As the summer draws on, the hedgerows and scrub are starting to fill with fruits and berries, providing food for the many young birds (and their parents, who are moulting into their winter plumage).
Walking up Long Meadow, on the way into work, a young Robin, with just a small splash of red among it’s dappled, tawny plumage follows me up the path, watching closely from the hedge! Around it, Blackthorn is covered with glossy, midnight blue Sloes and Blackberries – most still hard and green, but a few in shades of crimson and just a couple ripening to black. The berries of Bittersweet are also looking particularly fine – like tiny tomatoes on their straggling vines among the shiny heart-shaped leaves of Bryony.
Leaves are also starting to turn – Hawthorn leaves are tinged with yellow and red, while the edges of the large hand-shaped leaves of Horse Chestnut have hints of gold.
A large family of 30+ Long-tailed Tits are feeding among the boughs of a Sallow outside the Learning Centre, filling the air with their noisy chatter, while at the entrance to South Field, lovely to see my first Redstart of the autumn.
Not so sunny this morning, but nonetheless, a single patch of Buddleia has attracted several Meadow Browns, a Red Admiral, a very tatty-looking Painted Lady and a Hummingbird Hawkmoth, with Speckled Wood, Common Blue and Large White also seen on the wing this morning.
Several Bloody-nose Beetles seen plodding across the downland turf in the Lighthouse Field, where a Kestrel hangs motionless in the air above the Gully, so still it is almost as if it has been painted there! A Raven perches on top of the Mile Markers, with a Peregrine swooping along the clifftop.
My morning round cut somewhat short by the discovery of an unaccompanied brown and white Lurcher – if anyone knows the owner, please ask them to get in touch to retrieve it!