Walland Marsh - end of the summer
20th September 2009, SundayToday on Walland Marsh there were numerous groups of wheatear, heading south for the winter. This bird preceeded me as I walked along a field boundary, passing from post to post.
They are leaving behind a landscape that is ravaged by drought this summer, a situation that keeps the farmers busy - sheep get trapped in the damp silt in the drying ditches and need to be pulled out before they suffer heat exhaustion, or get found by foraging marsh badgers - very partial to a bit of lamb stuck in the mud, alive or dead.
More on the wildlife winners and loosers to follow.