Buzzards and Bluebells, Cold Kitchen and Brimsdown

I felt that I should blog a fantastic walk that Suzanne and I had the other day. We walked from the picturesque village of Kingston Deverill, steeply uphill to the majestic ridge of Cold Kitchen Hill and then along the long ridge top from Cold Kitchen to Brimsdown.

The downland was full of the sound of ewes calling to their new lambs. The early hour and the lack of people enabled us to see hares and deer. The bluebells were bursting out in the woods on the top of Brimsdown Hill. The village of Horningsham looked as picturesque as ever and the rhododendrons and azaleas at 'Heaven's Gate'arboretum on the Longleat estate were a blaze of colour.The bluebells will last for a few more weeks as will the clumps of primroses before the orchids take centre stage.

A fantastic walk, which is on our Deverills Valley short break but what made this walk extra special was the stunning site of eleven buzzards (for our USA readers, the buzzard is Britain's largest hawk) all circling in the same thermal, level with and in some cases below us. It shows that birds of prey are certainly on the increase, which also demonstrates that the bottom end of the food chain must be in good shape too - good news.