A delightful sight in bright yellow

The farm shop at Stancombe Beech close to the village of Bisley was a regular venue for stocking up with fresh vegetables, local eggs, bird food in bulk, as well as fun chats with the owners and their staff. Some months ago the owners decided to close the shop and concentrate on the farm’s production, specifically cereal crops, some vegetables and a lot of honey, as it was becoming a strain on their energy to combine both. But a solution was found when another local farm’s owners offered to take over management off the shop which would allow them to sell their meat products directly to consumers.

I decided to stop offering my cards for sale in the farm shop, because would have been difficult for them to sell them as cheaply as before. Ashley, one of the farm’s owners earned very little money from my cards, and had to charge VAT, and I had a much smaller return compared to selling at local markets. However it has meant that I didn’t need visit so often,  and thus didn’t taken the opportunities to photograph around the farm as I’d been doing for a more than a decade.

Today I did drive down a local lane to a favoured spot as I hoped I’d see the flocks of yellowhammers in the hedgerows separating the fields. It is only three hundred yards from Stancombe Beech Farm where an ancient footpath separates from the lane leading to the bottom of the Slad valley, and heads across country towards Slad village about a Miel and half distant.

Lats year I watched scores yellowhammers from the path, but today there were none. I worry about the difficult dry winter and spring having produced very little food for any young broods that may have occurred. But I fear that bird flu is also present, based on the experience in our garden and the surrounding area. This spring has brought very few baby birds and several species seem nearly extinct locally. I was delighted to actually see a single male bullfinch in our garden this week, whereas we’ve usually had two mating pairs resident for many years. Only two goldfinches are resident at present, compared to the sometimes dozens we see, and I haven’t seen any long tailed tits for at least a month, whereas we would expect at least seven or eight to appear on most days.

So I stood with my camera in the very windy conditions today, and decided to use my Merlin app on my phone to see if it picked up any bird song. I stood in the lane near my car expecting to return home, and then suddenly the screen indicated  yellowhammer had been recorded. A skylark appeared as well high in the sky, and then another. I gingerly walked to the point at which the footpath and three fields all met and discovered this lone yellowhammer. I couldn’t move very close to it for fear of it being disturbed but managed to watch it for about ten minutes before it flew away.

I thought I would crop one of my pictures to show it in full voice, although it was hard to hear its tune 'fighting' against the wind rustling the hedgerows. I’m also adding an ‘Extra’ of it showing you its position on the top of an elderly Cotswold stone wall. It did make my day, and encouraged me to Blip it, my first for several months, and hopefully I will try to fill in the gaps, as I have been taking pictures fairly regularly. So if you come back do have a look out for older Blips, which I will try to indicate have been added some time later.