I have just been reading about
the Great Bustard seen in
Great Shefford. This is amazing. I can remember
when there was the same excitement about
Red Kites. Only a few years ago I drove 20 miles to see one. It had a red
tag on its wing and it was resting in a field near a friend’s house.
We took numerous photographs of it and wondered what would happen to it.
Now Red Kites can be seen everywhere and I barely give them a second look.
None of them have coloured tags on their wings. So they must breed naturally
in the Hungerford area.
Hopefully Great Bustards will be breed successfully as well. Unfortunately
they are supposed to return to their birth place to mate and prefer wide
open spaces. Therefore the best we can hope for is the occasional sighting.
I suspect the Great Shefford bird will return to Salisbury Plain in the Spring
and join a flock. Then the flock will perform courtship rituals at a Lek – the
mating grounds.
I think it will be worth joining the Great Bustard Group via their website
www.greatbustard.com so you can visit the breeding grounds. If you would
like a guaranteed sighting of a Great Bustard then a trip to Andover may
be necessary. The Hawk Conservancy has built a special aviary to display
a pair. Andover is the only place in England where a Great Bustard can be
seen in captivity. I went out looking for the Great Shefford bird twice but
I’m afraid I dipped both times. Perhaps I will have to go out again
as I like eating in the village pub, the Swan. It is quite pleasant and the
food is quite good.
There was a great variety of water birds on the River Lambourn which flows
past the windows in the pub. I saw a Kingfisher, Water Rail, Little Egret
and a Little Grebe on the river on my first outing. One of the locals told
me that there was a Green Sandpiper in the area by the Church as well as
the ubiquitous Mallards, Coots and Moorhen.
Apparently the Great Bustard was last seen in some fields near Weston and
Wickfield, so I drove up the track to the sewage works and along the byway
to Wickfield. At the sewage works I saw a small flock of Meadow Pipits and
Pied Wagtails. They were feeding on the insects which live on the clinker
beds. As these birds are resident in England I suspect they will remain here
throughout the winter and might even breed here. Amongst the Pied Wagtail
was a Grey Wagtail. This surprised me as they are supposed to prefer running
water and stay near rivers. This bird had a beautiful grey back and yellow
vent. The colours were particularly vibrant which leads me to think it was
coming into breeding plumage.
On one of my outings I met the local gamekeeper who told me he suppressed
the information about the Great Bustard because he did not want twitchers
spoiling his shoot. He said the bird had a blue tag and was a female. The
blue tag meant it was raised this year. He thought “it was still about”.
Interestingly there was a small flock of Guinea Fowl in the wood which he
said he kept as “Guard Birds” to warn him of foxes and humans.
Hawkeye