With the sky covered in thick grey cloud, a very dull start to the early rounds, but suddenly enlivened by a sight I have very rarely seen here a Durlston.
A pale bird flapping between the hedgerows, the short flat face and wide wings making it unmistakably a Barn Owl. However with this being such a surprise, I had to do a double, then treble take, to make sure it was not my imagination, and enabling me to rule out it being a Short-eared Owl as the same time - it wasn’t! Only a few short magical seconds before it disappeared over the bushes where I could no longer see.
A calling from the berry laden Hawthorn made me look, to see a small flock of Goldfinches, their yellow feathers adding a splash of bright colour.
Waving high above the Blackthorns a magnificent specimen of Dog Rose, and on it a large Robin’s Pin Cushion. This green and pink rough clump around the stem formed around a number of larvae of the Dog Rose specific Bedeguar Gall Wasp (Dipoloepis rosae).
Along the edge of the path the snuffle marks of a Badger, left from its night-time foraging for beetles, worms and other invertebrates in the soil.
Disappearing into the scrub was a large Rabbit, another unusual sight as these grazers have become much less common in recent years.
A scattering of Rough Hawkbit amongst the meadows, the single yellow flowers to be seen above the recently grass. While looking down at these my attention was drawn by the number of large brown Slugs sliding across the wet ground, including a mating pair engulfed in a large blob of white goo.
As I returned to the base, via quick check of the Hereford Cattle, Swallows were flitting overhead, swooping up and over, fascinating to watch.