What a morning! Wisps of gauzy white cloud drift across a deep blue sky and by 8am, the temperature is already soaring!
The woods are ‘lovely, dark and deep’ and beneath the green shade of Holm Oak, Sycamore, London Plane, Ash and Lime, constellations of white-flowered Enchanters Nightshade dapple the woodland floor, beneath towering stems of Hogweed. Here and there, the green fruits of Cuckoo Pint can be seen, along a mixture of Stinking Iris flowers and plump seed-pods.
Speckled Wood butterflies whirl in patches of dappled shade, as Red Admirals bask on dry-stone walls and Peacock butterflies sip nectar from Hemp Agrimony.
Lots more butterflies on the wing this morning, with pied Marbled Whites by far the most numerous, with over a dozen seen on Caravan Terrace alone! 6 Large White butterflies flutter around the Dell, with Lulworth Skippers galore along the Coast Path, along with Meadow Browns, Small Heaths and Ringlets (which are having one their best years for some time). Red and black 6-Spot Burnet Moths are also very numerous at the moment – their wings blurring into pink as they dart around the meadows.
Meadow Grasshoppers ‘sing’ from the long grass, while the flower-heads of Wild Carrot are covered with mating red and black Soldier Beetles.
Along the cliffs, Guillemots are enjoying their last week or so before returning to sea, with 9 noticeably blacker Razorbills on the water below the cliffs.
A Great Black-backed Gull chick calls noisily to it’s parent near the Observation Point, with the blood-curdling shrieking of a pair of Peregrines shattering the tranquillity. Fulmars glide smoothly around the cliffs, with a single Gannet passing by further out to sea.
Sill thousands of Pyramidal Orchids in flower, along with Greater and Common Knapweed, Field Scabious, Woundwort, Self-heal, Meadow Vetchling, Crosswort, Wild Thyme, Eyebright and Restharrow to name just a few of the colourful wildflowers in bloom.