Fruit season is on its way

The solstice is upon us. The sun barely sleeps before it returns to warm the soft June meadows. With rolling gentleness the prevailing wind sways the tall grass. A scent is in the air, a sweet smell that reminds you of camping in your youth. The night has not yet begun but the day has long but ended. The wilds are in switch over. Birds tweet their last song before closing their eyes. The cattle in the fields yawn as they settle awkwardly with their calves. The last rays of golden light touch the tops of the tallest trees and leave a world of encroaching blue.

Elsewhere eyes are opening. The dusk presents an opportunity or two if you are equipped. Up in Nottinghamshire a large animal is surveying the meadows. With total silence its huge wings let it glide as it scans the grass below. Then something catches its eye and it pauses. With immeasurable grace the ghost stills its flight and by silently flapping its huge wings targets some invisible quarry. Then in one movement the fury of old drops from the air and ends the game. What did I see? I'll show you tomorrow.

Until then let me show you this.

Raspberries or Rubus Idaeus. Here slowling ripening under the gentle early summer sun. The canes seemed well loaded this year. I think it will be a bumper year for fruit. The apple, pear and cherry trees look heavy and the blackthorn laiden with Sloe. If every blackberry or Rubus Fruticosus flower succeeds in becoming fruit there will be far too many to eat. I suppose that is the point. In the disturbance caused by animals as they clamour for another berry several get knocked onto the floor. Birds carrying a nice ripe blackberry may drop it mid flight. Everytime a blackberry hits the floor another plant grows. The blackberry and the raspberry have evolved a cunning plan. By providing for birds they have ensured their own survival. They have done this in a way that mimics how the early flowers came into partnership with the early insects. Sometime 70 million years ago something momentous happened. Some plant may have flowered and produced a small pod of seeds much in the way that Cow Parsley does today. The intention is that when ready they will drop to the floor. However this time something different happens. A small dinosaur, covered in scaly feathers has crash landed into the bush. This animal has evolved feathers to help it make a quick getaway from predators. Using the domain that the predators can't and taking to the sky it ensures its own survival. However times are now bad. The insects that the animal normally eats are few and far between and the animal is desperate. In desperation it tries the seed pods of the plant and survives. Its young are taught by their mother that when things are bad, you can always eat this plant.

Generations pass and this animal continues to feed on the plant and in doing so messily scatters its seeds all over the place . The plant survives and the bird survives. Variation between plants lead to those plants with more visible seeds being spotted, eaten and thus scattered. The more successful birds now are those that can fly between plants and take advantage of many opportunities. We only have berries and birds because this happened.