What a wonderful morning to be out on Durlston Country Park National Nature Reserve, a fresh easterly wind blowing and sun shining turning the sea a beautiful blue and white.
On the water rafts of Auks with 11 Razorbills and 52 Guillemots, with another 200 or so on the ledges. The numbers are higher than usual at this time of year but there are still lots of chicks on the ledges, so hopefully it is being a successful breeding year.
Emerging from one of the flowering Tamarisks was an adult male Kestrel, his grey tail and chestnut wings glorious in the sunshine, from below came a high pitched cry and a young Kestrel was perched on the cliffs, as I looked another was spotted, then another in a tree and another until I had 5 youngsters in view – amazing.
As I watched these a Peregrine Falcon swept past, the slate grey coloured swept back wings very different to the Kestrel.
Fluttering along the cliff top path was a Painted Lady butterfly, bright orange, black and white, while at the other end of the size and colourful scale was Lulworth Skipper – a dull brown. More numerous were the Marbled Whites and Meadow Browns both flying above the grasses.
A blast of bright yellow on the cliffs was from the Biting Stonecrop, while the more delicate English Stonecrop mixes with the wonderful display Wild Thyme carpets on the tops. The short turf is also the place to admire Squinancywort and Eyebright. While both Bee Orchids and Pyramidal Orchids are also showing well. While the pink Centuary and the Yellowwort are also both now flowering
As I walked towards the meadows a black and red flashed before me, as I patiently waited for it to land I was distracted by the small green and yellow slightly hairy caterpillar of a Six-Spot Burnet moth which was walking across the grass where the next stage of its life could also be seen, a papery cocoon stuck to the stems of the Tor Grass. The moth I had been watching turned out to be a Cinnabar.
A few moments watching a bee startle itself and a fly before approaching the same fly again and again before the fly eventually gave up its yellow flower.