Heading out into the strongish breeze blowing from the south-west, the skies above me were dotted with Swallows and Martins.
Scanning upwards some of the dots have obviously long tails and more colour, making for easy Swallow i/d, but others are more triangular are differ, inspection yields more Swallows, plus a scattering of Sand Martins and a couple of House Martins – not so easy to tell apart as the books have you believe! However whatever they are they are fantastic to watch.
Off towards to see how the herd of Hereford Cattle are doing, their job at present, to munch on the rough grassland grasses such as Tor Grass to reduce its dominance so opening the ground to increased flowers. The brown and white cows are working hard, one also providing a perch for a Jackdaw.
Hopping on the Yellow Meadow Ant hills uncovered by the cattle grazing, and dotted across the field, were a couple of black and white Magpies.
A low squeak alerted me to a Bullfinch flying over, spotted and watched as it dropped onto the tops of the Blackthorn, where it stood allowing great views of its bright pink front, and as it turned, its grey and black feathers, only when it took off again did I see the white rump patch.
On the ground a few purple flowers of Lesser Knapweed still to be enjoyed as is the pink of Restharrow. Along the edge of the path a small patch of the slightly greyish looking Red Bartsia.
Onto the downs, on the uppermost point of a Gorse patch was a Stonechat, a slight bob up and down as it perched, nearby another Stonechat also seen, this one with a darker head and more white markings – there can be quite a lot of variation with Stonechat!
In amongst the prickles of the Dog Rose, a Blackcap was seen, the large bright red rose hips all around.