Our first view of Caer Carradoc.
Our first view of the Lawley.
At the top of The Lawley.
At the top of Caer Caradoc.
A Yellowhammer, noy quite the bird of the day.
The bird of the day, an Osprey, but you will need to use yor imagination a bit!
Walk stats: Distance: 10.7 miles. Climb: 2142'.
Time: 6 hours 30 minutes. On the move walking average: 2.1 m.p.h. Overall walk average: 1.6 m.p.h.
Group: Martyn, Roger, Mike and Dave J.
A good day for walking, no rain, a little on the cool side at times and ending in warm sunshine. Only the last half an hour was really shorts weather, so I wasn't too disappointed that I had decided not to opt for shorts!
Not a good start for Roger, he'd forgotton his flask of tea and found the zip on his gaiters had got stuck!
As we skirted along the Southern side of Caer Caradoc, a couple of walkers shouted across to us to ask if we were hoping to see the Bluebells which were at there best on the Southern / Eastern side of Helmeth Hill. Even from where we were it was a magnificent display.
Just as we were aproaching the path that led towards Caer Caradoc, we had our first sighting of a Red kite, which on most occasions would have been the bird of the day, but that was to be reserved for a bird that we saw later on in the day.
As we emerged from the wood on Hoar Edge, we were surprised to see about 50 Ravens in the air, but even that wasn't the highlight of the day.
As we headed North east up the path leading to the ridge of The Lawley, we saw our first Common swift of the year on our walks.
Lunch was taken just South west of the summit of The Lawley.
We decided to by-pas Little Caradoc and head for Caer Caradoc ridge by taking the path to the col between Little Caradoc and Caer Caradoc. Thankfully we did, as Dave and I had superb views of a pair of Yellowhammers that we watched for several minutes.
After crossing the hillfort on Caer Caradoc, we dropped down to the track on the Eastern side. After joining the path that came from the Southern end of Caer Caradoc, Dave convinced us that w need ed to take the path on the East side of the the stream, but this wasn't the path that we should have been on! At this point we soon emerged into bright and warm sunshine, time for another shirt change when I spotted a Grey wagtail flying East. We all looked to see if we could see it again, when we spotted a large bird perched on a branch at the top of a dead tree. When viewed through binoculars this turned out to be an Osprey enjoying a catch, presumably a fish from the fisheries just below. We managed to get superb views of the bird as it occasionally looked up from its meal, giving us more of a sideways on view. So the bird of the day was obviously the Osprey, even better than a Dotterel that we had hoped we might see!
Birds seen or heard today included: Osprey, Red kite, Common buzzard, Common blackbird, Greenfinch, Redstart, Willow warbler, Raven, Jackdaw, Common crow, Grey wagtail, Pied wagtail, Meadow pipit, Common swift, Barn swallow, Chiffchaff, Yellowhammer, Blue tit, Great tit, House sparrow, Woodpigeon, Chaffinch. Long-tailed tit, Mallard, Moorhen, Rook and Collared dove. We also saw a Pintail, Crested pochard and a Garganey, but these were obviously birds that were part of a wildfowl collection.
After walk drinks were enjoyed at the Buck's Head in Church Stretton, where Marston's "me duck" went down well.
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