After the excitement and business of last night’s Beacon lighting for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, this morning the Park was all peace and quiet.
Well, that is apart from the constant birds song and calls echoing from the fields, the bushes, cliffs and sky. The most persistent was the melody of the Skylarks, abundant this year, appearing in most of the meadows. I was lucky enough to watch one adult fly past, and then land, carrying a fat caterpillar – hopefully indicating chicks hidden in amongst the flowers. Thank you for remaining on the paths, this really helps reduce disturbance to these ground nesting birds which allows for more chicks to successful fledge.
The meadows awash with Sainfoin, which is providing the pink hue, while the pale blue if from the Pale Flax and white Ox-Eye Daisies. Yellow is however the dominant flower colour, coming from Hay Rattle, Bulbous Buttercups, Bird’s Foot Trefoil, Dyer’s Greenweed and low to the ground Hop Trefoil and Black Medic.
Ahead of me the white rump of a Bullfinch flashed, the bright pink chest of this male spotted as it quickly perched in the Hawthorn.
An Elder tree was covered in flowers, there smell erupting as I brushed past, on another, perched a Common Whitethroat, while in the gully amongst the Blackthorn a Lesser Whitethroat and a Stonechat.
A high-pitched calling followed by a sort of gargling sound alerted me to a mother Pheasant, and her three small chicks which were wandering around amongst the long grass, small bundles of speckled brown feathers.
With the fairly cloudy start, the Goatsbeard flowers were closed up tight, a tall tapering cylinder dotted across the fields, while the white umbellifer, Corky-fruited Water Dropwort is now starting to bloom, an indicator of older, undisturbed meadows.
As I returned to the centre, Small Blue, Common Blue and Holly Blue were all spotted.