A Skylark ascending

I intended going to Waitrose, which is actually our nearest shop, to pick up some more of the delicious strawberries I bought two days ago.  The type and supplier would be changed very soon and "Woodpeckers' and I both agreed that this batch were especially tasty.

But instead of going straight there I suddenly had the urge to drive up the hillside through Butterow and onto Minchinhampton Common, and unsurprisingly I'd managed to bring my camera!  I parked on the edge of the common, close to an old open cast quarry, where there were no other cars.  I'd spotted a large part of the herd of cows which roam the common at will, but most of them were sitting close together.  A large flock of starlings flew up to the herd and alighted in the long grass right beside them.  I have noticed this behaviour and wondered what it is that they like.  Perhaps there are insects that and probably flies that follow the cows and provide good food for the starlings.

I walked across the road and moved at a distance around the back of the herd so that the light would be behind me.  It was quite warm with a regular cloud cover which occasionally broke up to let the sun shine brightly.  As I walked I spotted a pair of skylarks flying away into the distance, which was reassuring as I had hoped to take photos of them.  Then I heard the beautiful song of a skylark and looking up saw one flying vertically up to hover and sing.

I spent some time watching the cows with their calves and the starlings hopping about from place to place.  Then the cows slowly got to their feet and gradually moved off across the common in a group.  I decided to stay and wait for any skylark that might return.  A few people wandered about with dogs and children, and people flew kites which swirled about in the breeze a few hundred yards away.

After about twenty minutes of happily standing and then occasionally randomly shifting my position, I heard a skylark singing.  Looking up I spotted it overhead, not far up and realised it was coming down to earth. I carefully watched it and made a note in y head of its approximate landing position about fifty yards away from me.  Slowly I walked towards it, keeping my eye and long zoom lens focused on the area hoping that it wouldn't get away without my noticing.  They do scurry about in the grass and can move on foot quite swiftly.

As I got to about twenty yards from where i thought it was a man walked towards the exact spot with his young boy talking about football and oblivious to my presence.  I didn't think they had disturbed the skylark, but then a young mother walked in the same direction with a younger child on her back. She did notice me with my lens pointed at a specific spot and I thought of mentioning that there was a skylark right close to where they were walking, but thought better of it.

As soon as she had passed I walked closer to landing spot, but much more gingerly.  then I thought I saw it and raised the lens and saw it though the viewfinder.  It was sitting quietly just looking about squat in the grass, and not moving its body at all.  I edged closer and closer and for several minutes it stayed where it was.

I have added a picture to my 'Extra photos' of it looking directly at me, just before a second before I took my Blip photo as it took off into the air. Then there is another of it as it has risen about twenty feet in the air and it disappears from my sight.  I've also added a later picture of some of the starlings taking off from a tree in the quarry, just as I was returning to my car.

PS
Apparently Ralph Vaughan Williams's 'The Lark Ascending' has been voted Britain's favourite piece of classical music in a poll of more than 100,000 people.


'The Lark Ascending' by George Meredith is also an extremely popular poem.