Killing Time at Norton Green

My wife had an afternoon appointment at Lister Hospital and I therefore had a couple of hours to kill, and what better way to enjoy yourself than to have a walk round a rubbish-strewn landfill site with a travellers' camp at the northern end - Norton Green. I parked by the now famous metal gate at the southern end and made my way northwards looking for movement as I went.

There was quite a lot of activity, particularly Linnets and Sky Larks, and also tantalising glimpses of Blackbirds as they broke cover and headed for the nearest bramble patch, all of which had to be scrutinised for Ring Ouzels. As I approached the no-go northern end I could see a couple of Wheatears on the bank and when trying to position myself for some photos, the Ring Ouzel flew past and landed in the northwest corner of the site. Unfortunately, it was almost immediately flushed by a walker and flew high down to the southern end of the site.

"Any sign of the Ring Ouzel?" the guy said. "Yes, it's just flown over your head" I replied. "Oh", he said, "I wondered what that was. Anything else about?". "Just a few Wheatears" I said. By this time I had hoped that he would have noticed that my camera on the tripod was pointing in a particular direction. But no, he strode off along that exact line, soon to be greeted by an explosion of Wheatears at which point he turned round and excitedly shouted back "look, there go some Wheatears now". Cheers mate.

However, on my way back, I was approaching a puddle left from the overnight rain and, as luck would have it, a Wheatear came down for a drink allowing a couple of reasonably close shots.