Silbury Hill 180
Image by Mr Hamhead
Silbury Hill

Sheepbury Hill

nigelswift N
nigelswift Nov 19, 2004 11:04:36
Replying to StoneLifter

A couple of kestrels seem to be permanently swinging around Silbury. Apart from the ecology I think they like the air currents.

If you sit and watch the hill in the late summer when the grass is long you can see amazing winds swirling around, and it saves on the Rizzla I'm told.

S StoneLifter
StoneLifter Nov 19, 2004 11:18:39
Replying to nigelswift

I guess the traditional management would be 'sheepwalk' and the hill would just be burnt after it was 'enclosed'. The record for a kestrel's hover is sixteen seconds.

Perhaps you can find a link to an image taken looking down the straight section of the Z-feature. This one is almost there ( http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/post/19882 ) maybe a foot over to the right, camera resting in the middle of this foreground stone.

Can you see those two big stones in the middle distance of the picture ? And the shape that has been carved from them ? It's certainly a lozenge. This view is probably the alignment of the moon's most southerly rising point - it'll occur next in 2006 but is getting quite close already ...

V VenerableBottyBurp
VenerableBottyBurp Nov 20, 2004 17:04:51
Replying to nigelswift

Ere Nigel, there are more buzzards in the Avebury region than any other bird of prey, larks appear to be going missing big time on the downs, and Old Speckled Hen is 4 bottles for £5 in Morrisons !

but as you mention wind....

when the wind is blowing from the direction of Silbury there is added lift over Avebury and kites go much much higher, what that has to do with the price of Old Speckled Hen I don't know ?

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