Newly fledged Winchat.

The Winchat is a migrant bird that breeds on upland moors. They are known to breed on Dartmoor near to Exeter and on the way towards the famous Dartmoor Prison at Princetown. Bird watchers had been telling me for quite a while that I was sure to see them if I looked hard enough and yesterday I made a snap decision to go out on to the moor hopefully to see the Red Backed Shrike that I have mentioned before. As I walked down the track listening out for Dartford Warblers with no luck I had just begun to think that it was going to be a quiet and fruitless day. An unremarkable little bird appeared on the path in front of me, flew up onto a low perch and I took a photo of my first Winchat. This was the first of many, 270 in fact. There was at least 2 family groups, possible 3 and I would estimate around 20 birds in total. The bracken has suddenly erupted and the birds were happy to perch in amongst it and perch happily on top as well. They were not particularly worried about my presence and would fly even closer to me at times but never closer than 15 feet. All of the birds would be calling constantly to keep in touch and the adult males had a musical, “high” note. I have included 3 photos here which are different than those I have posted on Wild About Britain and Bird Guide web sites.


If you want to see those pictures click on the links. Later on there was no sign of the Red Backed Shrike but I saw my first Small Pearl Bordered Fritillary Butterfly and Large Skipper Butterfly.