A look of such intensity that it can scarce be met
With ears that harvest every sound and eyes as black as jet
Attention absolute absorbs each movement and intent
While twitching nose will soon expose the subjects signal scent
Stare back and see the gaze is held unblinking and unbroken
This readiness will not retreat once it has been awoken
Until the object passes by and it is left alone
A stare to pierce the very soul, like none I’ve ever known
Arriving at the Woodlands I left the cries of Herring Gulls and chirps of House Sparrows behind me, substituting the urban bird calls for Blackbirds and Song Thrushes. Wending along paths less travelled I was disappointed to see the rain had failed to bring fourth fresh fungi on the forest floor. As with all things in nature, you must have patience.
The fungi famine was followed by the now familiar feast of flowers on the Meadows. Field Scabious is becoming steadily more common, with Crosswort, Agrimony and Toadflax providing pleasing decoration as I walked beneath the grey skies. Even in this overcast weather, the Meadows continue to be true Skylark country, with scarcely a second passing without the reeling song meeting your ears.
Further out on the Downlands Eyebright was on display, with a medley of Goldfinches, Stonechats, Dunnocks and Whitethroats going about their business in the scrubby landscape. So much birdlife remains concealed within tangled mats of Blackthorn, Bramble and Wild Clematis. I stood for a while listening to the medley of sounds emanating from one such mass, trying to discern the hidden residents from the calls and songs. Are these new birds, or perhaps familiar specimens that are just working on some new material?
Taking a route over the Upper Gulley I made my only butterfly sighting of the morning, a single Lulworth Skipper meandering through the misty morning without a care in the world. Continuing on past the Tilly Whim Caves I passed our rowdy Guillemots and a Kestrel hunting above the Gorse. As I reached the Goat Plot I encountered a Roe Deer, its head immediately rising from the pasture to fix me in its gaze, ears flipping forward like radar antennae to face me. I stood for a while returning this gaze of almost supernatural intensity, a look unlike any other I have seen. It seems to me that Deer stare at you as if their lives depend on it.