Norton Green Revisited

I had nothing planned for the morning as the forecast was for rain. However, when I looked out of the window it was sunny. I decided not to go far anyway as showers were still forecast but when it was still wall-to-wall sunshine at 1.00pm I decided to go back to Norton Green to have another crack at the Ring Ouzel.

Typically, when I arrived "it had just flown off" and was being searched for at the north end of the site. I made my way up there and stood staring at a Hawthorn bush in full leaf where the bird was suspected to be lurking. The good news was that while we were waiting for the bird to emerge from the bush there was a sideshow of eight Wheatears feeding on the bank. They were a bit flighty even, though we were motionless, but did pose for a few shots.

By now the Ring Ouzel had emerged from the bush and had flown over a brow with just it's head showing. Eventually, once it had settled down and had started to feed again, Mike Hooper and I were able to steadily move up the slope to gain height and get an uninterrupted view of the bird. Although the bird was probably within 30-40 yards it seemed either oblivious or unperturbed by our presence and was feeding throughout, allowing a number of photos to be taken.