A glimpse of a Skylark

I took Helena to work this morning, so that I was out and about earlier than usual. If I don't get going early I can lose precious time in the day, being a lazy sort of person. I managed to fit in the library and shopping in several stores, particularly for the type of cat food that Bomble might be bothered to eat. A special cheap fuel offer took me a mile or so up the valley towards Nailsworth, with the added temptation that I could then climb the steep zig-zagging road called theLadder, or sometimes the W, uphill from the town onto Minchinhampton Common.

It had been drizzling off and on all morning under hanging grey clouds in the sky. By the time I reached the top where the common is sited on a plateau, there was a slightly brighter feel and the rain had stopped. I parked at a place where I could wander in several directions according to what caught my eye. There are many cattle, and some horses, which are given freedom to roam widely across the specially nurtured traditional Cotswold limestone grasslands, which the National Trust who own the land grant to the Commoners, who have the ancient rights to graze stock up there.

There seemed to be many more cattle today than there were last week, with some obviously pregnant, whilst others were accompanying their quite young calves. When I parked and took out my camera, I spotted a flock of starlings, although not exactly a murmuration, which were all pecking the grass right beside the cattle, literally a couple of feet away very often, without upsetting each other. I tried to catch a shot of them but as I approached the birds flew away and kept their distance from me. I was rather touched to see several fully grown cows who were licking each others faces and necks , whilst the starlings flew around and about them.

My eye then caught a bird hovering about a hundred feet in the air a little distance away from me. I knew immediately that it was a Skylark, as I have watched them here many times before. There were obviously several in the area as there was a lot of singing delighting my ears. I noticed this one's song begin to change as the Skylark began to drop slowly towards the ground in stages. When it was only a few feet above the grass, it stalled, and then stopped singing before dropping into the grass. I began to walk towards where I though it landed, using several cows as markers, but by the time I reached where I thought it must be, I could see nothing.

Then I heard another song starting up, and walked back towards where I'd parked, ready to go home. Suddenly I saw a skylark on the ground only about fifteen yards in front of me. I raised my camera and took a few shots and realised it wasn't afraid, as I could see it looking directly at me. I inched slowly towards it as it pecked in the ground for food and wandered around the cow pat. I stayed there for about five minutes until it suddenly raised its head in an alert posture, which is when I took this picture, and then a few seconds later it flew away. It only went about fifty yards but I didn't follow it. I was just very glad that I'd had those few minutes in its presence. They don't seem to sing when on the ground, but all the time I was watching it, I could hear other songs all around me in the air. What a treat.