Thursday 1 April 2010

Titterstone Clee - really Ring Ouzels x 4

This is the real summary of a morning spent on Titterstone Clee on April 1st and I’m not fooling this time!!! Arriving at 9.00am I first checked out the scree where the male Ring Ouzel was on Monday. Within moments, the calls of at least one Ouzel was heard from the opposite side of the quarry…..







I made my way over and soon found the culprit on the cliff face.....








Seeing movement nearby , I suddenly realised there was another bird – much paler – a female!












Rob Stokes joined me and as we were watching them, another male appeared (all three in the field of the bins!)






Calls were heard to the right and sure enough yet another bird flew in to join the group making indisputably FOUR Ring Ouzels! Two seen here....






Rob had to go but Yvonne turned up to savour the scene, regrettably the birds had moved near the top of the quarry ridge but the sight of three of them perched within a couple of metres of each other was quite something to finish on!






A few more Wheatears were about today but of little consequence (no rings seen) to the star turns.






A snow storm brought an abrupt end to proceedings (just before the storm of erroneous sightings blerwup)……