Another bright sunny early morning for a patrol, the clifftop drawing me in today. The numbers of small warblers flitting amongst the Tamarisk, Holm Oaks and Elms was a feature as I began. The constant movement of these little birds as they darted behind the leaves and twigs, however most of them were identified as Chiffchaffs, in amongst were a couple of differently marked including a Garden Warbler.
The greyer and sleeker warblers were Blackcaps, both the black capped male and the chestnut brown female spotted.
Weighing the branches down further were a couple of scampering Grey Squirrels, bounding through as a Robin and a Dunnock both perched on the swaying branch.
Flying above the twinkling blue sea was a Peregrine Falcon, a great view as it came into the cliffs to land, turning its dark grey back away to show its speckled chest and bright yellow feet and legs!
A Rock Pipit strutted along the edge, where patches of Rock Samphire are still flowering, as are a few lilac coloured Sea Asters, however I also spotted one with white flowers instead.
A fluttering of bright yellow and a Clouded Yellow butterfly landed on the short turf. Its has been an amazing year for them so far, with 47 on yesterday’s butterfly transect count (last year we had 5 in total).
More butterflies to enjoy included Painted Ladies, Red Admiral, Speckled Wood and Small Heath, plus a beautifully marked Wall Brown. Hovering, showing its stripes was a Hummingbird Hawk-moth (another species having an amazing year).
As I was looking closely at an Ivy Bee, the scuttling movement of a pale brown spotted woodlouse caught my eye – this a Porcellia scaber the Common Rough Woodlouse!
Our moth trap last night attracted not only a few moths such as Square Spot Rustic and Turnip, but also a Caddis Fly Stenophylax permistus and one of the long bodied, red coloured Ophions, which needs a bit of investigating to decide on the exact species!