A Peregrine Falcon zooming across the sky was a great way to begin my early patrol, as it was quite low I got a really good view of its slate grey bulky body and swept back wings.
With a bit of drizzle falling and a chill in the air – such a change to recent days – its a lovely day for a walk!
The meadows looking wonderful, full of flowers including the white round heads of Wild Carrot along side the smaller flatter shinier white of the Corky-fruited Water-dropwort (what a name!). Clambering its way up and over many grass stems the Field Bindweed, covering the place with its delicate pink flowers.
The round yellow blobs of Hop Trefoil contrasting with the larger vetch flowers of Meadow Vetchling and Bird’s-foot Trefoil, while large clumps of Tufted Vetch provide a purple covering in places.
The square stalked stems and purple flowers of Self-heal easily spotted as are the round seed heads of Pale Flax waving in the breeze, there are still a few of these gorgeous pale blue flowers out as well.
Clinging to the stem of a Crested Dog’s Tail grass was a Cinnabar moth, the black wings with red stripe covering a bright red body. As I looked at this I spotted, on the Yorkshire Fog stem, the paper like cocoon casing of a Six-spot Burnet moth, not yet emerged, so in the process of the extraordinary change from caterpillar to moth.
Above me the wonderful song of a Skylark, easy to see today against the grey sky, but also fairly low to the ground, around me around 6 Skylarks were counted – a successful fledging of at least one brood – with luck others are still on the way.
On the Guillemots ledges the numbers of chicks is diminishing fast, as they leave the cliff for the much safer open sea. But look out for them on the camera in the Castle, or on our website where they are live throughout the day and night!
A couple of Fulmars soaring in and out of the clifftops, such a joy to watch.