Out of the window this morning I watched a female Roe Deer as she chomped through a Bulbous Buttercup, the yellow flower wafting underneath her chin. Nearby she is likely to have a young fawn hidden amongst the grassy undergrowth.
The hedgerows are awash with white flowers at the moment, from the large delicate heads of Elder, the more compact umbels of Hogweed to the much more delicate Rough Chervil and the spike of the Ribwort Plantain.
Mixed amongst this are the pale lilac flowers of the Stinking Iris, the flower heads looking quite bedraggled after the recent wind and rain.
Pink flowers of Honeysuckle, smelling strongly in the evenings, ramble alongside the Old Man’s Beard and Black Bryony. Flitting out of this scrub was a Wren, a Great Tit and a beautifully marked Chaffinch.
Perched on the top of a Hawthorn was a Common Whitethroat, uttering short bursts of its scratchy song, while a Chiffchaff was also singing as was a Skylark, the small brown blob just noticeable against the dark and foreboding sky.
The meadows are looking gorgeous at the moment, with the reddish hue across Centenary being the flowers of Sainfoin, just some of the others flowers to see are the yellow dandelion like Rough Hawksbit, the delicate blue Pale Flax, dark red Red Bartsia and purple Selfheal along with the Black Medic and large white heads of the Ox-eye Daisies.
Occasionally, poking up in the fields are the strange brown Broomrapes, these look a little like a dead orchid, but are in fact parasitic plants taking all their nourishment from the plants around them, including Wild Carrot.
Butterflies mostly hidden out of the wind this morning apart from a Speckled Wood in the shelter of the hedgerow and a Meadow Brown clinging to the stem of a Tall Fescue. If the sun comes out look out for Adonis Blues, Green Hairstreak, Large Skipper, Dingy Skipper, Small Blue and Small Heath all of which were counted on yesterday’s butterfly transect walk.