Bird Scarer

17 January 2014

Langsett, Peak District

Checking that the car behind me isn't too close, I slow down to let two red-legged partridges hesitantly cross the road to join the rest of their covey in the adjacent field.

North America, the ruined farm on the moor above the reservoir, appears to be on the borders of grouse territories. Four red grouse appear, two from either side of the track, and briefly challenge each other.

A mixed winter group of birds makes its way through the lakeside trees; long-tailed tit, great tit, wren and nuthatch are foraging.

Is there a tree creeper too? Even at a distance we're able to distinguish the nuthatch. Unlike the treecreeper, it can go down the trunk as well as up.

Pigeons are in a spin about a bird scarer at a farm at Roydhouse near Emley Moor. In the breeze the tethered kite (which resembles the eponymous bird of prey) looks surprisingly convincing in its movements as it hovers and dips and spreads its wings.

The flock of a hundred or more look like domestic or feral pigeons, the sort of birds that would habitually hang around a farmyard to glean spilt grain, so you'd think that they'd become accustomed to the scarer. Perhaps it adds a little frisson of excitement to a grey January day.