A bit of a chill in the air this morning, exacerbated by a breeze rolling through the woodland from the East. Perhaps a sign that the weather may finally be on the turn… I’m not one to wish for rain, but the ground has been dry for a good number of weeks and some of the Sunnydale Hydrangeas have been struggling, so I wouldn’t be saddened by a good overnight downpour. Though despite the wind and cloud, I did spot two butterflies in the woodland – a Meadow Brown and a Red Admiral.
Looking across the dry brown Teasel and fluffy white Bristly Ox-tongue seed heads and, a few juvenile Herring Gulls patrolled along above the clifftop trail. Plenty of Jackdaws could be seen playfully swooping and soaring, whilst a couple Shags preened themselves atop the waters surface.
At Tilly Whim I once again found myself admiring the beautiful blooms of Sea Aster which adorn the rock face above the caves. Over the ledge I was watching a Rock Pipit scavenge across the rocky plateau, until a female Wheatear caught my eye, it looked at me whilst bobbing its tail on an adjacent rock face.
There must have been at least 150 Goldfinch chirping away in the gully. Swathes of them would appear out of nowhere, taking flight from between the grasses in groups of 10-20 and disappearing over the scrub. Every so often, I could catch a glimpse of a few yellow feathers, but for the most part, they had all lost their bright summer plumage.
I finally went to see the Autumn Lady’s Tresses and was very happy to spot some straight away, just up the hill from the entrance to Anvil Point Lighthouse. In the end I counted about 25 across this single patch. These pretty orchids have individual white flowers decorated around the stem in a near-perfect spiral pattern.
On my return up Lighthouse Road, I found a dead baby Adder – at about 6 inches in length, I almost mistook it for a slow-worm, were it not for the perfect dark zigzag pattern running down its back.