After a slightly overcast start to the day, a westerly breeze chases the thicker cloud away, leaving high scuffs of cirrus adrift in a blue sky. After a few foggy days, very nice to see the sun again, with the sunshine making the meadows and downs look truly dazzling.
Centenary Meadow is a picture at the moment, covered in drifts of tall pink Sainfoin, gently swaying Ox-eye Daisies, bright yellow Rough Hawkbit with it’s more elegant looking relative Goatsbeard also starting to flower.
‘Glades’ of shorter grass contain the semi-parasitic Yellow Rattle, along with pink and orange Common Broomrape – a true parasite, probably feeding on the plentiful flowers of buttery yellow Birdsfoot Trefoil. Tall Meadow Buttercups stand alongside blue-flowered Pale Flax, with the lovely little Quaking Grass also in flower.
Thousands of Common Spotted Orchids are now in bloom, while on the downs, a traditionally good spot for Southern Marsh Orchid has many more than I can remember seeing before.
Overhead, Skylarks carol into the sky, with Blackcap, Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff and Long-tailed Tit weaving among a tangle of Bittersweet, Honeysuckle and Old Man’s Beard in the hedgerows.
The shorter downland turf is also a riot of colour, with electric blue Chalk Milkwort, alongside Eyebright, Horseshoe Vetch, Wild Thyme, Early English Gentian and Salad Burnet to name just a few.
At the foot of Round Down, I looked up, to see a Roe Deer, only her head visible, watching me from the steep slopes of the Gully, as a Stonechat ‘chatted’ from a nearby patch of Blackthorn.
The clifftops are looking amazing, with swathes of flowering Thrift, while down below, Guillemots and Razorbills hurry in and out, as Fulmars glide in steady arcs. Also on the wing along the cliffs, Great Black-backed Gull, Shag, Herring Gull and Jackdaw, with a Peregrine streaking past the Observation Point as I watched.
Despite the overcast start, butterflies are already on the wing, with Small Blue, Wall, Speckled Wood, Large Skipper and Small Heath seen this morning.