earlybirder: Slow worms at Aston Clinton Rag pits......

Sunday 27 July 2014

Slow worms at Aston Clinton Rag pits......

It took a while for this morning to warm up but it eventually turned in to a pleasant, sunny day. We decided to go to Aston Clinton rag pits, which sit high in the Chiltern Hills and are home to a very diverse flora. Scattered amongst the orchids and other wild flowers are small sheets of corrugated iron which offer a great place for slow worms - a snake-like, legless lizard - and grass snakes to warm up in the early morning sun. This individual was very large compared to others I have seen.

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Look at the sky, listen to the birds and smell the flowers....

Why the 'Earlybirder'? As a boy I slept in a room overlooking gardens and an old orchard. I preferred to sleep with the curtains open and as it became light in the morning I would get up and, armed with a heavy old pair of binoculars and an even heavier and older bicycle, head out to explore the Welsh Harp, Ruislip Lido or Cassiobury Park.

I like the exclusivity of early mornings. It's the best part of the day...the air is often still and fresh and the birdsong is not masked by the hum of lawnmowers or background hiss of traffic. The sun of a new day sheds a uniquely bright light which gives everything, from flowers to feathers, a lustre which fades in the less-forgiving light later in the day. The world belongs to you and you feel so alive. While others sleep the rest of the world awakes. To witness a sunrise, focus on the incredible richness of a nightingale's song or watch a newly-hatched mandarin chick dry in the warmth of a pool of morning sun is to experience life at its purest. Bed can wait...

Sunday 27 July 2014

Slow worms at Aston Clinton Rag pits......

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Link to WWT - Welney