'Tour de Water Meadows'

Ok no bicycle or mountains or the likely 'Tour de France' winner Nibali But it was hot and I was carrying binos and 2 cameras! No volunteer action this week as both our Dark Knight and 'head Ranger' were on the sick list.

Not much room to land

Barn owls, Sherborne water meadows 

Arty shot of Sherborne buzzard

Red Kite over the Water meadows

After a couple of trips recently to Symonds Yat to see the Peregrines, which provided some great displays but disappointing pictures, I thought a survey of the Sherborne Water  Meadows was in order. I was fully armed with 'kit' which was ok at the beginning, before the sun burnt through the early cloud, but took its toll later on. It was pretty quiet all the way down to the water meadows until I bumped into Sherborne's shepherd and his friendly sheep dog. Enjoyed an interesting conversation which included a view of how well water management is performing {possible scope here for me to get interested & knowledgeable parties together to move things forward} and also the shepherd's 'spot' of otters today {I went to see of they were still around but no luck today}. However on my way towards the 'tin barn' I spotted an adult hare and then two magnificent barn owls which I managed to get a couple of half decent photos of. I left the owls to some peace and quiet as I made my way towards the Windrush and the boundary between Sherborne and Windrush estates.

More wildlife was on show with excellent displays from Red Kites and Buzzards. Wandering alongside the Windrush lots of Peacocks on show with some Red Admirals as well. Joining the butterflies were an assortment of damselflies not all of which I could identify. Not so good was the presence of ragwort which also showed itself at the top end of Picardy. I slowly made my way along the fisherman path by the 'cooling' Windrush with not much wildlife on show.  I eventually reached the bridge at the far end of Birch copse and headed back towards Century wood  & Northfield barn car park. Was pleased to see 50+ lapwing on the main pasture alongside the sheep which were clearly in relaxed mode {lying down} given the heat. So not a bad visit which ended with a quick look around the Broadwater which was fairly quiet with a couple of herons & the swan family on show.