The Fat Bird of the Barley

On my way to Horwich this morning I had three quarters of an hour to spare so I stopped off on Rawcliffe Moss to have a wander in the early morning sunshine. I headed down the track towards the feeding station where there were still a few birds including 5 Chaffinches, 17 Tree Sparrows plus the odd Blue and Great Tit.

I could hear a Yellowhammer singing in the distance and two Lapwings displayed over the 'Big Field'. Also in the Big Field were 6 Brown hares, but none were boxing this morning. I then headed up the '97 Hedge' towards the top fields and I had a couple of Corn Buntings (the fat bird of the barley) duelling with each other. They were giving their characteristic 'jangly' song to each other and then the bird closest to me was doing that fantastic little display flight that they do where they fly to another song perch close by, whilst singing and dangling their legs below their body. Awesome!

 Brown Hare

I spent some time trying to get some photos of one particular singing bird and you can see the results below. The two songsters were then joined by another 4 birds and the singing stopped. I then headed back to the car and all I had were singles of Buzzard, Jay and Great Spotted Woodpecker.

Setting off on it's 'dangly' legged song flight!