North Downs

North Downs - warm, dry and sunny, NE 3 - Spent the morning with Chris P atop the hills scanning the skies for soaring birds of prey. Due to the time of year we were not expecting the numbers that we recorded on our last visit but still managed up to 10 Common Buzzards, two Red Kites and six Kestrels. The small arable fields and scattered copses on the clay-with-flints delivered a decent enough return on Yellowhammers and Skylarks, plus one or two Linnets, Pied Wagtails, Greenfinch, Great Spotted Woodpecker and Red-legged Partridges, along with a few Swallows, Swifts and Mediterranean Gulls overhead. We also had an `interesting` hour long conversation with a `custodian of the countryside` on matters agricultural and the merits of "vermin  control" viz-a-viz game shooting - what a character, he had us in stitches, I just wish that I`d recorded it!

                                  Common Buzzard

                                  Male Kestrel

                                  Yellowhammer in song

                                 Red-legged Partridge on pulp waste