There was a narrow window of beautiful, bright weather yesterday morning, and I headed up to Great Sleight, a large, rolling field at the southern end of the Great Chalfield estate where I saw my first local Northern Lapwings and Golden Plovers on a similarly cold, clear day back in December last year.

It was a good decision (just getting out on a sunny day is a good decision of course, especially after a long run of grey days). Birds were definitely on the move - perhaps heading back towards the continent - and as I walked up a large loose flock of about 200 Lapwings flew over me towards Great Sleight, Black-headed, Common, and even two Herring Gulls (unusual here) were headed that way too, and I could hear the first singing Skylarks of the year in the distance.

Much as I really do get a kick out of seeing Lapwings on the estate (and I can’t imagine that this number will have been seen here for decades), it’s the Skylarks that really interested me. There were seventeen of them in total, and though the Lapwings won’t stay to breed unfortunately there’s a good chance that at least some of the Skylarks will. Which is important as while the Skylark still retains its iconic status as a ‘typical’ bird of the British countryside, it has been in sharp decline for many years: breeding censuses indicate that the UK population halved during the 1990s, and in the preferred habitat of farmland, Skylarks declined by 75% between 1972 and 1996.

Part of the flock of seventeen Skylarks

While the Skylarks themselves aren’t of course aware of these depressing stats, some of them certainly behaved as if they were and had nothing more on their mind than getting on with the business of pairing up and establishing territories before lunchtime. It’s more likely that my flushing them by mistake caused their blood to boil, but from a peaceable group of quiet brown birds all of sudden parts of Great Sleight was turned into a battleground with scuffles breaking out between seemingly furious bundles of feathers metaphorically spitting like alley-cats!

The fighting didn’t last very long, which from a photographers POV was a shame, but in cold weather small birds need to preserve their energies for surviving first and foremost so perhaps it was for the best. I tell you though, the next time the sun shines I’ll be up at Great Sleight trying again…

All photographs copyright Charlie Moores 2010