Burgess Field

6 February.



Burgess Field is a nature park on the eastern side of Port Meadow, which, together with the adjacent Trap Ground allotments, was formerly a landfill site. The many soil types used to cap the tip feeds a large variety of wild flowers and plants. Copses and hedges have been planted over the last twenty years. Long grass shelters mice and voles, bringing kestrels and owls. A group of roe deer also inhabit the 85 acre site. Last week in the spring sunshine there was a wide range of greens amongst the vegetation; the extended utterance of a skylark would start up now and again from an invisible source. In February all I saw was the odd crow perched still atop a bare tree, around them the air silent, things partially concealed, lines in browns and greys on white.