A bright and breezy start to the day, with a strong south-westerly breeze hissing among the leaves of Elm, Ash, Sycamore and Holm Oak in the woods and carrying the lovely ‘new-mown hay’ scent of Sweet Vernal Grass across the meadows.
Overhead, tumbled masses of cloud roll across a bright blue sky and ‘white horses’ gallop across a sparkling sea.
A great time of year for a stroll along the clifftop, as the end of breeding season for our seabirds approaches. Guillemots bounce on the waves, as other flicker in and out above them, busy feeding the remaining chicks. A few noticeably blacker Razorbills among the ‘bazaar’ on the water, as stiff-winged Fulmars carve through the gusty air above them, with effortless grace. In just a week or two, the cliffs will feel very quiet, as these birds return to sea for the winter.
The meadows are looking truly spectacular at the moment, with huge ‘swarms’ of dark pink Pyramidal Orchids and dappled pink Common Spotted Orchids, with strange and beautiful Bee Orchids nestled among them (described by a Victorian visitor as “…so uncannily like Bees we were half-afraid of them...”).
Oceans of the dry, bronze seedheads of Yellow Rattle hiss in the wind, with a few of the blue petals of Pale Flax tumbling across the path ahead of me. Imperial purple Greater Knapweed is in bloom along the verges, with the fluffy yellow ‘pom-pom’ flowers of Hop Trefoil, candy-striped Common Restharrow, intense blue Selfheal and purple Woundwort also in bloom, to name just a few.
On the downs, honey-scented Lady’s Bedstraw forms dense mats on the short turf, along with white Hedge Bedstraw and at the top of the Lighthouse Field, a patch of an uncommon hybrid of the two.
Wild Thyme carpets the anthills, with Birdsfoot Trefoil, Horseshoe Vetch and Kidney Vetch all in bloom.
Not many birds on the wing this morning, but despite the wind, 4 Skylarks all in flight and singing above Centenary meadow, and a few Swallows battling the breeze above the Lighthouse Field.