'THE lark ascending' by Ralph Vaughan Williams is one of Britain's favourite pieces of classical music, always within the top ten of the classical list and rightly so.

Indeed, the piece cleverly replicates the skylark's song with all its trills, nuances and passages so the composer must have listened most intently to capture the beauty of the melody.

Nature Notes: Spread of the tiger moth

Once again I'm in Richmond park on a cloudy but mild late July afternoon with little breeze. Suddenly two skylarks (pictured) about fifty metres apart begin to rise, singing, but don't fly very high before plunging down again.

When skylarks return to earth, presumably to their nests, they alight several metres away and run along to their nests hopefully to fool any lurking predators watching.

All around me speedy house martins constantly uttering chirruping contact calls skim the parched grass, catching flying insects that tend to keep low in dull weather.

Nature Notes: An afternoon's nature watch

A female kestrel is perched on a post and allows me to approach within three metres without being disturbed, so I can study her beautiful barred plumage.

After several minutes, I walk slowly away, allowing her to scan the surroundings for a juicy vole.

Meanwhile in the distance a vast herd of red and fallow deer browse under the trees.