A couple of weeks ago I had an uncharacteristic rush of blood to the head and leapt out of bed at 5.00am on Saturday morning and headed excitedly to Ivinghoe Beacon, my plan to try and find the Redstarts that had been seen on the hills late the evening before. As I drove up the winding road to the Beacon car park I noticed that the temperature gauge in the car was reading only 3 degree and my enthusiasm rapidly started to wane. The hills were swathed in low cloud and murk and looked decided unappealing, and as I stepped out of the car my worst fears were realized. It was bitterly cold and the stiff north-east wind soon told me in no uncertain terms that I was badly under-dressed. There was little chance of a Redstart emerging from the bushes in such miserable weather, so I trudged up to the top of the Beacon to try and find a Ring Ouzel, without doubt one of my favourite birds. There had been up to 13 Ouzels on the rabbit scarred southerly slope of the Beacon over the previous week, and I had been lucky enough to witness 10 of these enigmatic birds rise up from the hill and gather into a noisy flock over my head - an unforgettable moment. I managed to locate 3 birds in the gloom before heading back to the car, the icy wind still nagging at my back, my fingers numb and consumed by the feeling that I should have stayed in bed. Ironically, later that morning, on the way home, I saw a beautiful male Redstart flitting along a hedgerow in the cold morning sun, near Drayton Beauchamp village, only a mile or so from my house.
The view from Ivinghoe Beacon, early morning, (14/04/2012)
