Country diary: It's a pause between seasons as the skylarks fall silent | Elizabeth-Jane Burnett

Northam Burrows, Devon: For months, this stretch of grassland has been a hub for their surging music. Their sound has matched the swash of the wavesThe song of the skylark is waning. Those trickles of summer through the grasses, the bright yellow patches of common bird's-foot trefoil, have almost gone. It is a moment of pause between the seasons.There is a pervading stillness to this stretch of grassland, just a small distance from the heave of the waves beyond the dunes. For months, it has been a hub for the skylarks' surging music. Their sound has matched the swash of the waves, so that to move through it was to be soaked in song. Now, I see only one. A flash of white from its tail, a streak of brown as it shoots up, fixes for a moment, rapid wings trembling. Mute, it moves into the mist. Continue reading...