Up With The Lark

We had parked the car and had started the walk. We were up near the old granite tramway on Dartmoor. We were walking on a path that sloped downwards and there were a lot of ponies around including 2 foals, one of which was really young and was having milk from its parent. We managed to get through the obstacles on the path and carried on walking. Eventually, we came to the tramway.

The rocks were lumpy and the lines of granite stretched for miles across. It’s hard to imagine that workers (back in the day where there were no building machines) built this with probably a chisel and hammer! It was absolutely magnificent.

We decided to follow the tramway and this led us to our first sighting of the day. 2 dunnocks were hopping around on the path in front of us. We looked with the binoculars and saw 2 grey breasts and a lot of people know that is a key trait for a male dunnock. We carried on along the track.

We carried on and came to a muddy pond. Then, 2 birds flew in. One, a pied wagtail, hopping from rock to rock. The other had a brown back. We did not see his face until he turned around. It was a linnet. We carried on and saw 2 more on the path! I had never seen 3 linnets together! Amazing!

Gorse and rough grass seemed to engulf the land and everywhere was sprinkled with granite. The bits of granite we picked up were beautiful and so sparkly. I could see why they built a granite track up here. It was everywhere. Then, we heard a familiar call but could not confirm the identification. We carried on and a skylark was floating in front of us and I say this because it wasn’t flapping its wings. Then, it glided down into the gorse.

We carried on and came to a sign that marked Templers way, the long footpath that if you carried on, it would take you to Teignmouth down by the coast. In the photo below, you can just about see the bay! Here, the tramway split. One way went across a bridge that led to where people used to store the spare rocks from the quarry and the other way carried on up. This was where we saw 2 skylarks hopping around. One had a crest and the other did not.

We carried on and saw another species. There, a female stonechat was sat on the gorse. The call of the stonechat actually sounds like 2 rocks being scraped together! I think this is a great way to remember the stonechat call.

When we got to another split in the tramway, we stopped to have a rest. Just then, we heard a skylark call again and we looked up and heard him singing and flying at the same time. This is called a song-flight.

The first video was one we got while on the tramway. The skylark was low beside us and really close. This audio is pretty good in my opinion though the wind interferes quite a lot.

This video was in slo-mo and I thought that was a pretty good opportunity to take! It basically shows the different elements of the skylark song and how it is put together.

I was amazed at the number of skylarks that I saw today. To see that many in one place really is incredible!

I decided we couldn’t beat this and headed back to the car.