Flora and Fauna are all in flux, the park is re-arranging
Birds and flowers come and go, nature is ever changing
Before I had even set out on my morning rounds I heard the yaffle of a Green Woodpecker, clearly audible inside the Visitors Centre. As I headed through South Field I picked up the strains of a Wren, its tiny body hard to spot in the undergrowth. A pair of Great Tits fluttered across the hedge as I approached Small Copse. A Blue Tit chirruped from a branch above, and Bluebells were scattered along the edge of the trees. The buds of the Ash were starting to unfurl, with tentative soft shoots emerging.
Saxon Field was even more well stocked with orchids than last time I visited, with several dozen Early Purple and Early Spider growing in small clusters. Wood Pigeons were cooing in the scrub, and as I left the field I spotted some Ground Ivy growing in the margins, its light purple flowers a rather pleasant path side decoration.
Chiffchaffs were singing around the Heron Ground, as well as a Chaffinch, uttering short chirrups instead of its usual song. Plantain was growing in abundance. I entered Brian Johnson meadow and almost immediately was treated to a Skylark display, the bird beginning its ascent almost as soon as I entered. The moon was still visible, a very pretty waning gibbous unobscured by the sparse cirrus clouds . The sky was really beautiful this morning.
I returned to the Centre over the Downlands, Spotting a Dunnock and a Swallow on the return journey. I was a little pressed for time so I had to forgo checking on the Guillemots. I did stop to direct some passers-by to a good patch of Early Spider Orchids. All in a day’s work.