Stonechats are one of my favourite birds, particularly the male, a spanking smart little bird. They are supposedly similar to Whinchat that I blogged about a few days and I suppose they are to a certain extent. They certainly do behave in much the same manner particularly in their breeding territories. They circle around and perch on favourite perches around the nest area, frustratingly just out of range of even a 400 lens, almost as if they know the capabilities of your equipment  I had seen a pair on the moor on Monday and yesterday went back to try and get close to them. I have lots of photos of this species though and saw this particular outing as challenge.  I had studied their favourite perches and decided to position my pop up hide close to one and waited….. and waited…. all the time the male would be calling from his preferred perch to my right, and out of range. I moved the hide to that area only then to see him perch back on the other perch and so on. In short it wasn't working and he was too clever for me. After a couple of hours, I did get some shots of the female who was sitting on eggs near by and from time to time would pop up and show her self. But the male? He never did get close enough. So here is the female and I think the wait was worth it.

So, session over, I walked back to the car and I couldn't believe it…… birds are funny at times because I then got much better views of Stonechat on this little walk than the 2 hours (plus) in the hide! Like I said, they are nice birds. 

The Meadow Pipit nest has experienced a disaster, when I went to check on it 24 hours later 5 chicks had been reduced to 1! If I didn't know better I would be saying that this one bird is a cuckoo but frankly that is not the case I am pretty sure. it is strange that the nest has lost 4 of the chicks though, why not all five, and what happened to them?

Here is a pic of the survivor who is doing well. Look at the feet, they are definitely not cuckoo feet, just normal, 3 toes forward and one back.

Sat in the hide watching the Stonechats gave me the chance to watch Meadow pipits coming and going and it was obvious to me that a pair were feeding chicks in a nest somewhere. I kept watching and noted where they seemed to be going all the time. The were not unduly bothered by the hide. After I was sure where to look, I went to see what I could find, and there it was a lovely little nest with 4 little pink, newly hatched pipits! Again no Cuckoo…… what a shame.