracken, and had a great added bonus of the mountain hare below snuffling around. Crap photo alert…
Mountain hare, honest…
Elsewhere curlew were still about in fairly good numbers, a buzzard soared overhead, ridiculous amounts of red grouse were flushed from the heather as we walked, and a golden plover called from somewhere not too far away. At Broomhead Res a grey wagtail was in the conduit, and a few new fluffly mallard ducklings were around.
A nice bonus on the way back was a little owl perched on a pole near High Bradfield.
EDIT – just noticed a horrible typo where I’d typed “hair” instead of “hare”. If anyone sees me they have my full permission to smack me on the back of my head for that.
Hi Pete,
Any chance of some directions regarding the Whinchat please .. This is another one I,m missing from my list ..
Ta ..
Haven’t seen Whinchat myself this year becoming harder to find in the HBW area
Smacking you at the back of the head sounds like a good idea but it might mess up your ‘hare’ …