A male Merlin has been showing well at Wall farm so I thought I'd take a chance on an appearance? A 90 minute session was beginning to drag before a caught sight of it bearing down on a flock of finches in the 'ploughed field'. I couldn't make out if it caught anything as both the Merlin and myself got distracted by another raptor, joining in - blimey 'a pair' was my first thought although they had a bit of go at each other, then both went to ground out of sight. After a couple of minutes, the larger bird flew off heading towards the right of the hide and came vaguely within range - all was revealed.... a bloody Sparrowhawk!
I then cought sight of the Merlin hightailing it across the field in the opposite direction, Oh well....
I kept myself amused photographing anything that flew and this Stock Dove was the only other bird which came near enough!
The Steppe Shrike has now definitely departed, I think Wednesday was the last positive sighting. A great bird and one that has certainly put Wall Farm on the map!
A check of VP revealed that the water level is recovering and a few decent sized puddles are now merging into stretches of water - it will be back to normal this Winter I reckon. The Common Teal thought so too - I counted 96 present!
