Launch

Today was sunny, which was especially nice after yesterday's murky light, and after breakfast R and I decided to take a walk around Croome. Unfortunately everyone else in Worcestershire had had the same bright idea, so the car park was rammed and the café inaccessible, but we did our steps briskly and then went back to Pershore for coffee and cake.

As was the case on my last visit, there was very little wildlife to be seen at Croome, so on our way back home I asked R to drop me at the Vale Landscape Heritage Trust orchard at the foot of Windmill Hill. As he pulled in to the gateway, a buzzard flew in front of the car, over the gate and across the orchard, and came down in the field beyond the boundary fence. I followed, slowly and quietly, and when I got close enough to see what was going on it turned out that the field was in the process of being ploughed, and the buzzard was searching the freshly-turned earth for worms, jumping and fluttering around between the ridges and furrows.

Despite having to keep a weather eye out for both the tractor and a group of crows that were inclined to stalk it, the bird was still aware of me, and by the time I reached the fence it had put a good distance between us, so my photos of the scene are quite heavily cropped. Still, I was very happy to have witnessed this performance, because although I've previously watched buzzards digging in fields, it's the first time I've ever seen one taking advantage of human activity in this way. I stood and watched for quite a while - long enough for the farmer to change his plough for a harrow, and start working over the ground again - but my patience ran out before the buzzard's, and it was still picking over the soil when I set off for home.

As I walked away I noticed a red kite circling above the field, but it was riding a high thermal and was much too far away for photos. Still, having seen our two biggest raptors close together near the village for the first time ever yesterday, it was interesting to have it happen again today.

A little further on I saw this second buzzard, resting in a tree near the crossroads above the village. Even though buzzards have lived around here for a few years now, and tend not to take much notice of vehicles, until quite recently they were very shy of humans on foot. In the past few months though, they seem to have lost some of their natural fear - R even saw one sitting on one of our gateposts a few weeks ago - and this bird allowed me to get very close before flying away. I actually think it might have stayed put and waited for me to go past, if a group of jackdaws on the ground below the tree hadn't taken off with a huge kerfuffle and caused it to lose its nerve. As it was, I'd anticipated the fact that it might launch, and managed to catch the moment.