This morning the autumn yellows of faded leaves, dry grasses, bursting seed heads, all glow a rich gold – lit up by the rising Sun. Overhead, a charm of Goldfinch, a few migrating Swallows, and single Goldcrest.
A Red Admiral butterfly basks in this sunshine, its wings spread wide against the Blackthorn and it’s coral-like fronds of Lichen.
Nearby, a Honeybee searches for some flowers, but finds nowhere to stop. Instead, bright red berries stand out amongst the hedgerow – Bryony, Rosehips, and Haws. The bee bothers the butterfly for a few seconds, before continuing to scan along the scrub.
The colder weather and dwindling food resources will test the mettle of the these insects. Most butterflies will enter a period of dormancy as larvae or pupae, but some species – such as the Red Admiral can overwinter as an adult. Honeybees overwinter too, surviving on honey in their hive, with the worker bees forming a cluster around the queen to keep her warm.
I’ve been counting the Black Pines around the woodland recently – so far I’ve found about 30. The majority of them are mature old pines, likely part of George Burt’s original planting scheme for his ‘Pine-cliff walk’ around 1890. It seems this species do not self-seed so well at Durlston – I know of just one clump of four younger trees beyond the ‘Peveril View’ viewpoint.
Old photographs indicate there was once hundreds of pines which stood all around this eastern side of the park – notably around the Castle and down through the woodland, past Solent Road, and to Pine Road (which is where the Egyptian Seat now stands). A more ornamental line of them appears to have been planted along the ‘entrance road’ with 8 still standing on Lighthouse Road between Boundary Close and the car parks.