2 half decent pictures.
Late afternoon and the central heating up at full again on a very light S>2 it was a question of where to go and what to do. Fly Flatts was out of bounds due to the sailing clubs open day which looked to be going well for them with a good attendance as I drove along the top road with thoughts of checking the north ponds and shoreline but I was soon stopped dead in my tracks when I looked down the track to find it like Blackpool front with crowds on and in the water all along the north shore.
A check on Cold Edge dams found the same with boats on the top dam and Leadbeater dam converted into a public spa so as a last resort in search of solitude it was a walk down Slaughter Gap.
Once again the fields were void of Goldies and Wheatear with just a scattering of Lapwing, Curlew and Mipits plus around 30 Magpies.
The saving grace was when a Cuckoo started calling lower down the gap and after scrambling onto the top of a mound I picked it out on a fence post further down the valley.
Desperation took over to try to save the day so off I went down the track not thinking that I would have to walk all the way back up in the heat but luckily I,d left the dogs at home because of the heat so there was only me to think about.
When I got to the end of the cover of the low wall I was still a distant from the bird but had I gone any further I,d have been out in the open and spooked it.
Laid down with Bertha resting on a hillock, because being a dipstick I,d left the tripod in the car, I struggled to focus on the bird with a heat haze of wavy lines in the viewfinder so out of several shots only the above 2 were fit to show. At least the Cuckoo saved me from a giant dip today. My phone says rain at 1500 hrs tomorrow, I do hope they,re right.
On a technical note :- I,m told by my technical department Angela, from the Angela and Gary team that shortly blogs may have a red warning sign saying that the blog could be an insecure site. This is being introduced from Chrome apparently so if this appears on any of the local blogs don,t panic as the sites are as secure as they have always been and I,m sure Angela will be on hand to sort the job out. Thanks for the warning Angela.
BS.