For day 11 of 30 Days Wild I went for a walk around Watlington Hill. The top of the hill is the perfect place to sit for a while and enjoy the fantastic views of the Chilterns. With red kites floating overhead and common blues dancing around your feet, it's a pretty nice way to spend an hour or two.
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| The view from Watlington Hill |
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| One of the red kites dropped me a present |
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| Common blue |
I couldn't resist having a look for the frog and bee orchids that I saw up there last year. I think it's a bit early still as there was no sign (although finding frog orchids in amongst all the twayblade and 'green' is really tricky). There was a lot of twayblade in flower and I even found a little bronze coloured beetle pollinating some, with the pollinia still stuck to its head.
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| Twayblade |
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| Twayblade pollination in progress |
I stumbled across a little bit of magic when I found an old, (almost) dead hawthorn bush. It had been adorned with feathers, empty snail shells, bits of wood and pretty stones, with some form of decoration hanging off every available hook or placed in the fork of every branch.
Then I realised that the bush was exactly in the centre of a near perfect circle of yews. It was all a little bit mystical, so I admired it but left it well alone!
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| The circle of yews from the outside |
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| The hawthorn bush, with all its decoration, from inside the circle. |
Finally, a beautiful speckled wood was waiting for me back at the car park.
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