My regular readers will realize that I love being in the country side and likewise anything to do with the natural world. In particular I like to identify the animals and birds I encounter whilst hiking, thus I never ever go out without my binoculars. Last year, for a number of reasons, I had an exceptional amount of spare time to myself and partook in a variety of guided rammbles in my local district. Some of which were particularly for bird spotting, yet for a change I picked to go on some wildflower strolls, an area in which I hadnt taken a lot of interest in ever before.

During my summer walks I have always stopped to take in a field packed with colourful flowers but had hardly ever bothered to learn their names or their life-cycles. I can recal the day though when I made a decision that I would be ignorant no more. On one of my usual walks through the golf links (fantastic havens for all types of wildlife), I came across an area that the staff had allowed to become wild. It was a blaze of reds and yellows that was further enhanced by the sunlight on that charming summer time afternoon. The the best part however was the flock of goldfinches that were feeding on the red seed heads, their plumage perfectly mirroring the colours all around them. I was sorry for not having taken my camera and missing such a wonderful photo opportunity.

Within The uk we have National Parks, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and Sites of Special Scientific Interest, the organisations that oversee these organise events with wild flower strolls to highlight the work they do and to educate others. These walks are commonly led by experts in the field who are very educated, along with help from the keen amateurs almost every grass, sedge or flower is spotted and identified for the sake of the rookies in the party. Having carried out a handful of the walks I found myself being interested in the various plant species that I would generally unwittingly trample over.

I encountered the lovely purple of self-heal that in actual fact can be fairly invasive on well kept lawns and is thus a scourge of the gardener. The tiny flowers of the variety of plants in the bedstraw family began to become recognisable. Some species can only be identified by trying to find minute features on the leaves or flowers through a magnifying field lens, now my summertime walks mean I have one of these round my neck along with the binoculars!

I also found out about how meadows are being farmed carefully to result in a change to the declining wildflower population. Land owners are quite literally being given incentives to take care of their fields in a particular way to encourage wild flowers to thrive. Wild flowers dont do well in well-fertilized earth as they need to compete with the vigorous grasses that live in such a medium. What is needed for a happy balance is light muck-spreading, cutting only once the plants have set seed and restricting grazing livestock, these also help by treading the seeds into the ground with their hooves. I also found out how to survey a meadow but thats a different story, Im particularly looking forward to this spring and summer.

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