Woodcock confirmed

The bird we spotted last week is now confirmed as a woodcock.

It had't been seen again despite Ian making another visit, and our brief flushing today failed to set one up. But research and, perhaps more significantly, that an eye witness confirmation of a woodcock seen in that area, is sufficient to claim it and for the bird to be officially spotted. The expert witness was Gary. Gary is employed by the trust as caretaker but he a true birder and therefore a most reliable witness.

The exciting spot this week were a pair of buzzards, drifting along at tree top height out of Raven Holt, a tongue of woodland, and over to Rockley.

In another sense of spot, one of the most pleasant places to stop and sit is by the rotunda. With views towards the house in one direction, the parkland in another, it sits upon a small hill in now cleared woodland. It makes an excellent view point.

The current view of this monument is, however, at present, sheathed in scaffolding. The Rotunda, or temple in the park, is undergoing serious restoration. The doors have been opened and hard hats and high visibility jackets are flitting around the site.

The Rotunda, with a date stone inscribed 1746, was one of the embellishments at Wentworth Castle added by William Wentworth. I have previously mentioned the Monument to his father in law, the Duke of Argyll. Like many wealthy young men of the time, he did the Grand Tour as it became known. Young English elites of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries often spent two to four years traveling around Europe in an effort to broaden their horizons and learn about language, architecture, geography, and culture and the experience became known as the Grand Tour. The Grand Tour began in the sixteenth century and gained popularity during the seventeenth century.

In much the same way as we might bring back a souvenir to remind us of a visit to some place of future fond memory, William brought back a building. Not literally of course - no Ryanair restrictions but he ceartinly brought back the idea. His idea for the Rotunda is thought to be based on the Temple of Hercules at Tivoli, near Rome. There were many temples dotted around and the favourite source is now thought to be the Temple of Sybil at Tivoli, near Rome. Such temples seem to have been quite thick on the ground, most of them similar in layout. The legacy of that idea that tourists in Rome are keen to bring something home lives on, though today it might take the form of models of the Coliseum, baseball caps and AC Milan replica shirts.

The parkland is warming up now. And soon the bluebells will strike out and provide some vivid colour. We, as rangers, are able to line up where the richest carpets will be.