Another lovely Spring morning at Durlston, with the Sun shining and bird song in my ears. I listen to the two-tone Great Tit tweets followed by their deeper churrs, a Chiffchaff is also heard repeating it’s namesake call ‘chiffchaff, chiffchaff’, and then varied song of a Dunnock calling out from somewhere within the scrub.
The muddy gateways are beginning to dry out and little mounds of dirt have began to appear where the Mining Bees excavate their nests. Between the Yellow Meadow Ant hills the grasslands have started to grow upward once again: Small splashes of colour to be found upon the petals of Daisies, Dandelions, and Celandines. The fluffy rounded body of a Beefly hovering amongst them.
Elder is now in leaf and being followed closely by the fresh Hawthorn leaves. The first patches of Blackthorn are now adorned with a thick covering of little white flowers, whilst increasing amounts of Gorse is turning yellow; these flowers lending their coconut scent to the breeze. Honeybees and Hoverflies buzz around them, with Blue Tits darting overhead.
Towards the downs, the Skylarks begin to sing. The males floating higher and higher in their vertical flight as they bellow their song. Harsher caws from the Crows echo which across the Gully near the Lighthouse, and the distinct wheezing call of a Greenfinch also heard.
I’m contouring my way along the cattle tracks which traverse these slopes, when a rustle catches my attention. Scampering off into the thicket, I catch a glimpse of a Fox, it’s red coat reflecting well in the dappled light. A Red Admiral butterfly takes it’s place, resting upon the ground before continuing its circular dance towards the sky.
Outside my office window, the Magpies have finished construction of a second nest in the upper branches of a tall Sycamore. These birds nested here for the first time last year, and now both nests stand out as a mass of sticks amongst the leafless branches.