After a busy couple of weeks I felt pretty exhausted so I stayed a bit closer to home this afternoon and drove about ten miles south-west of Sherborne to the small local nature reserve at Hilfield Hill. The reserve itself consists of shrub-like vegetation and small trees, whilst to the south there are large arable fields. I parked up in the car park and decided to walk out across the fields on a circular walk of a couple of miles around Gore Hill.
As I walked along a noted a few Yellowhammers singing and there were loads of Pheasants around. As I reached one field I noticed a few birds feeding on the ground. I set up my 'scope and scanned across. Before long I had counted over twenty Linnets plus three Wheatears and several Skylarks. Continuing around in a loop back towards the car park I saw at least six pairs of Red-legged Partridges.
A quick walk around the reserve itself at Hilfield Hill failed to produce anything out of the ordinary so I headed back towards home and stopped off at Sutton Bingham for about an hour.
A scan over West Pool produced five Tufted Ducks, but nothing else. A single Sand Martin flew over and a mixed flock of Herring and Lesser Black-backed Gulls numbered around fifty. A Kestrel was near the Canoe Club and a Skylark was in song over the southern end of the reservoir. With little else about I headed off home for a relaxing evening in front of the TV!
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