A Dartford in the Quantocks

....or to be more precise, six Dartfords in the Quantocks, including two singing males and a family party of four. 

I walked along the ridge from Wilmot's pool car park to Weacombe hill and at first the birding was tough going, with just a few meadow pipits and linnets to show for the first mile or so. Then as I got into the main area of gorse and bell heather I started to see stonechats, often in family parties, and soon they were everywhere.

Another mile or so went by and just as I got to the stage where I'd almost given up on Dartford warbler, suddenly I saw a tiny, dark, long tailed bird flit low across the path in front of me and immediately disappear into the gorse. It was obviously a Dartford warbler but I'd hoped for a better view than that, so I stood quietly for a few minutes hoping it would reappear, but without any luck. I continued on my way.

I didn't have long to wait for a decent view, because 50m further down the track another bird flew low over the gorse and this I was able to follow in my binoculars allowing me a much more satisfactory view although this too disappeared into the gorse when it dropped down. Within a few minutes however it emerged onto the top of a gorse bush and started singing, quite a decent view if a little distant for photography given the subject was such a tiny bird, but then within a few seconds it dropped down and was gone. Five minutes later it popped up again on a different gorse bush and warbled out a few scratchy notes before rapidly disappearing again. 

It carried on like this for 20 minutes, never showing for any length of time and always a little distant but I was happy to have seen such a great bird and I continued to the summit of the hill. Later as I retraced my steps back to the car I came across another singing male in a different area and this one had a couple of juveniles and probably a female nearby.

This juvenile was marginally more obliging than the adult, at least it stayed still for long enough for me to photograph it and was probably only half the distance. Not exactly a clear shot though!

This was my first visit to the Quantock Hills which reminded me little of the Clwydian Range. Though not on the same scale and not as beautiful as their North Wales counterpart it was never-the-less a lovely place and an enjoyable walk, about 6 miles in total I think.

This mosaic of gorse and bell heather is just breathtaking!