A stunning morning, with blue skies and signs of spring appearing all around the Park.
The meadows are dappled with the first of the Cowslips – delicate yellow and trembling in the breeze, with a round, fuzzy-bodied Bee Fly sipping nectar from the flowers with it’s long proboscis.
Brighter yellow, dense drifts of Lesser Celandine beam out of the grass like dozens of tiny suns, with constellations of blue Hairy Violets on the downs and deeper blue Dog Violets in the woodland and among the scrub. On Caravan Terrace, some wonderful displays of Primroses, growing tall in this sheltered, sunny spot, with Field Speedwell also in bloom among the longer grass.
Tall, blue flowered Greater Periwinkle is in bloom along the clifftop, with patches of white flowered Early Scurvy Grass clinging to the cliff edge (the leaves contain large amounts of Vitamin C, so was often eaten by sailors on making landfall, helping ward off scurvy).
Perhaps the most striking display of spring flowers are the frames of white Blackthorn flowers which surround the meadows, attracting the attention of lots of queen Buff-tailed Bumble Bees.
Other trees and shrubs in bloom, include Horse Chestnut and Sallow with Hawthorn covered with almost eye-wateringly bright green leaves.
Skylarks are in full song, high above the meadows, with Long-tailed Tits, Blackcaps, Chiffchaffs and Goldfinches seen among the hedgerows, with Guillemots, Razorbills, Fulmar, Cormorant and Shag seen along the cliffs, with several tiny brown Rock Pipits skittering along the clifftop.
A Swallow skims by overhead above the downs, with Peregrine, Kestrel and Sparrowhawk all out hunting.A Tawny Owl hoots from the depths of the woods near the Castle, with Song Thrush, Great Tit, Blue Tit and Chaffinch all in good voice
A Roe Deer bounds, loose-limbed down the slopes of Round Down, while Badgers have been digging in the path through the Large Copse.
As I write, Katie and Cat have just reported a Snipe in Herren Ground.