Long Walk

Yesterday I did a long walk. I left at 10am. The first hour or two it rained, but after that the weather was perfect. Blue sky and lots of clouds so it wasn't too hot. There was a stiff breeze all afternoon.

I walked along Fleam Dyke again. The summer flowers are all coming out, clustered bellflowers and trefoil and speedwell. Then at Fulbourn I turned north to another Saxon earthwork called Devil's Dyke. That is just as pretty, with more uncommon flowers. I looked for, but didn't find, a lizard orchid. Apparently the flowers look just like lizards, and it smells strongly of goats!

On Devils Dyke I got a good view of a green woodpecker. Usually one only hears their alarm call and perhaps sees a flash of green as the make their getaway, but this one was already in flight, away from me, as I rounded a bend, so I saw its red cap and green tail. It perched in perfect woodpecker fashion on the vertical trunk of a beech about 20 yards away and spent a few minutes examining the bark. Then it hopped up and around the trunk in a spiral, presumably eating insects it found.

Later, just after dusk I saw a white owl near Hildersham. Not particularly concerned it flew silently past within about 20 yards of me and I could even see its face as it passed. It was mainly white with a few light brown feathers on it's back and the tops of its wings.

I got home at 10.15pm and Google Maps says I walked 32 miles.