Once more, wall to wall sunshine to be enjoyed, but in the distance a layer of fog shrouds the horizon.
Down to the clifftops after starting off the engineers who are replacing the troublesome Turret lift. A Pied Wagtail hopped around the Castle walls and a Rock Pipit whizzed over the Globe.
As I stopped at the Observation Point a flutter of feathers from below drew my attention to a young Kestrel which was otherwise very well blended into the brown background, a second youngster was practising flying and as always they are a delight to watch at such close quarters.
Rising up from the water was the growling call of Guillemots, 67 counted bobbing in the sea with another 40 also noted on the ledge. As we get into July this is quite a large number of birds to still be present, but they did start laying eggs a week later than usual.
More surprising however was the sight of 20 Razorbills on the water amongst their closely related cousins, some in pairs some on their own, this is most unusual at this time of year.
Loads of butterflies on the wing with clouds of Marbled Whites erupting from the bright purple Greater Knapweed flowers, always a lovely contrast in colours. A flutter of brown and orange revealed, what was my first, Gatekeeper of the year, soon followed by Meadow Brown, Ringlet and Small Skippers plus our speciality, the smaller still and duller brown, Lulworth Skippers.
The yellow-green Wild Parsnip flowerheads were covered by the Soldier Beetles and an occasional bright green Thick-kneed Flower Beetle.
Masses of ‘strange’ plants in bloom at the moment with Wood Sage, Ploughman’s Spikenard, Hemp Agrimony, Field Bindweed and the wonderful smelling Honeysuckle, Ladies’ Bedstraw and the odd vibrant patch of Biting Stonecrop.
From amongst the grasses the sound of Grasshoppers is emerging, the Meadow Grasshopper being prominent at present, a Dark Bush-cricket watched as it strolled up the stem of the rambling Madder and a number of nymphs of our other orthoptera species were also spotted.