I'm back to starting my morning commute in the dark with the daylight starting to show about half way. Cycling around dawn is pretty awesome in the country if you are into wildlife.
The dawn chorus is deafening and it's the time of day when night time predators can catch early rising prey. I've seen two Barn Owls in full flight this week, one of them for a good ten seconds as it skirted the hedgerow ahead of me.
Pheasants are all over the place before dawn. They walk around in the roads but can't see a thing. On a bike, they don't hear you until the last second and one nearly flew straight into my face as I got close and startled it. I now make a point of calling out "beep beep" so that they can commence their panic flight before I get too close. It's Bat time again as they return to their barns and attics about half an hour before sunrise. One flew directly in front of me this morning and it was so close, I could have grabbed it out of the air.
I've also seen plenty of wild Roe Deer this week along with a handful of foxes and I've chased quite a few Hares along the road as well (by god, they can run).
The weather the last few days has been perfect. Chilly mornings, warm days.
This afternoon, I had the pleasure of a 15mph easterly pushing me home on my east to west commute ( a rarity in North Devon where the prevailing wind is a westerly).
It's a pretty special time of year for bike riding.
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