Flowers gone seeds drop
Rolled into a dusty crop
Meadows hit the hay
A slight chill in the air this morning, with an easterly breeze rocking the trees and knocking up a swell in the bay.
A singing charm of Goldfinches sway amongst the upper branches of an Elder tree, until one by one, they all hop into flight and disappear over the hedge. I could hear the yaffling of a Green Woodpecker from somewhere over the meadow, but all in all much quieter in the Hide than yesterday; when hundreds of Swallows and Martins filled the trees and swarmed the pond, each taking a sip of water in turn.
As the sun rises up over the woodland, it alights the western side of Long Meadow and warms the Red Admirals into flight. Blackberries are beginning to ripen along the hedge here. The lower fruits don’t seem quite ready yet, but I can see some particularly juicy ones towards the top - why are the best ones always just out of reach?!
The spiralling arms of Tufted Vetch has managed to climb up through the brambles, its purple flowers already gone over, and replaced by little seed pods, already burst open, having flung it’s seeds far and wide!
In the woodland, the recently spotted Blushing Rosette Fungus is no longer blushing with it’s blood-like secretions, whilst the Bay Bolete, which bruises a brilliant deep blue colour, seems to have disappeared altogether…
Honeybees at the top of Skipworth Meadow are quite literally a hive of activity, flying to and from the bollard where the colony lives. Worker bees return with their pollen baskets bulging, filled to brim with a very yellow nectar – today much brighter than the usual paler yellow usually collected.