As the rain blew in from the west most of the wildlife was hiding away amongst the hedges and in the lea of the old quarry holes and scrub making sightings more difficult than of late.
Bird watching in this weather can be hard work, as flying above was a flock of small brown birds, as I looked up with my binoculars the rain splattered the lens so I couldn’t see, and the occasional call they were making I was unable to distinguish, so no identification possible.
However on the ground in the fields a number of Meadow Pipits strutted, the pale legs just about visible in the greyness.
There are still some flowers, with the white flower heads of Yarrow a feature alongside the Wild Carrot and the more delicate Burnet Saxifrage. A patch of bright purple heralded a late blooming Greater Knapweed with Black Knapweed flowering nearby.
On the downs both Field Scabious and Small Scabious are still out, the deep lilac sepals on the underside of the Small Scabious making identification easy.
The white spiral spikes of Autumn Lady’s Tresses poking from the ground, the grey leaves spotted first, also low to the ground the last few flowers of Wild Thyme, Centuary, Squinancywort and seed pods of Bastard Toadflax.
Common Toadflax, looking like a small pale lemon snapdragon adds to the list as do the deep pink flowers of Escallonia and white lowers of Viburnum add to the orange seed pods of Stinking Iris and the pink of Herb Robert large red berries of Black Bryony along the hedgerows. The brown dead looking spikes of Common Broomrape sticking up.
Swooping across the sky were groups of Swallows while a Green Woodpecker ‘yaffled’ and a clap of wings of the Wood Pigeons startled me and the Blackbird which was perched on the same branch as the Pigeon.
The grey bodies of the Blackcap flitted through the red berry laden Hawthorn. and a Chiffchaff in the Brambles. The berries of these are abundant in the latrines of the Badgers.