Buckland Dinham Tetrad

Finally, a morning when I could get out and do one of my bird tetrads for the British Trust for Ornithology. This is a four year survey of the birds of Great Britain for both the breeding season and also winter. Today I went to a village just north of Frome called Buckland Dinham. The area I covered was mostly farmland, both pasture and arable.

In Britain, we have a fabulous network of public footpaths and these help a great deal when planning where it is permitted to walk in the countryside. Luckily I managed not to enter any fields that had cows in them. They can be very curious beasts!

On the paths that I walked, I was able to photograph some lovely plants - Great Willowherb and St John's-wort as well as a basking male Gatekeeper butterfly.

Highlights for me were seeing several Mistle Thrushes together in one field and finding a couple of Tree Sparrows (this species has recently declined by nearly 90%). I also surprised a fox which ran away from me in leaps and bounds (too quick for my camera)!