As I stood and gazed out to sea at Tilly Whim, a dark shape below caught my eye, as a Grey Seal floated just on the surface. The underside flecked with darker spots, the head swivelling to look around. A twitch of the long straight nose and it slowly dived beneath the surface, my last glimpse of the patrol.
Splashes of bright yellow flowers on dark green stems along the rock edges with Golden Samphire showing well, along side the pale green flowers and stems of Rock Samphire, while in a couple of patches the tall stems with lilac coloured flowers of Durlston Rock Sea Lavender are abundant.
Continuing on, the bright blue skies were turning grey eventually to provide a complete cloud cover! (Haven’t had many of those recently).
A superb view of a male Cirl Bunting as it perched on top of a Hawthorn bush, its striped head, combined with the green and yellow, nearby a young Cirl Bunting also, potentially therefore a second brood of chicks.
As I wandered to check the Hereford cows and calves, a few small flowers spotted including the Small Scabious, Restharrow and of course the Picnic Thistle (also know as Dwarf or Stemless Thistle).
Amongst the short Wild Carrot plants, a few whiteish Burnet Saxifrage and the tiny Squinancywort.
A Field Grasshopper took flight, leaping across the path, while I was lucky (or observant) enough to see a Great Green Bush-cricket sat on the large leaves of Black Bryony. – so well camouflaged green on green!
The moth trap was put out last night, and the highlight for the opener was a gorgeous Striped Hawkmoth (migrant from the continent), as well as an Oak Eggar (large fluffy and tan coloured) and the delicately marked Tree Lichen Beauty, others included the Four-spotted Footman, Large Yellow Underwing and Rosy Footman