What an amazing morning, the strong wind roaring up the downland from the west, making standing on the top of the ridge really difficult. Even the Kestrel alongside was struggling to hover successfully alongside me, eventually giving up and diving sideways into the lea of the Blackthorn scrub.
The early sunshine highlighting the wildflowers with a purple mass of Lesser Knapweed contrasting with the bright yellow of Ragwort and off white Wild Carrot, producing a wonderful show.
Splashes of Wild Parsnip, Greater Knapweed and Bristley Ox-tongue adding to the mix, while low to the ground a different selection of flowers can be spotted. These include the magnificently named Squinancywort alongside the dangerously prickly Dwarf Thistle, this is also known as the Stemless Thistle and very aptly the Picnic Thistle as it is perfectly positioned to be sat on by the inadvertent picnicker!
Crawling up the stem of the bright pink Centuary was a Soldier Beetle, one of the few insects to be seen today, others were Meadow Brown and Gatekeeper butterflies with a Marbled White hugging the stem of the white-flowered Yarrow.
Amongst the grasses were the Meadow Grasshoppers, these have antennas contrasting with the long antennas of the Speckled Bush-cricket that was also wandering through. A Dark Bush-cricket was perched on the large round leaves of the Black Bryony.
Whizzing across the sea were a couple of glorious Gannets, there white wings flashing as they moved, the black tips spotted as they moved, just fantastic to watch.
Two Great Black-backed Gulls were rising and lowering on the wind as a young Great Black-backed Gull flew just below, the adults dropping down towards it every now and then.