Out In the Dunes

It was a good day out in the dunes today. I went to a different part of the park than the one I usually go to, a little further to the south. It partly overlaps with my usual walk, but it includes some other areas as well. And I got all the way to the beach for a change. It was a beautiful day, it was lovely and sunny, but not too warm because there was a really strong wind. The closer you got to the sea, the more it started blowing. Enough to blow all the cobwebs away. From my head anyway. I did manage to get sunburnt again, I always do on these days when you don't realise just how strong the sun is.

I started out early, so it was still lovely and quiet when I reached the park. I did come across a group of walkers, complete with Nordic walking sticks, and they made a lot of noise, but they soon disappeared out of view. From then on it was mainly bird song, though the usual background noise of the nearby racetrack never did disappear completely.

I do know this park very well, so walking along means I come across a lot of places where I have birding memories. On the northeastern side of the bird lake I saw and heard my first nightingale, many years ago, and on a particularly rainy day I first saw crossbills, a lot of them up in the pine trees just on the other side of the lake. This is the place where I first got a real good look at a kingfisher in my own country, just on the opposite side of the lake, from the bird hide. There is a lovely little quiet corner on the edge of the lake, where you can sit down and be hidden from view, and if you sit there quietly for a while all the little songbirds will show up. Today I got to see a whitethroat, dunnock and willow warbler there. And a little further on a reed bunting and stonechat. And the nightingales were everywhere today.



Today the place belonged to the swifts, though. They arrived back here about a month ago, and they were all over the place today. There must have been a lot of insects, because they were all hunting above the open ground. It was such a beautiful sight. The lovely thing here is that, if you stand up on a hill, they will come whizzing past very close by, on their way down, so you get a really good look at them. And I got a real good look at a cuckoo, another real summer bird. You an usually hear them all through the day, but you hardly ever get to see them properly.



All the summer birds are back, really, it's the middle of the breeding season and you can see and hear that. You can hear the sound of birds all around you, all the different songs, coming from so many directions. You can see the birds flying around with food in their beaks, on the way to the nest, and then sometimes you can hear the young calling from their nests in the trees.

It was also a good day for butterflies, warm enough to get them active. I was very happy to spot these two, a Grizzled Skipper and an Orange-Tip, but that one had really been through the wars.





And I got to see some Common Blues, which I always love, so small but perfect in every way. Walking along one of the sand tracks I also disturbed a Sand Lizard, which was enjoying the sunshine. A rare animal, protected, but you will quite regularly come across one in the dunes. It's a beautiful little animal.

Travelling back on the tram and the train was interesting too. My theory is that the use of mobile phones on public transportation is sponsored by the transportation companies to provide entertainment for the passengers. On the train a woman was in the middle of a big argument with someone, and we could hear every word. If I had been on the other side of the line I would have hung up long before the conversation was actually ended. The woman kept saying to the other person "you should just say what you think and be straight with me", and then went on to tell the other person to listen and shut up. On the tram a woman was discussing her psychological problems with one of her colleagues and talked about a lot of personal things. It does intrigue me, why do people discuss all their personal issues on such a busy train and tram. I once heard a woman end her relationship on such a busy tram. I guess I'm just very old-fashioned. Or boring.