Quail Cereal, er Serial, part I

Firstly, a confession. Following watching Amy Winehouse at Glastonbury on saturday evening, I promise never to say anything derogatory towards her ever again, ever. She did three songs of The Specials!!! Great stuff. If she's a fan then that's good enough for me. Indeed, apparently she used to live next door to Terry Hall.

Other than that fine few minutes, catching up on some recordings on the telly there were a few other bands I quite enjoyed, that I wouldn't confess to being an avid fan of. These included Elbow, The Verve (and I still find it ironic they didn't make any money from "Bittersweet Symphony", it all went to Mick Jagger and Keith Richards!), Crowded House.

It just goes to show, give the music a chance and keep an open mind. Then there was Neil Diamond of course. Even I don't mind a sing along to "Cracklin Rosie", "Forever in Blue Jeans" and "Sweet Caroline". Don't know what happened to Shaky, did the BBC snub him?

Sunday 29th June.

1 adult Yellow-Legged Gull at Croxden Quarry, and now 5 Green Sandpipers at Uttoxeter Quarry.

Monday 30th June.

In this quiet birding time of the year, I thought it was time to try something a little different. That being to explore the local countryside, find some fields with wheat and/or barley in them, and listen out for calling Quail. There have been a few around the country so far this summer, although I haven't heard of many in the midlands.

One problem, especially around Tean and Cheadle, is that most fields are pastoral rather than arable. I did manage to find a few arable crop fields around Bradley-in-the-Moors however.




An impressive number of Yellowhammer around here, just no sign of calling Quail. Mind you I didn't give it much time, I'll try again at the weekend. Also nearby is Croxden Abbey.