It’s that time of year when I seem to spend more time looking down as much as up during the morning rounds! In the words of an old saying “Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads” and this certainly true at Durlston, with the meadows and downs carpeted with a glorious, messy patchwork of flowers.
Thousands of bright pink Pyramidal Orchids dapple the meadows, along with paler, speckled Common Spotted Orchids, and the yellow flowers of Rough Hawkbit blazing out of the grass like little suns. Ox-eye Daisies bob in the breeze, jostling for space with Marjoram, Yellow Rattle, Grass Vetchling, Corky-fruited Water Dropwort and many more.
On the downs, the lovely honey-scented Lady’s Bedstraw sprawl across the short turf, alongside Eyebright and Wild Thyme, with Yellow-wort starting to flower.
A great time of year to look for invertebrates – even on this somewhat grey morning, fresh Marbled Whites flutter across the Lighthouse Field, with Small and Lulworth Skippers on the wing along the Coast Path, while in the meadows, the caterpillars, chrysalises and adults of the Six-spot Burnet moth can all be found.
Have a look at the pink and white umbels of Wild Carrot – they make and ideal landing pad, dinner table (and love-shack!) for red and black Soldier Beetles, while stunning green Thick-kneed Flower Beetles gleam like jewellery from among petals. Many Woolly Thistles house Aphid colonies, being carefully tended by Yellow Meadow Ants.
Down below the cliffs, Auks are enjoying their last few days spent near the cliffs, before returning to sea. A couple of dozen Guillemots are accompanied by 9 much blacker, stout-billed Razorbills as they bob on the water. Fulmars wheel smoothly overhead, with Shags, Great Black-backed Gulls and a Peregrine also on the wing this morning.