Like many of you I was awaken by the sound of rainfall gurgling down the guttering or dripping off the rooftops. Today marks the last day of the Durlston Kids Love Nature Nursery. We will no longer be tortured by the delightful smell of home cooking beside the office. Even worst is not having young people to share our exciting wildlife discoveries with. Good luck to all concerned!
A single Spurge stem had pushed its way successfully up through the car park tarmac, as had a few other determined plants! Blackberry fruits were red/brown and hairy, not yet ready to eat! From the wooded undercliff beside “Rest & Admire” a pair of Green Woodpeckers emerged to disappear inland. Squawking Magpies were about the timeline. Today the ice cream cone like Buddleia flowers provide a scent but in the absence of warm sun and it had no insect visitors.
Crossing the Terrace Bridge peas size acorns had formed upon Holm Oak. Upon a well-made dead hedge a male Great Tit paused whilst a Wren chose the bridge parapet as a temporary perch. I saw only one Long Tailed Tit pass by, but more were heard! In places Field Maple and Sycamore had dropped mast below the shade of their own canopies. Hence their producing so many masts as only a few get carried by the wind to successful germinating locations.
The terrace rock face had at its foot a St. John’s Wort flower growing between bare soil and blocks of limestone. Elsewhere, upon the tumbled rock face Marjoram stems stood proud and showed a bounty of flowers. At ground level Birds Foot Trefoil showed both flowers and seed pods beside a carpet of Rest Harrow. At the wooded margin Common Toadflax stood to attention. Upon the vertical limestone rock face, it was moist enough to have two Red / Brown keeled Dusky Slugs perhaps! Beside the coast path was a rather plump ovoid looking Black Slug repurposing another creatures’ “leavings”.
It was a delight to see a cliff top Peregrine Falcon just east of the observation point. The bird was perched below a significant extent of salt laden wind-stunted Holm Oak and Blackthorn. West of it two Great Black Back Gulls occupied Tilly Whim wave cut platform. From the observation point I could see three Shags behind and below the Falcon on the lowest ledge rested beside the water edge. The cobwebs on the castle’s gate wore water droplets and thus reduced their potential for catching flying insects!