Tuesday, November 11, 2008 - 1 Tree Sparrow, and a lot of hassle! |
Had to sit an exam this morning! so rewarded myself on the way home by stopping off in the Pewsey Downs, for a brief walk along the wansdyke path.
Well it was supposed to be brief, but turned out to be a total shambles.. I took the wrong track up into the hills. (OK, I took the one marked "Private Road, no Wheeled vehicles", but thought this was just a deterrent to keep riff-raff out, and couldn't possibly apply to me).
At the top, I realised it wasn't the right track (with a car park at the top), so pulled over to ask a Farmer where I had gone wrong. He told me that this road was private, and not for wheeled vehicles, and suggested I should have taken a track that wasn't marked "Private Road, no Wheeled vehicles".
This was were it really went pear-shaped: I got back in the hire car, and went to pull away.. Stuck! Up to the Renault Megane equivalent of knees in incredibly sloshy mud. No matter what I tried, either rocking, revving, panicking and flooring it, or trying to push it, the result was the same.. huge wads of mud flying in all directions. The car was stuck fast on the only bit of level ground about an inch from the concrete road.
The farmer waited, as if to confirm I was totally knackered, then walked off over the hilltop with his dog!
I remembered an old trick from the Negev, when birders would get their cars sanded two or three times a day and get out simply by laying the foot mats under the wheels for grip (Too many revs and the footmats would spectacularly propel themselves 100 yards behind the car!). This car didn't have any footmats, so I tried the parcel shelf. No joy. I tried digging the mud out with my glove, but still no joy.
Almost like a mirage, a very luxurious Range Rover then passed by with a fairly attractive blonde lady in. She agreed I was stuck, and proved very resourceful helping me try and rock it out, then offering to push it out with the Range Rover. But we abandoned this idea as it looked like the Range Rover's Registration plate was a going to snap, and I wasn't convinced the huge bumper wasn't going to dent the boot! So she went to get help while I agreed to look for her dogs that had gone missing in the hills.
The farmer returned from his walk, and helped me locate the tow point and hook that I needed to screw onto the bumper. Then the rescue party arrived.. another Land Rover, this time with rope, a tow bar, and a driver who knew his knots.. I was out in no time, and promised everyone I would never drive along this road again!
You might be thinking there aren't many birds in this blog entry.. There weren't many birds seen up to this point to be honest. The thought of waiting hours for the AA to come and pull me out was a major distraction.
The next track was the right one. A sign at the foot of the hill asked for 1UK Pound to use the road or get clamped. After everything that had happened, I paid up! Then I finally saw some birds.. pretty good too, with a solitary Tree Sparrow showing well amongst Chaffinches. My first since moving down south nearly two years ago. The hill summit had plenty of Crows drifting overhead, and a party of Fieldfares flew over without making a sound.. I don't recall ever seeing silent Fieldfares. A few small flocks of Starlings, and a covey of unidentified Partridges was about all I could manage, but the views were superb, and at least I had forgotten about the exam!
The Downs around Pewsey are about 300 m above sea level, probably amongst the highest summits in Southern England, and you can drive almost to the top! The area looks brilliant for Vis-Mig, and maybe Ring Ouzel on passage, but birding the area is very time consuming. Time which can be better spent on the coast maybe. If you go there, just watch out for the verges! |
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Diary of wildlife watching in and around North Baddesley, Hampshire.
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