Chats and Starts

Following my trip last week to Bempton Cliffs ,this week found me back in more familiar territory in the Bowland Fells. I revisited the woodland where redstarts are nesting and was rewarded with some excellent views of the birds as they came regularly to the nest site to feed their recently hatched chicks. The birds were not bothered by my prescence and posed nicely for me during my stay as they came in with food for their brood. Also present in the woodland were spotted flycatchers but they were flighty and not approachable but hopefully will perform for the camera on a later visit.
Later with a friend I visited a nearby fell where we knew that stonechats and whinchats were present. Eventually we caught sight of the male whinchat posing on the top of the heather a few hundred yards away . Quietly and carefully we were able to approach nearer to the birds, as we had seen that a female was also present and this area of fell is likely to be their nesting territory.The evening sunshine was now bathing the fells in good light, and it had at long last been a warm day, in a month when it had been cool and when rain seemed to fall on most days. We decided not to disturb the birds and left them to the peace and quiet of this lonely part of Bowland. As we were leaving a male stonechat posed nicely for us and friend Paul nearly stepped on an adder. It had been an eventful afternoon in Bowland, with wondeful views of some of the special birds that choose to breed in this delightful and remote part of Lancashire. The images show the males of stonechat,whinchat and redstart all seen on this wonderful afternoon in the Bowland Fells.