A duo of Magpie explored the car park verges as I arrived. A spider web bridged the space between a parking machine and notice board. In places dew was found upon the herb layer vegetation. Ballard Down was visible but a haze obscured view beyond. Upon the hay cut part of South Field two pairs of Carrion Crows explored. Amongst the uncut margin where the flowers of Fleabane, Selfheal, Red Clover, Horseshoe Vetch, Bulbous Buttercup and Ragwort fluttered butterflies. There were Gatekeepers and the odd Meadow Brown. I heard the short calls of a Greater Spotted Woodpecker in flight. Overhead there was the rumble of aircraft. I would later sea vapour trails marking a blue sky.
An unseen Green Woodpecker was heard as I noticed the remains of what must have been small ant hills flattened by the hay cutting. Tight Holm Oak acorns adorned parent trees in Small Copse. I entered Saxon Field which having not been hay cut had plenty of sward for Small Mammals and Insects. I saw a Blue butterfly which had a pair dark brownish upper wings, whilst the abdomen pair were blue. The darkness suggested a female. A Meadow Brown visited a thistle flower whilst nearby Tufted Vetch held only seed pods. Two Swallows passed overhead as I admired the bounty of Blackberries, many still to ripen. Thistle down had landed at not far from the parent plant. Burdock held burrs awaiting transportation via a human or mammal whilst Bristly Ox tongue set seed to the wind.
Cowpats speckled the upper gully, each one being an ecosystem. Several had been pecked apart by birds seeking out insect larvae. The downland quarried landscape had plenty un-grazed and trampled grass. The Hereford Cattle preferring to re-graze the fresh regrowth and avoid the dry clumps. A Speckled Wood flew above Lighthouse Road bridge whilst a Large White passed over the blanket of Clematis. Beside a mast ladened Sycamore stood a sapling, at least as tall as me, with three quarters of its leaves being dark and crisps.
I spotted a bird of prey perched on the ladder peg of a telegraph pole. Foolishly, I assumed this was a Kestrel when I saw it again resting upon the overhead wires. However, when the bird perched in a bare Hawthorn bedside the Goat Plot, I could see its stripped breast and its being a Peregrine Falcon. A chattering eight Jackdaws rose about the Lighthouse as more Swallows travelled in land up the gully. Hidden amongst Gorse cover came calls of a male Stonechat.