A pretty miserable morning, raindrops falling steadily across Durlston from a dark grey sky. Just one week until the clocks go back an hour, and the mornings will have a little more daylight. Woodpigeons and Jackdaws strut across the grasslands on the search for breakfast.
Green Alkanet seems to be enjoying a particularly late season, with little blue flowers on display along the slope towards the Castle. It’s pleasing to see hundreds of Apples clustered upon the two Crab-Apple Trees in the Dell.
More little pockets of colour found upon the Buddleia with its drooping conical spikes of little purple flowers, Fuchsia in its prime - filled with delicate pale-pink ‘ballerinas’, and the Red (pink) Valerian which reaches out from the dry stone walls.
Between the pitter patter of raindrops, and crunching of leaves underfoot, I can hear the quick little whistles and chirps of Great Tit, Blue Tit, and a Blackcap in song as I descend the coastal path. A noisy Grey Squirrel ‘barking’ in the Holm Oak.
At the end of Durlston Head, the past turns west where flowering Rock Samphire shelters behind the windy wall. Dew drops cling to the Tamarisk fronds as they rock back and forth above the sea. Here, the Jackdaws cackle as they flock overhead. Woodpigeons race and soar at speed, whilst the Herring Gulls pace themselves gliding calmly with the wind, wings outstretched as they patrol above the coast.
The Guillemots are back upon their ledge. I didn’t see any on the water, or flying to and from the cliffs, until I got towards Tilly Whim. From there I could look back and see their black and white bodies huddled together like little penguins.
Flowering Ivy creeps across the rock walls at the entrance to the Tilly Whim Caves, where a Robin is heard tweeting. Here, sheltered from the wind and rain, a number of Harts Tongue Fern, Sea Spleenwort lining crevices in the walls, and Stinking Iris with orange berries on display.