Almost unremittingly awful

For Day 19 of #30DaysWild I’m working inside all day and then have a six hour car drive across the country. It’s unremittingly awful. Wildlife is in short supply. There are dead badgers by the roadside, baby rabbits teetering on the edge of the road and the bloated rotting carcasses of deer collisions on the verges. There’s the excitement of a few Red Kites patrolling the roads for fresh roadkill but that’s it. Grey tarmac. Pollution. Heat haze.

At the motorway services there’s finally some relief from the asphalt jungle as I see a juvenile Pied Wagtail on the top of my parked car. The adult comes to feed it and then whizzes off. The only problem is that my camera is in the car and the bird is on top of it. I’m creeping commando-like across a motorway services car park wearing a shirt and tie staying below the line of sight of the bird. Do I care what people might think? Life is so much more enjoyable when you don’t.

Retrieving my camera I almost get the perfect shot of it but it flies off. It hasn’t gone far though.

There are plenty of insects here and the fledgeling is getting regular feeds. Life suddenly seems a whole lot better.