A fantastic spring morning, with blue skies traced with wisps of high cloud, and a gentle breeze whispering through the meadows, carrying the sweet scent of Hawthorn blossom, the coconut smell of Gorse and the smell of the sea.
Overhead, a Swift screeches as it blasts through overhead, with a few Swallows hoovering up ‘aerial plankton’ above the Large Copse.
Butterflies flutter by, including lots of tiny Small Blues, big, bright Adonis Blues and paler Common Blues. Speckled Woods whirl in sunny glades in the woodland, with tan and brown Small Heaths along the Coast Path and Walls basking on the warmth of the Diagonal Path.
The meadows are looking spectacular at the moment, with huge drifts of blue Pale Flax bobbing gently in the breeze, among dense tussocks of Birdsfoot Trefoil, paler yellow Horseshoe Vetch and the first of the Yellow Rattle.
As Early Purple and Green-winged Orchids fade, Common Spotted Orchids, with their ‘raspberry ripple’ petals and spotted leaves are starting to appear, with the curious green-flowered Common Twayblade in bloom in the scrub and woodland.
The flowers of Rough Hawkbit blaze out of the grass, like hundreds of miniature suns, with Bulbous Buttercup, Comfrey, Common Vetch and Sorrel also in bloom, to name just a few.
The tiny Adderstongue Fern can also be found, nestling deep in the grass, while at the other extreme, the grass Tall Fescue is already chest-high.
Along the hedgerows, Cleavers tangles around the stems of Hawthorn and Blackthorn, covered in tiny white flowers and the white bubbles of Cuckoo Spit (with tiny green Froghopper larvae hiding deep inside).
Along the cliffs, Guillemots and Razorbills bob and bill on the water, as Fulmars wheel in smooth arcs above them. Rock Pipits rocket up into the sky before parachuting down on outspread wings and tail, with Shag and Great Black-backed Gull also on the wing.
A few species in last night’s moth trap, with the highlight, a beautiful Buff Tip, doing an amazing impression of a broken Ash twig.