A cool and hazy start to the day, with sun starting to burn through a veil of cloud, promising a bright day ahead.
Walking in through the meadows, the hedges are covered with a beautiful white foam of sweet-scented flowers, among a tapestry of bright green Hawthorn and Elder leaves. A Family of Long-tailed Tits dart in and out of the hedge along Tasker’s Path, staying a few yards ahead of me as I walk up the hill.
Cleavers clasp the base of the hedgerows in a tangle of sticky green leaves, with the large glossy leaves of Cuckoo Pint growing beneath their shade.
The first few orchids of the year are starting to unfurl their buds, with a single velvety brown Early Spider Orchid discovered on a patch of short grass, with an Early Purple Orchid, with leaves looking like they have been spattered with ink, growing in the shelter of a hedge – give it a week or two to see many, many more!
Some lovely displays of pale yellow Primroses on Caravan Terrace with the meadows dappled with tiny Cowslips.
Along the cliffs, the bubbling growl of Guillemots rises up from the water, with many more crowded onto the ledges (pop into the Castle to watch them live with our cliff camera).
5 Razorbills (much blacker) are dotted among a raft of 60 or so Guillemots, as Fulmars cut graceful curves through the air. Less elegant, a Great Black-backed Gull squabbles with a Herring Gull, as a Shag flaps steadily by beneath them.
Lots of white-flowered Early Scurvy Grass in bloom on the clifftop, with Green Alkanet, Lesser Celandine, Dandelion, Dog Violet and Hairy Violet and Sticky Mouse-Ear also in flower.
At the edge of South Field, a Robin does it’s best Hummingbird impression, almost hovering just a few inches above the grass, while outside the window as I write a Blue Tit rushes back and forth to a nestbox, her beak filled with moss.