An Afternoon at Bestwood Quarry

After visiting the rangers' office to chat to Steve about the place names to use for my park records, I spent the remainder of the afternoon at Bestwood Quarry with the aim of filming the pair of Linnet I'd seen here recently. Most of my birding is done as I walk around the site, checking the various areas, which makes it difficult to film birds - especially the smaller ones. Carrying and setting up the equipment is awkward when you're continually moving around, and "hanging around" in the busier parts of the park the park can produce mixed reactions from those who know little of its wildlife. This afternoon. however, I was in luck. The weather was great and the quarry was deserted. In fact, the only other people I saw were a man with his son walking their dog whilst I was leaving - it's one of the quietest parts of the park!

The overhead wires at the entrance had six or seven Barn Swallow on them, sat in a little group. Along the back path, I had some good views of three Stock Dove feeding in the small meadow alongside the plantation, each bird flushing a few seconds apart. As I walked along to the spot where the Linnet had been, I took a few record shots of two interesting butterflies nearby. One was a Speckled Wood and the other a Common Blue. On nearing the area two Linnet-sized birds flew off into the distance; not a a good start, but there was a good chance they'd return if they were still feeding the young. I found a good spot with reasonable cover, set up the camera and began to wait.

The hillside scrub was well-lit in the afternoon sun, and many birds were singing from protruding branches. The most obvious of these were the Common Whitethroat, with three singing males along that stretch. One was singing from the same spot long enough for me to practice my VidiScope (or should that be ViviMon?!) technique on, but the focus still proves to be a problem for my cheap monocular. Lesser Whitethroat was also present in the same area, with a single Jay and Green Woodpecker nearby.

After realizing that I'd been sat in a sandy patch of ants, and having to remove several of them from my camera bag, a single male Linnet appeared briefly, but not around the site I thought they'd nested. Several small birds were around in the area, all seeming to switch places and making it difficult to get the camera focussed on anything. A male Kestrel appeared from the back of the quarry and began hunting low over the hillside, but by the time the camera was ready to film it, it had disappeared. Also notable, was a pair of warblers which were unlike any I'd seen recently. At the time, I presumed them to be juveniles, but I've since think it more likely that they were Garden Warbler, although I cannot be certain enough for a patch tick.

After a little longer, I decided to call it a day and packed everything up. I descended into the dip and was surprised to find the pair of Linnet were in the scrub just a couple of meters from the path - typical! It took a minute or so to get the camera back out without disturbing the birds too much, but did manage a small amount of hand-held footage using just the camera's optical zoom.

It began to rain again, and so I finally gave up and set off back, noting several juvenile Barn Swallow on the wires at the entrance - possibly the birds I'd seen earlier. Steve popped out of the office as I walked past, to ask if I'd had any luck with the Linnet, so I gave him a quick overview of my afternoon.