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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Fozzybear" data-source="post: 2097970" data-attributes="member: 69297">I think I'd be the exception to that then. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite2" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=";)" />On a trip to North Norfolk we'd not had very good views of the Marsh Harriers and I'd been rather sad that I'd not seen one closer but then after a long day walking I stopped for a minute alongside a main road heading back to our cottage at Blakeney and was looking at a field with lots of woodpigeons in it when a Marsh Harrier swooped in, started seemingly buzzing the pigeons trying to force them into the air and flew back and forth right over our heads!Before I was into birdwatching I went to Lynmouth (Exmoor coast in Devon) on holiday and one morning leant out over the balcony of our apartment to see a Dipper feeding in the river... in my armchair nature-loving days that was the one bird I'd had a really huge thing for and somehow never thought I'd ever see (not exactly common in Essex!) so seeing one from the balcony was amazing, I was incredibly excited to see it. They still rank up there as one of my biggest favourites. I took a walk across my patch to go shopping last summer and stopped to watch a Swallow flying around the meadow, when suddenly a Sparrowhawk dropped out of a willow and pursued the Swallow at top speed around the meadow! They dodged and jinked in front of me for some time, the hawk getting very close on a couple of occasions but then she tired and gave up, the Swallow heading off like a bullet over the next field!I feel very lucky quite often though, although privileged is probably a better word and I'm easily pleased by the ordinary, which certainly helps! When I've been out walking on my patch and seen a Spotted Flycatcher feeding from the old oak, a Sparrowhawk swooping low across the meadow, a Skylark hovering overhead on a warm day or just a Dunnock singing in a low bush I feel lucky to be there to see them.</blockquote>

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