Flowers galore as I took a stroll around the meadows, the dominating colour being yellow, coming from the thousands of Bulbous Buttercups and Hay Rattle flowers.
The Bulbous Buttercups a waxy, shiny bright yellow while the Hay Rattle a paler, duller lemon yellow, the flowers hooded and spread around the stem.
The meadows not just yellows, with the wonderful delicate looking Pale Flax adding a pale blue and the deep pink balls of Red Clover alongside the darker pink of Common Vetch.
The grass is growing quickly in the damp and warm conditions, Cocksfoot, Tall Fescue, Tor Grass, Rye Grass some of the most common.
Standing up to their haunches amongst the flowers were a male and female Roe Deer, both a tan colour so standing out against the greenery.
A report of a Stoat from near the newly rebuilt wall in Ox-Eye Daisy Meadow – where the Ox-Eye Daisies are now starting to show.
The gorgeous song of Skylarks as they fluttered high above, the tune wafting down. These birds are hopefully ‘nesting’, with their eggs laid in a shallow dip in the earth. Please keep to the field edges to avoid disturbing them.
On the top of a Blackthorn bush a female Yellowhammer was perched, the short beak and the striped head marking combined with the rusty rump allowing for identification.
Across the downs the bright blue of Chalk Milkwort combining with the yellow of Horseshoe Vetch providing a lovely display, while waving on a longer stem the round heads of Salad Burnet, some looking red others green with dangly beads!
A Song Thrush in the May covered Hawthorn, a Meadow Pipit on the dry-stone wall by the newly returned cows and a Kestrel hovering above more added to my patrol.