The last one sent me way down to the bottom of Slaughter Gap only to dip. This time I was lucky but nearly died in the process.
Lunch time and just finished work a call came from DJS reporting a male Redstart by the bottom of Ogden golf course so after Lyndas shopping spree it was 1500 hrs when I decided to set off and try re locate the bird. I knew it was a long trek from Ogden but I thought better than facing all the midges on gull watch in the heat, plus its 1 year since my last sighting, also found by DJS below Roper Lane, and I could check Ogden for Scoter at the same time.
After a 2 mile hard going walk in blazing sunshine and ridiculously high temperatures with a 2 cwt camera hung around my neck I finally arrived in the area but when I rang Dave for further directions to the birds last sighting I found it was another 100yds up the hill towards the moor.
Past the point of no return now it was onward and upward to the distant hedge of Hawthorns where 20 minutes searching produced nothing and with time running out and the thought of the trek back I was ready to declare it a mega dip when a small bird appeared briefly from a clump of brambles a bit higher up the hill. camera cocked, I thought ,thats it, until I zoomed in on a Willow Warbler. The depressed feeling was soon lifted as the Redstart popped out of the same bramble patch and into a nearby Hawthorn where luckily I could just see it through a gap in the branches so I fired a quick burst of photos just before it flew across low into the Hawthorn hedge never to be seen again.
Had I had more time to sit it out I suppose it would have shown again but with thoughts of her indoors getting my tea out I legged it as fast as I could back to Ogden and home with minutes to spare and looking as if I,d been caught in a thunderstorm and probably 2 stone lighter.
A great find from a dedicated searcher, well done Dave, thats another I owe you.
BS