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Pseudo Circles Around Wiltshire Two very different kinds of crop markings have been discovered in the past few days that may be mistaken for crop formations, but which definitely are not. (I'm confident I won't get any arguments, either! :-) First, Nick Riley discovered that the crop of hay on Waden Hill (between Silbury Hill and the Avebury Stone Avenue), Which has hosted many circles over the years, has been senselessly "decorated" all over by someone with a large riding lawn mower. The grass is definitely cut, not flattened. S/he drove in twists and turns on both sides of the hill, cutting six foot wide swaths that vary in length from a few feet to fifty or more. I have not seen it from the air, (We hope to have an image soon) but it appears to be just incoherent scribbling. Waden Hill is quite large, and both sides were vandalised, so it must have taken a few hours to do the job. The Mysterious mower also hit the north side of Golden Hill, but not nearly as extensively. Not even a neophyte croppie would mistake the cut crop for the real thing, but from the road the crazy wiggles and lines will attract many curious folk, who will pull over and run to inspect the joke. The other markings, in Canola (Rape Seed oil) look for all the world like a dozen 4 to 10 foot diameter grapeshot, from both the air and roadside. But they turn out to be made by some kind of small animal. (No, not Hedgehogs!) The culprit apparently ate the young sprouts of the plants in a radius around the burrow - for there is a one-inch rodent (?) hole in the middle of each circle, with little more than shorts weeds growing in the critter's territory (there were some stunted Rape plants in one of the circles we inspected). [ Anyone know what kind of beastie it be!] I discovered the circles on Rockley Down while flying and filming the Rockley Down formation in the neighbouring field. They looked so good from the air - all are well between the tramlines and without any access paths (duh!) - that I thought for sure I had found something really great to write home about. (I had to buy Nick a pint of beer, because he bet me they were natural!) |
