I decided, as the weather was glorious, to go out to Dartmoor today. There are so many lovely birds out there as well as insects and, of course the beautiful scenery and peace and tranquility. I was so fortunate to find, at my first "port of call" a fabulous pair of Redstart. They could easily win the title as the British Bird's most glamorous couple. Males are stunning as you can see, and the females are just so pretty. Today the light was good and the sun hot and bright. Unlike Florida where the sun is just too bright most of the time and the heat is usually unbearable in the middle of the day. This was UK at its very best, if only we had more of it. Out of 365 days we probably get 10 like this one, so a bit of a special day weather wise. I made the most of it and was out from around 1045 until gone 9 at night. You have to love it to spend that amount of time. 

I unfortunately picked up a little "friend" on my last visit. A Tick which I only noticed this lunchtime. It was gorged with my blood and was, frankly, irritating my arm where it had buried it's mouth-parts to drink my blood. Sounds hideous … and it was. I am going to have to be much more careful in the future.

Anyway back to birds. My main reason for the visit was to try and get a Cuckoo photo and am glad to say that I was successful After sitting in my camouflaged chair hide for almost 3 hours I was just about to pack up and come home when I noticed a bird on the wall about 25 yards away. A male Cuckoo. I had expected to hear him calling if he was that close but he was silent and secretive. I quickly took his photo and watched for the next development …… would he come nearer?

Well he didn't, but he was quickly joined by a female who flew very quickly in front of me bubbling with that weird noise they make. When she got to the wall and the male, there was big commotion which I didn't film.  They dropped too low and I couldn't see them clearly, and after a few seconds… 10 or so …. they were both gone never to return even though I waited for  another hour or so. So much patience! I could still hear males calling all around but just too far away to see. 

On my way back towards the car, I saw my first Whinchat of the year. I didn't get too close to him as he sang from his really exposed perch,last year I got some really good shots of Whinchat so this is just a record of today's sighting.