Runway View

Most people run a mile to avoid living near airports. Some spend their lives campaigning against their expansion. Not our friend Doris, though, she loves the big planes so much she bought a house right next to one in Oxfordshire. It was even called 'Runway View', an inspired name which I feel sure the local estate agents counselled against.

Disused airfields are, of course, a bit more benign from a conveyancing point of view, and the one at Davidstow in North Cornwall, now free of disturbance from aircraft, has attracted its fair share of rare birds over the years, particularly waders who favour the short, grazed sward which dominates the areas between the runways.

The latest visitor is an American Golden Plover, not a major rarity, but reportedly approachable and therefore, I felt, worth a look on the way to visit friends in Bodmin. Arriving at the airfield we could see a lone Nissan Micra parked in the middle of the vast expanse of the airfield. So we headed for that, on the edge of the crumbling runway which served during World War II as a base for Wellington bombers conducting anti-submarine patrols over the Channel and Bay of Biscay. Pulling up alongside we asked if there was any sign of the plover and a finger pointed not, as we expected, to some distant horizon, but just a few yards in front of our bumpers.

Retreating to a safe distance to retrieve the camera from the boot, we re-positioned the car alongside and spent a happy hour, albeit in terrible light, photographing the AGP, which stayed put despite the high pitched, persistent sound of children squabbling in the back seat. Well worth a detour if you are on the way to Cornwall or back.