Burnet Rose
11th June
(Burnet Rose, 2006)
Birds among the thicketed dune hollows sang especially lively, despite sporadic onsets of drizzle and a buffeting wind. Bloody cranesbill shone deep in the pre-dawn light, red in the dim darkness. A young grasshopper perched on my tripod.
Walking back along the levée - suspended between a vast rushy field of yellow iris and extensive salt flats, where ponies grazed into the scattered distance, bent low among deep swathes of thrift.
As the drizzle grew heavier, a peregrine screamed from the Tor, where low gray cloud condensed.
During the day we walked out on dunes where the wild flowers and grasses were sublime, both on the dunes and high on the pinnacled cliffs.
A buzzard hovering almost over the reeds, before dropping sudden on some invisible prey.
Two peregrine nervous around Great Tor, their noise dramatic and dominant in the heat of the day.
Reed warblers – their always call, all day, evening and dawn.
A kestrel that soared from the flowering cliffs, swooping from its ledge just yards below, where limestone sculpted among ox-eyes, cinquefoils and knapweed.
Golden grasses on the cliff tops and all among the dunes. And among the flowering wonder of the dunes, a clouded yellow – startlingly beautiful and my first sighting of this richly hued insect.