It made a pleasant change to walk in from Panorama Road where Sweet Pea grew on the reclaimed landfill boundary. My walk, in part, was to check the stock proofing of Jack Baise meadow as the livestock will go onto Townsend soon. The sounds of chuckling Jackdaws and rustling Sycamore leaves reached my ears. A Bramble tendril wiggled in the light wind whilst the odd striation came from the grassy verge. The large white flowers of Hedge Bindweed stood out in the hedgerows. One Magpie was on the quarry track whilst another clung to the sloping straining wire of an electric pole. A healthy bushy tailed Fox emerged onto the track. Both Gorse and Tufted Vetch seed pods were trackside. In the meadow two yellow flowers remained upon and Agrimony stem that had swept under the hay cut.
Over the Warren (old quarry field) a Carrion Crow called, and five Jackdaw flew west whilst a hidden Wren “rat, tat, tatted”. I initial thought the slight woody stem plant that had invaded much of the grassland to be Creeping Willow but no. A few flowers revealed it to have been Dyers Greenweed in large waist hight swathes. Upon patchily vegetated ground and Oak sapling had taken route whilst a few of the Yellow Wort stems had fresh yellow flowers yet to fully open!
Approaching the drove I thought I had head Tawny Owl truncated hoots and Skylark snippets. It was the upright ears that gave away the trio of Roe Deer sat down in the uncut patch of Field one. I noted a stunted Horse Chestnut beside the Drove as a Greater Black Backed Gull followed the coastal ridge westwards. A charm of thirty Goldfinches was the first of many such encounters this morning. The pedestrian gate into Eight Acres had three Badger latrine piles nearby. White Clover held a flower whilst its leavers held dew. Banded Snails were upon Stinking Iris leaves.
An aerial altercation occurred between a Peregrine Falcon and a pair of Raven before the Falcon disappeared. Winter Gnats gathered as I read the weather reading. I accounted for twenty one of the thirty-four cattle and was satisfied seeing trough 900 full without leaks after yesterdays tinkering. I passed several Robins on my patrol and something alarmed a Blackbird or two!