Lade - cool and showery - Just back from a five day sojourn to Cropredy in a very wet and windy Oxfordshire for the 40th Fairport Convention music festival. The highlights were, in no particular order, Old Hooky (at £3.50 a pint), The Waterboys (Mike Scott`s vocals still as clear as a clarion bell, Lil` Jim (a Cajun musician, new to me), Martin Barre Band (lots of old Jethro Tull stuff) and, of course, Fairport and guests who performed a superb two and a half hour set to finish the festival on Saturday night. A welcome break then with plenty of laughs along the way and it was good to catch up with folkies from the New Forest; and a great many thanks to our dear friends, Stan and Kaz, for putting up with us in their caravan for the duration.
Scenes from Cropredy 2019
Nothing much had changed since my last visit to the local patch with a trickle of Swifts and Yellow Wagtails on the move, 50 Sand Martins over the lake and several Willow Warblers and Whitethroats around the ponds. Another batch of Great Crested Grebe young were on the water and a few more Shoveler and Pochard had joined the hundreds of Coots, ducks and grebes on south lake. Waders flying to roost included a steady flow of Curlews and Oystercatchers, plus four Redshanks on the islands amongst the gulls and Cormorants.
Heavy rain this afternoon eventually relented affording a check along the beach at low tide where a count of 230 Sandwich Terns was noteworthy.
Redshanks on south lake island
No comments:
Post a Comment