Off around the woods to start where the sound of Grey Squirrels scampering across the fallen, dead and brown, Holm Oak leaves was the dominating noise, across Durlston Bay a fishing boat chugged as it checked its lobster & crab pots.
A good crop of Apples on one of the trees, while the smell of Poplars wafted around. A Chaffinch popped up on one of the branches of the Black Poplar.
Into the meadows which are mostly a golden brown, coloured by the variety of the grasses, but within wildflowers giving splashes of colour. The patch of purple Lucerne catching my attention, this patch seems to have remained much the same size for the last ten years.
Nearby the umbrella shaped multi-flowered heads of Wild Carrot, mostly off white, but some pink tinged and other just starting to form seeds.
Lower to the ground the round yellow heads of Hop Trefoil, and the smaller brighter yellow spheres of Black Medic flower alongside Bird’s-foot Trefoil, Red Clover and Tufted Vetch.
The dry stems of Tall Fescue and Crested Dog’s Tail have both been used by the Six-Spot Burnet Moth to spin its papery cocoon, and a number of the emerged red and black moths resting or sipping nectar from the lilac Field Scabious and Greater Knapweed flowers.
Many of the flowers of the Corky-fruited Water Dropwort – what a name – are turning to seed, and this is when the name becomes more apt – as they become corky fruits!
The herd of Hereford cattle have been given another field to enjoy, so you’ll find them in the downland fields 6, 6a, 3 and 3a. The young calves were all sleeping as I walked through, a mass of brown and white fur, one of them being used as a perch by a Carrion Crow!
A Buff-tailed Bumble Bee and Red-tailed Bumble Bee both on the Lesser Knapweed, a Soldier Beetle on the Wild Parsnip and a Greater Bloody-nosed Beetle wandering across the grass.