Читать книгу Walks in the South Downs National Park онлайн

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Writing about the South Downs in 1893, the Victorian essayist Richard Jefferies commented: ‘Under the September sun, flowers may still be found in sheltered places, as at the side of furze [gorse], on the highest of the Downs. Wild thyme continues to bloom – the shepherd’s thyme – wild mignonette, blue scabious, white dropwort, yellow bedstraw, and the large purple blooms of greater knapweed. Grasshoppers hop among the short dry grass; bees and humblebees are buzzing about, and … the furze is everywhere full of finches’ (Nature Near London).

Finches, yes, gathering in flocks in autumn and winter; brambling and chaffinch, thrush and warbler swarm over areas of scrub, attracted by the insect life that scrub supports. Redwing and fieldfare are common migrants, returning to the Downs in the autumn from their breeding grounds in northern Europe. The wheatear is a summer visitor, scavenging on the ground in search of insects. Ground nesting birds such as the meadow pipit and corn bunting are downland favourites, as is the lapwing (or peewit) which lays its eggs among open plough tracings.