Long fields of wheat and barley

I went back to the barley fields on Friday morning to take a photo of them in all their whiskery pale green glory. Later on the walk I had a good look at the wheat fields - there are signs of the grain heads emerging from the leaves now. A few days ago the farmer was spraying both these fields and behind my home and a new site I've found (Farmer's Interactive Weekly - check out the 'oops I've turned my tractor over' section) suggests this was probably a fungicide to prevent rust and other disease damage.

The town meadow had a reddish haze in the morning light because of all the seed heads on the grasses and other plants. And the final photo is the early morning haze over the wheat field - the early light mornings mean I'm now walking shortly after 6 a.m.

New pastures

The last couple of days I've taken walks I haven't done in a while. Yesterday morning it was the walk via town meadow. There was a clear blue sky broken only by an old vapour trail which was breaking down and dispersing in the sky. To my amazement the fields before and after the meadow were high with pale green whiskery barley - how did it grow so quickly in such a short time? The town meadow itself seemed to have touches of ground frost still lingering in the early morning sun.

This morning I walked down the back lane and round back through the fields. Both mornings have taken me past the duck pond where the young ducklings were huddled together for warmth.

The cow parsley has now reached its peak - the verges are full of their white frothiness and their scent fills the air. A wonderful smell. Along the back lane the hedge, which was planted maybe 4 years ago and looked then like tiny twigs, is now above my head in places.

Back from the lane I have to climb a large metal gate to get on to the footpath and then the path passes by a paddock. The two horses there regard me silently from the bottom corner for a while and then start to move in my direction. They probably think I'm bringing them breakfast.

Young birds

There were pheasant feathers strewn along the verge side this morning, reminding me of the two young pheasants I'd seen there a few days earlier in the company of an adult male. The two young ones were rushing about in an even more dizzy fashion than adult pheasants normally do. Of course, there's no way of knowing if the pile of feathers belonged to one of them - I hoped not - but being a newly hatched or young bird has many dangers.

There are plenty of young birds about, or being fledged, at the moment. The blackbirds have given up all pretence of personal hygiene, arriving at the bird table with their feathers ungroomed and all askew, as they spend all their waking hours searching for and providing food for their young. I watched an adult blackbird and its young on the allotment yesterday. The young one squawking all the while for food, while the adult rushed about at its bidding. The feeding frenzy has its advantages for the gardener. An adult robin spent most of the morning with me, picking over ground for bugs as I cleared it of vegetation.

It was another glorious morning. Sunny, though still cold, with a few cloud puffs in the sky. I did well for hare spotting. One sat on the footpath as I walked by on the road and as I rounded a corner a hare leapt from the road, bounding over the tall grass and cow parsley on the verge into the wheat field beyond. For a moment I could see his ears as he moved into the field but he was soon lost from view among the crops. But the sugar beet field is still open to view and I spotted two groups of three hares running across the field.

Night walking

Maybe not night, but certainly a late evening walk to the bridge. Nearly 9 and it was still light and a full moon rising in the east.

I've been intrigued over the last couple of weeks by a bare piece of earth in the corner of the field which has suddenly developed small cones of earth over its surface. When I moved the heap of earth there was a small hole underneath. I've just discovered that they are the homes of miner bees. There's a good photo of the earth cones here -http://www.moraybeekeepers.co.uk/solitary_bees.htm And a good close up of one here -

http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?p=647299

And my photo (taken later than this posting) shows what remains when the bee has left.

I go to the seaside

Today was walk 2 in my walk up the coast - to Landguard Fort - see http://suffolkbythesea.blogspot.com/

Set to change

The weather's changing. Although this morning was another glorious morning, this evening the sky is full of cloud. I sat outside listening to the blackbirds and watching the swallows and the clouds parted briefly to show a half moon.

A neighbour, who once lived in Russia, explained recently how to tell a waxing from a waning moon. The trick is to draw a line from the top tip of a moon to the bottom and with a waxing moon, i.e. moving towards a full moon, it gives you the letter 'P' which in the cryllic alphabet is an R which is the first letter of the Russian for birth which is a word very like renaissance. There have to be easier ways of judging this - the outer edge of the moon is on the right in a waxing moon and on the left in a waning moon.

Swallow update - my neighbour has moved his car out of the garage and moved the bird bath nearer soil in the garden. The swallows are picking up bits of earth, dunking it in the bird bath and making nests in the garage.

Good news for swallows

Another lovely morning in May. Warm sunshine as I walked to the bridge with a slight mist haze over the fields in the distance. The crops are too tall now to spot hares in the fields along the way, although I saw one run across the path from the field to the hedge. In the far field, where the crops were sown later and are consequently shorter, I saw four hares; two in a chase and two sitting with heads up, alert.

Down by the bridge there was a solitary male roe deer which bounded off across the fields once it saw me.

Good news for the swallows. My neighbour had built a double garage next to the barn he pulled down and he told me that he'd opened the door to go in to it the other morning and two swallows immediately swooped inside. He's now propped the door open so they can all get in and out to nest and is planning to buy a dust (anti-poo?) sheet for his car. A gang of swallows is now swooping and screaming through the evening skies.