A cooler, cloudier start to the day, with a north-easterly breeze wandering among the tall grasses in the meadows, making Tall Brome, Tall Fescue, Soft Brome, Cocksfoot and Meadow Oat Grass, all heavy with flowers, sway and bob in the breeze.
On the shorter turf, the tiny, elegant Quaking Grass also dances in the wind – it’s hair-fine flower stalks so thin that even the slightest movement of air makes them tremble. Nearby, strands of the tiny white flowers of Bastard Toadflax (or Stars in Grass) are strewn across the ground, along with little white, yellow and purple Eyebright, alongside carpets of Wild Thyme, yellow Birdsfoot Trefoil, Horseshoe Vetch and Kidney Vetch, to name just a few.
At the edge of paths in the meadows and on the downs, ‘kerbs’ of Red Bartsia are starting to appear (more a dusty pink than red to me!), while Yellow Rattle pods are starting to ripen.
Among the taller grasses Ox-eye Daisies, Wild Carrot and the wonderfully-named Corky Fruited Water Dropwort (a delicate white member of the Cow Parsley family) form a canopy. Below them, Dyer’s Greenweed, Sainfoin, Common Vetch, Rough Hawkbit, Bristly Ox-tongue and many more form the ‘undergrowth’, peppered with Bee Orchids, Common Spotted Orchids and Pyramidal Orchids to name just a few of the hundreds of flowering plants to be found in just one of our meadows.
Thick-kneed Flower Beetles, a shade of gleaming metallic green, nestle on flowers, as the nymphs of Meadow and Field Grasshoppers ping their way through the miniature jungle, stalked by fast-growing Bush Crickets.
Despite the breeze, the song of Skylarks fills the air, with the songs of Goldfinches, Whitethroats, Great Tits, Dunnocks, Robins and Wrens ringing out from the hedgerows, while the sudden loud croak of a Pheasant almost makes me jump out of my skin!
Overhead several groups of Swifts whistle by – their dark, crescent-shaped wings perfectly adapted for speed and manoeuvrability.
The Dell is looking very lush and green, with dense stands of Hemp Agrimony promising a bounty of nectar to come in a few weeks time!