I decided to make my annual trip down to Dartmoor in mid June a good time to be able to photograph the Whinchat I had sometime off midweek and the weather forecast was looking really good a quick text to a good friend Ian White who I usually make the trip with but unfortunately Ian had work commitments so this time I would be making the trip down to Dartmoor alone.

My alarm was set for 03:30 am so a nice early start was in hand, my photography gear was already sorted the night before and I soon found myself heading off down the motorway after a nice and steady drive down, I found myself pulling  into the car park at around 6am. I sat there for a few minutes watching and listening to the birds the Stonechat ,Meadow pipit and Skylar just wonderful. I did hear the Whinchat singing whilst I was walking down the track heading to the more open lower area but I would check the lower area first I soon located a few male Whinchats in the bracken areas, these birds were proving very difficult to approach, I approached them gradually and slowly and would get to within 15-20 meters and the birds would fly off, I spent another few hours with minimal success so I decided to head back up the track and locate the birds from earlier I found a pair of Whinchat and set about photographing them these birds were sightly more approachable as long as I stayed low to the ground and approached them very slowly I spent the rest of the day recording some shot`s in a beautiful and peaceful location there is nothing quite like being in and around wildlife in a wonderful location, great stuff, time passes by very quickly and I was soon heading back to the car around 6pm with a few keeper images on the CF card. Images below.

WhinchatLatin name Saxicola rubetra WhinchatLatin name saxicola rubetra http://www.paul-green.org/whinchat