In the air tonight

As I headed off to pick the car up from the garage which just happens to involve walking along the Carr to Prestwick I noticed 70 or so Fieldfare flying fast and low along the hedgeline in a state of panic. A hundred yards further on two Crows were mobbing a bird far away on a fence line. Almost dark and with little hope I took this shot and sure enough a Peregrine is just visible perched on the fence before it flew off east.

Further down the road Bill told me tales of three Short eared Owls hunting in the afternoon sunlight and I remembered three birds circling high in the gloom the evening before.

I approached the half way point of my walk and four Herons glided in to their communal roost site recently established in the flood water just south of the road. I turned the corner on the final leg of my journey and a small flock of Golden Plover drifted overhead with Lapwings just below them calling and ready to drop in for the night.

An unseen Snipe called above me as the distant sound of geese calling grew closer and closer and strained to see anything in the gloom. Eventually ninety one Greylag passed over and circled a few times to lose height and land in the middle of the flooded field but now way too dark for the camera to focus I carried on to be met by three highland cattle coming the other way! Eventually the farmers wife hove into view having retrieved her errant beast before they got to the main road. Never a dull moment despite the gloom.