Heaths

There are two heaths a short drive from the Pink Pig Farm, both of which have been protected and are now classified as nature reserves – Cavenham Heath and Warren Hill. Both are closed during the Spring and Summer months so that Stone Curlews (Burhinus oedicnemus) can nest undisturbed by man and unmolested by their dogs. As these odd-looking yellow-eyed birds nest on the ground and are masters of disguise, these safety precautions prevent us from treading on them and their cleverly hidden chicks. Unfortunately, I have yet to see a Stone Curlew. Only this weekend we stared excitedly at a bird for quite a while until it metamorphosed into a log. I do see birders lugging large telescopic lenses around and suppose that if I latched onto one of them I might be led expertly to the bird itself. Now, however, it is the time of year when gates are thrown open to the hoi polloi once more and Sniff (my faithful hound) and I can bound across open spaces with glee. Subsequently, there’s no hope of seeing a Stone Curlew because they’ve all buggered off to Africa and will now be flapping their weary way somewhere over Southern Europe.

Sniff and I gambolled across Warren Hill today with gay abandon. The air smelt of burnt toast, an aroma borne through the mist hanging about the horizon. Flocks of crows passed noisily overhead, sounding like over-excited school-children on a trip to town. The crows are gathering in ever-greater numbers all over Suffolk, readying themselves for some great Winter conference or other.

A phenomenon in great abundance on the heath is the mushroom. Giant ones, fairy-tale red ones, star-shaped ones, sinister black ones, mushrooms are everywhere. The earth star looks particularly interesting – it belongs to an order of gasterocarpic basidiomycetes which are related to Cantharellales, and therefore boasts a series of extraordinarily complicated and unpronounceable scientific names. No wonder some botanist insisted on earth star as the common name – something that says what it is on the tin, as it were. Earth stars look like mush-flowers. Their ‘petals’ open up in moist conditions (such as we’re finding at the moment during these Autumn mornings) and enables the mushroom to germinate. Growing close to the ground, they cannot compete in magnificence to their neighbours on the heath, some of which today stood almost two feet tall (the first one pictured below).

The arrival of mushrooms coincides with the disappearance of butterflies, none of which are in evidence any more. I did spot two dragonflies chasing each other through the toasty air but they too will soon hibernate. One insect however was determined to uphold the promise borne by the sign at the entrance to Warren Hill, that this is ‘a wide open space alive with insects’:

Warren Hill is certainly wide and open and decidedly empty of other folk. The cattle that were grazing earlier in the year have also been moved on, the result being that Sniff and I had the whole of the Hill to ourselves. No doubt thousands of rabbits appeared the second our backs were turned but for a while I did have the strangest feeling that I was the only human left on earth.