On Sunday the 8th May I decided to head for Iwerne hill and the edge of the Cranborne chase with Tilly for a wander to see if there was anything interesting about. Being a Sunday the roads were quiet so it was a good time to go. There were quite a few Hares about in the fields as we climbed the hill but they were some distance off and it was difficult seeing through the hedgerows as the leaves were filling in the gaps pretty quickly.

We just had a short walk there and went on to one of my favourite Hare spotting sites. The walk takes you along the edge of managed woodland with arable fields on the other side which then takes you into dense woodland, again there were Hares in the fields but distant, there was a cold wind blowing across the downs so maybe they were waiting for the sun to warm them a little. There were two Red Kites flying, I just managed to get a distant picture before they disappeared.

We headed towards the woodland and there were some lovely wildflowers blooming, Bluebells, Wood Anenome, late Primroses, Stitchwort, Yellow Archangel and many others and a good number of Early Purple Orchids at the edge of the woodland, more than I’ve seen for a number of years.

On the way back I spotted three large Corvids in the field, a realised as I got closer they were three fledgling Ravens. I watched them for a while, the parents didn’t come back which I was hoping for and then they flew back to their nest high in a Pine tree and were very vocal!

I headed back to the car a little disappointed that I hadn’t seen a close Hare, but happy with what I saw that morning when in front of me in the path was a Hare, he stayed there for a while before heading off into the woodland. A good morning walk before heading home to a cup of tea and breakfast!