A wonderful walk round the woodland to start the morning rounds, not so much for the wildlife, but more just to enjoy the unfamiliar sound of rain pattering onto leaves and filling the air with petrichor (the smell of hot ground after rain), leaf mould and the sea.
The downland is looking as brown and dry as I can ever remember seeing it, however still a few of the hardier plants in bloom among the golden grasses. On the shortest turf, the sprawling leaves of Bastard Toadflax form dense mats, dotted with the tiny, white, five-petalled flowers which give it it's alternate name of ‘Stars in Grass’. Another sprawling plant of the short turf, this time with candy-pink and white striped flowers, Common Restharrow is also in bloom, along with honey-scented Lady’s Bedstraw and ‘dusty’ pink Red Bartsia.
The tiny, elegant seed-heads of Quaking Grass are bowed down with the weight of raindrops, with a Bloody-nose Beetle plodding mechanically along beneath them.
High above tower the mighty seed-heads of Woolly Thistle, while Common Ragwort is providing a valuable late nectar source for bees and butterflies (though neither are much in evidence this morning!).
A Stonechat weaves in and out of the Gorse on the Milepost Slope, with ‘charms’ of tinkling Goldfinches starting to gather and pick seeds from the spiky heads of Teasels.
Near Tilly Whim, Rock Pipits weave around the clifftop, with a male Kestrel sweeping in to hurl it’s blood-curdling shrieks from the lower milepost.
Further along, a Peregrine Falcon scans the sea, perfectly silhouetted on Durlston Head, as Shags, Gannets and Herring Gulls pass by.
In the hedgerows, Blackberries are starting to ripen, while the berries of Woody Nightshade are looking beautiful, each cluster in shiny shades of red, green and yellow.