A welcome pouring of rain overnight. It’s pleasant to set out across softened ground with the smell of petrichor filling my nostrils. It lingers until I reach the cliffs, where the salty sea air rises over dank rocks, covered with Rock Samphire.
The limestone path drops away into the gully in lee of the Lighthouse. Stonechats are heard, like that of two pebbles being knocked together. And the path becomes lined with wilting Sea Thrift, and Golden Samphire.
The cliff edge is decorated with yellow Lesser Hawkbit. I peer past the piping Rock Pipits, succulent Rock Samphire and beautiful lilac Sea Aster: Below the water is clear. I await the appearance of a Grey Seal to no avail. The dark silhouette of a Shag passing low against the water.
The ‘green’ a flat-ish plateau adjacent to Lighthouse is yellow, like much of Durlston following the heatwave. But speckled with the occasional purple Knapweed. You have to look closely to find the understated Carline Thistle, or the spikes of Autumn Ladies Tresses decorated with a braid which spirals around the stem.
The iridescent Adonis Blue butterflies are easy to spot, likewise, the amazing Clouded Yellows which reveal their golden wings in flight.
Pears kicked along the path, the upper reaches of the gully smothered in Old Man’s Beard. It at least provides cover for the birds filling the soundscape; Wren, Robin, Goldfinch, and Bullfinch. The occasional flutter of wings as a bird breaks cover, and a lovely view of a family of Long-tailed Tit. Little fluffballs following one another across the scrub. Swallows and a Spotted Flycatcher overhead.