Animal

Country diary: cattle herd attracts a flurry of winged activity


The wind is strengthening as I climb the path up Kithurst Hill. Large White butterflies tumble over the purple and white-flowering margins of the fields. At the summit, small brown birds flit between the brambles and rowan trees. Most fly away and skulk on my approach, hiding among the branches. I watch and wait and pick up several common whitethroats, a willow warbler and a whinchat, the last one briefly sitting on a fence post. These are all migrating birds feeding up before they head south. I walk on, past the ramparts of the ancient hill fort and turn uphill towards Chantry Hill.

A yellow wagtail



Yellow wagtails: ‘They have greyish heads and backs, with pale eye-stripes and slender, pointed bills.’ Photograph: Andy Hay/RSPB

A herd of brown cattle walk slowly across the softly undulating field on the summit, stopping to munch on the green, rippling grass. At their feet is a flock of chattering starlings, wearing brown-grey feathers – this year’s fledglings have paler heads – while they moult into their winter plumage. The starlings strut, jump and run between the feet of the cows, feeding on the insects, worms and grubs being churned up with the ground. When the cattle surge forward, the birds splutter into the air, and fly in a tight diamond around the field before settling down. They edge back towards the animals’ feet and feed again.

Then I hear high-pitched, repeated “seep, see-eep” calls – three slender birds with long tails take off from the ground, bounce in the air four times, before landing. I watch the grass with my binoculars, looking through the legs of the cattle. I finally find the little birds bobbing up and down in the grass – yellow wagtails. They have greyish heads and backs, with pale eye-stripes and slender, pointed bills. Only as they move around and fly up do I see the pale yellowish underparts. They are an adult and two young birds, again feeding before they fly south.

The South Downs Way footpath on Chantry Hill, looking south towards Littlehampton.



The South Downs Way footpath on Chantry Hill. Photograph: Rob Yarham

The cronking calls of two ravens make me look up. I watch them approach, balancing in the crosswinds over the down’s summit. They fold back their wings and tumble, crumpling like black bags, and fall through the air before extending their wings again, long finger-like primary feathers stretching out, to catch themselves. Slow, languid wingbeats carry them away, over the slope, towards the sea in the distance.



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