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Blendworth, Charlton, Clanfield and Catherington, Hampshire.
I had to put the car in for an MOT and Service this morning, so after dropping it off, I had my new walking boots on and my boots and me went a walking! I decided to take a stroll into the countryside of Blendworth, then into Charlton, then to Clanfield and finally to Catherington, finishing off at my Mums house where I nursed some very sore tootsies!
The sun threatened to come out at times behind the clouds but despite mostly being overcast, it stayed relatively warm throughout. The walk was very interesting and unbelievably, I think I found a Western Bonelli’s Warbler near the village of Charlton of all places! More about that later.
Yellow Wagtail and sure enough, I picked one out amongst the Pieds present within the field. In fact, a total of three Yellow Wagtails flew over the road and landed on a fence nearby. A female Kestrel was seen being mobbed by a couple of Crows and a male Kestrel was seen perched on a telegraph pole too.
I was then checking a small pond near the roadside when I heard an unusual call coming from a Warbler. I had heard the call before but I couldn’t pinpoint what it was until I found the bird on the hedgerow opposite to where I stood. It had a greyish head and nape, greenish wings and tail and silvery underparts. Now the alarm bells started ringing as the only bird I could think of that fitted this description was Western Bonelli’s Warbler. I went for another look by retracing my steps and the bird fed around ten feet away from me, calling all the time I was there. Surely, it couldn’t be anything else and so I text Geoff Farwell and Barry Collins. No doubt, I ll have to send in a full description to HOS and possibly BBRC.
The bird soon went deeper into cover and so I carried on with my walk towards Clanfield Village. While waiting for the bird to reappear, a Stoat ran across the road and quickly into the cover of the hedgerow.
Not a great deal else to be seen after that excitement. Three Common Buzzards were seen; two in Charlton and one in Clanfield, the latter, and a noisy juvenile perched on a fencepost. When I reached my Mums, my feet were barking wildly! So I got a taxi to the garage, thank God!
Left, Blackberries are a plenty within the countryside. Right, a Dark Green Bush Cricket seen this morning near Charlton Village.
