Along the willow river valley an otter whistled; the evening closed warm over the trees and the sunset flared red among the flickering branches. At the woodside the rich stillness brought the rabbit warren to life, and there the glimpse of bounding white tails deceived the eye in the falling light. Up by the ride a pheasant strutted among the fallow deer slots, and, disturbed by and unseen agitator, screeched and beat into the thickets.
Down on the ancient padded platforms among the rubbed-smooth elders and dog's mercury the shadows deepened over the finely shaped heads of old brock and his kin, waiting in the earth entrance for the last pinking blackbird and the final flurry of roost-seeking wings.
Across the wood and the river and the opposite slopes of hedge-patterned grassland a gentle haze formed, rising a little to fan out and melt away in the last heat of the setting sun.