WHITETHROAT WARBLER - SYLVIA COMMUNIS

I had a hard slog today. It hurt.

It was also damned hot, which made it harder.

But I persevered up in incline that goes on for roughly 1.5 miles and to a spot that was actually around 4.1 miles away from home.

That incline is not the only one I have to climb to get there either!

But for the first time this year, of 2016, I managed to get to one of my favourite spots I affectionately call the 'Crop Crossing'. Though it is technically not a crossing. Unless your in a tractor in which case it is a crossing.

It was flooded with yellow from the Rapeseed being grown in the fields there and the sky was brilliant blue with some nice clouds in one direction.

While I was there I saw a bird singing while flying high but then landed on some telegraph cables and looked look a Whitethroat Warbler after initially thinking they were Skylarks.

The singing from the cable should have been a signal that they were not Skylarks!

I realised they were indeed Whitethroats when I saw the videos and pictures on my PC when I got home!

Oh and there was a Buzzard out hunting. There are normally a pair of buzzards that are either in this vicinity or some woods about a mile or two south of this location.

THE CROP CROSSING WILL BECOME GOLDEN

Well here is a surprise I did not expect?!

Now my little secret get away, or should i say one of them, which is not only the closest but also the quitest by far as spring up a bit of a surprise for me. When i found found this a few years back it was full of golden colours of Corn or Maize and looked unbelievable breathtaking if I am honest.

The fact that there was hardly anyone around only added to the beauty of this place and even with quite a breeze blowing, as it was when I took these pictures, it REMAINS tranquil astonishingly.

Indeed it was discovering this place right under my nose, well almost, and yet so remote and quiet that got my noggin making noodles on all manner of things...err got me thinking, lol.

As much as I had sought after more tranquil settings for the last ten years or more never has the contrast between piece and the hustle and bustle of human activities been more pronounced than it has to me since finding this ... place.

Almost like visiting a place that is diseased, and it IS in a manner of speaking, to something more natural and untouched and the stark contrasts between the two are staggering. This might seem obvious to most but it is not until you have been somewhere similar.

This is peace in quite in totally and the only thing you MAY get to here man made is a high flying Jet Plane albeit faintly or a crop dusting light aircraft!

As I said even with a fair breeze blowing, which normally prevents me form cycling, it is STILL tranquil.

Now I have realised that this year I may get a spectacle than the Golden Browns when I first discovered it by Golden Yellows this year, 2013! RAPESEED!

Well that is unless this topsy turvy Spring has not done in the crops like it has a great deal of late?!

Fingers crossed for this farmer!!

You see here this road has a slight incline, well if you are facing the other way lol. This incline continues on this private road for some distance, about two mile at a guess but I will gauge it better when next up there.

It also carries on for several miles too and even though this is a point I stop for a breather when I am fit enough to cycle further STILL this has not much on the way of sound from human activity at all. The road is private and has strict restricted access and n cars whatsoever are allowed down here.