Great Bustards!

The heat haze was streaming across the fields. As I looked through the 600mm lens, the buildings on Netheravon Airfield shimmered and shook as if rocked by an earthquake. Hot air burst in gouts from the top of fence posts, roofs and the old farm machinery that was lying beside a trackway. In front of the wobbly air stood one proud, erect figure. Once extinct, now returned, the Great Bustards of Salisbury Plain are spreading out across England but the centre of the Plain is still the best place to see them.

A lone bustard on the wide expanses of "Schedule 1" farmland on Salisbury Plain.

There is a huge amount of public access on Salisbury Plain and all the best places to see the bustards are accessible on foot. Having said that, the signs on the military training area are not just 'wooden falsehoods'; you need to take note. On the day when we were out looking at bustards, we were not far from the "Impact Area" and we could hear shells landing over the hill.

Bustards are often seen as figures on the sky-line and they have usually seen you long before you see them. Their heads are raised like periscopes as they examine you, then they slowly walk away over the hill with a slow, stately gait.

As we admired the lone, distant male we could see, I suddenly realised that much closer, only about 75 metres away, there were three males, their heads just raised above the spring barley. The two older males stood up and began to walk away from us.

We watched them for some time before they decided to fly over onto a more distant field. The Great Bustard is the heaviest flying bird in the world, yet it flies with such power and speed. You might imagine that it would lumber into the air like a swan and then heave it's way across the sky flapping madly to keep its great body airborne. Quite the opposite, they are truly majestic in the air. To see bustards flying across the open expanses of the Plain is to truly understand why they are called "Great" Bustards.

A mature, bearded male Great Bustard flies across Salisbury Plain.