The Ridgeway, Frampton and arise Sir Benjamin Stokes hero of England (again!)

On Friday morning I had a long, hot but very pleasant walk on the ridgeway. My main aim was to photograph Wheatears which were true to form in their usual locations, often revealing their presence in flight by their bright white rumps which gave rise to their old and not particularly flattering English name of white arse!

Wheatear

This morning I was faced with a choice. Settle down for the day and watch the cricket or get out and do some birding. Given the low probability of an England win against the old enemy, after all we were bowled out for under 70 in the first innings, I chose the latter. I decided to go to Frampton RSPB again and try for an American vagrant wader, a buff-breasted sandpiper, that had been there for a week or so.

My aim was to get there comparatively early before the forecast heat set in but when I arrived around 09:30 the mercury was already rising rapidly being well above 20 degrees. The friendly RSPB staff, as ever, pointed me in the right direction and I had good but quite distant scope views of the bird. With considerable heat haze and the distance of the bird, photography was almost a non-starter but here is a very distant record shot of the bird.

Very distant heat hazy pic of the Buff-breasted Sandpiper

A tour of the reserve then produced the usual suspects with many Dunlin, Godwits and Ruffs. There was also a nice group of 15 spoonbills. A few years ago this would have been a very rare occurrence. It is now, however, an increasingly common one on southern wet lands as these and other white wonders, such as Cattle and Great White Egrets, colonize the uk from their continental strong hold, probably driven by climate change.

Spoonbill flock

By early afternoon it was getting just to hot to lug around my not inconsiderable optical gear, the mercury had hit some 306 degrees Kelvin, so I decide to head home while listening to the cricket.

What a truly unbelievable finish to an ashes test match that was as good as lost just 48 hours ago. The only comparison I can think of for Ben Stoke’s truly incredible innings to level the series was Botham’s 149 at the same ground in 1981. An innings I watched in a bar at Sussex univ when I should definitely have been doing other things – a decision I have never regretted!! Bring on the 3^rdtest with superhero Stokes!!!

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