Tuesday 15 January 2013

Enjoying the game

On Saturday I went to West Hartford to clear my head. Apart from a few gulls dropping onto the pools there wasn’t much else. A pair of noisy Stonechat chased each other around the smaller pool as I headed back.


As I approached the gap in hedge north of the entrance plantation, to check the new pools in the fields, I could hear the crowing of pheasants. Over the next five minutes I was treated to views of two cock Pheasants duelling both in the air and on the ground.
These usually nervous birds hadn’t noticed me only standing feet away as the kicked, pecked and pulled chunks out of each other. Six Grey Partridge were also closely watching the fight almost as if they had money on it. There didn’t seem to be a clear winner in the fight as the two flew off in separate directions across the field along with the partridge.

I had never seen Pheasants duel before until Saturday and enjoyed it just as much as seeing a new bird at WH. So I have decided that although I will still be looking out for new birds on the patch this year I will also take time out to enjoy nature and its events more rather than just listing or ticking.

Also this year there is the patch competition with Big Waters to do, I’ll mention more about that in the future.

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