Campsie Characters

The countryside around in the lee of the Campsie Fells is my “local patch”. On a recent walk up the Campsies I could hear a sound like two stones chapping together coming from the ferns. This was a stonechat, very common around here. A less common sight and sound for me is the linnet, with its rose coloured patches on its breast.

I often hear the piping and squeaking of goldfinches before I see them. Here are a couple taking off from a wire.

We spotted this kestrel perched on a rock halfway up the hill. It’s very camouflaged, blending in perfectly with its surroundings.

Here is an aptly named whitethroat. It will have flown all the way from Sub-Saharan Africa to breed here!

Here is a meadow pipt having a wee rest on a fern. At first I mistook it for a skylark. It gets its name from its “pip it” call.

The skylark doesn’t have the strip over its eye. It sings sweetly high up in the sky before parachuting back down to the ground. To me the skylark singing above you is the sound of summer.