Esta lloviendo hoy ‘It’s raining today’ – for the second time in May and adding to a total of just 33.5mm since the start of April. We still have 10 days to go, but last year in April and May we recorded a particularly wet 176.9mm over these two months. Our 30 year average is 109.08mm.
The raindrops beat down upon the mayflower blossom and speckle its understory with white petals. Here an abundance of snails enjoy the damp conditions: Glossy bright-yellow and swirly-striped White-lipped Snails alongside the larger familiar Garden Snail appear en masse, and slide their way through the vegetation.
Splashes of yellow across the top of Long Meadow where flowering Creeping and Meadow Buttercup are scattered all around. Yet more yellow can be enjoyed across smaller dense patches of Bird’s Foot Trefoil, and also reflected in that of that Goldfinch feathers as they swoop overhead.
Peering over the observation point, Jackdaws squeaks are heard and their black silhouettes crowd amongst the Tamarisk. Silvery-eyes staring back. Fulmar, Herring Gull, and Greater Black-backed Gull are also spotted below.
The smell of guano drifts up over the cliffs from the Guillemots ledge, where around 400 of these birds are huddled and looking after their eggs. Their curious sounding trills carry up over the cliffs along with the sound of pattering wings where rafting birds take flight from the water.
The cliffsides are speckled with colour – Sea Pink, Red Valerian, Yellow Mustard, Wild Carrot umbels, and patches of white Sea Campion. Lastly, a beautiful display of Honeysuckle flowers, still coloured pink where the tubular petals are set to pop, though sweet scent already in the air.
The determined flight of male Peregrine Falcon spotted as this bird patrols the coast.