Mrs Stonechat

The previous post about the Golf Course Stonechats (here) only had pictures of Mr Stonechat, even though, when the shots were being taken, there were two birds very much in evidence. Happily, the other day I finally....

....managed to take Mrs Stonechat's picture. While her husband is looking very smart in his spring gear, her colours are much more subdued, but she's very pretty nonetheless.

I now know why she is more difficult to photograph. We tend to come across the pair as we walk along the piles of massive boulders which form the sea wall along the golf course. As we walk, the stonechats keep taking off from just in front of us as we approach, and alighting further along the wall, sometimes....

....below us, on either large pieces of flotsam or on the rocks themselves, or....

....on stalks of grass. They obviously both enjoy their sea views but what we noticed is that Mr Stonechat tends to place himself between us and his wife - in true gentlemanly fashion.

We also notice that, having kept just in front of us for several hundred yards, there comes a point where they either suddenly fly out over the sea, to come round and settle behind us, or they fly towards the golf course, usually to alight in patches of long grass. They have obviously reached the limit of their territory.