Wishing for Whinchat – Padley Gorge Derbyshire

I went back to Padley Gorge again a couple of weeks back to see if I could meet up with the Whinchats there that I missed on my previous visit.

I parked up got alongside the Ice-Cream Van (no lolly purchased I add!) when a couple of ladies told me of about at least 5 Whinchat showing well as soon as you crossed the bridge to head into the gorge.

I saw a birder in the area highlighted and after asking if ok to join him I got good views of 5 maybe 6 Whinchats including recently fledged and lively young birds. I had a few minutes with him took a few shots then headed into the gorge where I saw Redstart, Pied and also this time Spotted Flycatcher with ease but not well enough to get pics of these delightful species.

I headed back to the area where the Whinchats were seen earlier and this time had the place to myself, cool, I found a decent sized rock and sat down with my back resting nicely on the rock I sat and waited and in 45 minutes I had with the birds got closer and closer and I got the resulting images, 1 bird was a stunning male in full breeding plumage; hope you like folks!