As the summer draws on, the procession of flowers continues, meaning that meadows look different almost day by day.
As Common Spotted Orchids start to turn to seed, pinker Pyramidal Orchids take centre stage, with spectacular Bee Orchids also in bloom.
Tall spikes of yellow-flowered Agrimony are appearing above the grasses in the meadows, along with dark purple Great and Common Knapweed. The neat cylindrical flower heads of Timothy Grass bob gently alongside Pale Flax, Field Scabious, Yellow Rattle (now turning to shades of ripe gold) and Self-heal.
The downland is also full of colour with patches of fluffy yellow honey-scented Lady’s Bedstraw, pink Centaury (along with its close relative Yellow-wort, with it’s unusual leaves pierced by the stem) and Hemp Agrimony, attracting lots of Meadow Brown and Marbled White butterflies even on a grey morning. In a hollow of the downs, spikes of yellow Great Mullein are already waist high – they will be will above my head by the end of the summer. On patches of shorter grass, Wild Thyme, Eyebright, Quaking Grass and Birdsfoot Trefoil make a colourful display
Woolly Thistles are growing fast – looking particularly fearsome with spikes pointing in all different directions, with many tall, almost as spiky Teasels - one covered with tiny green Aphids, carefully tended by Yellow Meadow Ants.
A Kestrel balances in the air above the Lighthouse Field, with a sleek grey Peregrine jetting along the clifftop.
The ledges are still crowded with Guillemots and Razorbills, with Fulmars wheeling smoothly above them, as Shags flap ponderously by, with a few Gannets out in the distance. To see some of these seabirds and more, why not join us on our last seabird boat trip of the season this evening?
Many of the large flat umbels of Wild Carrot are covered in basking red and black Soldier Beetles.