The cowslips on Beeding Hill are still looking really good. They favour the north facing slopes of the Downs, but they do need the grass to be kept reasonably short by grazing, which it is here. On the nearby south facing slopes of Anchor Bottom there are hardly any. In fact, at this time of the year Anchor Bottom has few flowers except for some patches of bird's foot trefoil and some milkwort and the like. All that will change in a few month's time when this hillside is covered in downland flowers - at least I hope it will be. I am really looking forward to getting up there again in the summer months and seeing the profusion of flowers and insects that usually cover these slopes.
We were entertained on our walk by a crow mobbing a buzzard. These encounters are usually fun to watch as they often involve some spectacular aerobatics, especially if the buzzard flips upside down to show its talons to the crow as this one was doing. They can go on for quite a long time, but on this occasion the crow broke off attacking the buzzard to have a go at a passing raven. The raven did not seem interested and just croaked rather irritably and flew on. A pity, because ravens' aerobatics can be spectacular.
No comments:
Post a Comment