Run to the Bustards
By Darrell Benge
On a lovely sunny spring Sunday morning a group of runners from Shrewton Running Club drove out to the village of Enford where we parked at the village hall, the start point for our run.
Enford
There we met with David Waters from the Great Bustard Group who gave us the location where we were to meet him on the run to get the best view of some Bustards.
Our route was to be a loop of around 5 miles, we took a nice casual run out of the village past the Swan Inn (unfortunately it was closed) and over the A345 where we entered onto Salisbury plain. Running on some nice tracks for a couple of miles (mostly uphill at this point)
passing through a farmyard watched closely by a herd of cattle feeding in one of the sheds until we reached the spot where David was waiting for us.
He had a spotting scope set up and a selection of binoculars to view the Bustards. Once he pointed out where we they were it was possible to just make out a group of 15 male birds sat in at a distance in the field. The scope was focused on a pair of male birds sat basking in the warm spring sunshine.
David spent some time with us explaining a little of the story of the Salisbury plain Bustards while we used the scope and binoculars to view the birds.
Soon it was time to make our way back to Enford, initially following some more nice tracks and then turning onto a grass bridleway coming back out onto the A345 crossing into Fifield and then the road back to Enford village hall.
Run to the Bustards
As luck would have it there was also a cycle event using the village hall for a feed station which very kindly supplied us with some coffee before we returned to Shrewton.
Many thanks to David Waters and the Great Bustard Group for welcoming us.
Please take a look at the work the Great Bustard Group are doing to restore and protect this beautiful bird in the UK…