Country diary: yellowhammers woo their mates with a local song

Lambert's Castle, Dorset: The hedgerows near the iron age fort provide useful cover for birds whose habitat is diminishingA raven greets me at the gateway, a tutelary spirit flying low overhead. I'm on the southern path, steep and stony, edged with castles of leggy gorse. As I climb, the sun rises rose-gold, netted in the twigs of an oak silhouetted on the ridge above.This part of the hill is a mosaic of heath, grass, bracken and bramble, punctuated with mature pedunculate oaks and grazed by cattle. Last year the area was cut back in places to encourage bell heather. Now the cleared areas are studded with green rosettes of seedling foxgloves, ready to rocket upwards. By July they will have formed thickets of magenta tridents. Continue reading...