A glorious morning to catch up with the wildlife, flowers and habitats at Durlston.
Across the meadows where Meadow Browns and Marbled Whites were in abundance, fluttering just above the waving Meadow Barley, Cocksfoot and Yorkshire Fog to name just a few. Strangely there so far seems to be a dearth of Six-spot Burnet moths – usually one of the most easily spotted of insects at this time of year.
Onto the downs where a number of Yellow Meadow Ant hills are topped with a carpet of pink Wild Thyme, lopping past was a very newly emerged Dark Green Fritillary butterfly, its wings still slightly soft, but the colour a pristine deep orange, probably my best ever view of this spectacular creature.
More butterflies included 5 species of Skipper, which were the Large, the Small, the easily missed Essex plus Dingy and Lulworth – all a variety of browns and oranges.
The sound of a Stonechat came from the patch of Gorse, his smart black and white head and orange chest showing well in the sunshine. Flittering by in a small flock were Linnets, their chattering calls a constant accompaniment.
Overhead came the sound of a Skylark, a tiny brown dot high against the blue sky. As I watched 2 Sand Martins whizzed past followed by a couple of Swallows.
A cry from the cliffs alerted me to a young Peregrine which was perched on the rocks, young Kestrels were also practising their hovering nearby.
The numbers of Guillemots is dropping as they complete their breeding and take their newly fledged young off out to sea. Some of the later breeders and the non-breeders are still with us on the ledges and water keeping up numbers to help with the safety of the chicks.
The specialist Bastard Toadflax feeder – the Downland Shield Bug spotted on its foodplant.