A bird between edges

(I've now swapped the picture.  The original is in the 'Extras')

I've been a bit lazy after all the endeavours yesterday.  so I drove to stock up on bulk sunflower seeds for the garden birds which I get from the farmshop in Bisley.  I had planned to drive on from there to Daneway Banks again to look for the Large Blue butterfly.  I enjoyed good chats with Ashley and his sister Sally, who are from the family which owns the farm, as they served me then closed the shop for lunch.

I drove away but as soon as I left the yard I spotted the swaying tops of the spring barley crop in the neighbouring farmer's field and saw several swallows flying inches above the barley hunting for aphids according to Ashley as he waved goodbye.  I parked and grabbed my camera expecting to  stay a couple of minutes, but I was rather captivated by watching the swallows antics.  They flew over the fields and then crossed the road and returned to their nests in Ashley's barns. Some young swallows were flying too and were being fed in mid-air by their parents but I assume most of the young were still on the nests.

I also heard several skylarks singing above me, but couldn't see them, and saw wagtails and other small birds  in the distance.  As I stood at the edge of the field, I heard some birds singing from a small bush next to the stone wall which edge the fields.  Then I saw a couple of them fly a few feet from the hedge out to the barley where they hovered then dived down to the base of the crop.  A few seconds later they appeared and flew up and out and into the hedge again.

I caught this bird flying up out from the edge of the barley crop just a couple of feet into the hedge. I like the rather grainy and soft image of life at the edges of different worlds.  I'm not sure what breed of bird it is, but presumed it was a hedge sparrow.  Needless to say I didn't make it to my butterfly spotting which was probably just as well as it was rather overcast and soon drizzle started to fall. 

I turned around and walked the few yards back to the car, where I stood to take a wider view across the fields looking south towards where we live in Stroud.  I've added  the view to my 'Extra photos' to give an idea of where I was, and added a picture of one of the swallows at low level over the barley.