A bright and breezy start to the day, with fluffy white clouds hurtling across a blue sky and the wind roaring through the branches of Holm Oak, Sycamore and Ash.
Out of the wind, the Long Meadow hedgerow is alive with butterflies, as hundreds of Gatekeepers feed on the profusion of pink and white Bramble flowers. 7 intricately patterned Painted Ladies seen along this short stretch of hedgerow – many of them will be migrants from as far afield as North Africa. An immaculate Red Admiral perches on a Bramble leaf, with Meadow Browns, Common Blue and a Large White also seen along the side of the meadow.
In the hedgerow, the flowers of Old Man’s Beard fill the air with their sweet scent, with Honeysuckle, Wild Madder and Bryony all scrambling over the trees and shrubs, including a young Horse Chestnut, now covered in spiky green conkers. Hawthorn is covered in ripening crimson fruit, while on Blackthorn, Sloes are starting to acquire their dusty, midnight blue colour.
Field and Meadow Grasshoppers sing from deep within the grass.
Yellow Wild Parsnip and tall purple Greater Knapweed sway gently, above a tangle of Fleabane, Tufted Vetch and Restharrow.
A Green Woodpecker ‘chuckles’ as he bobs across the meadow, as a Roe Deer watches me from the far side of the field, before diving into the woodland.
In the woodland, Enchanter’s Nightshade is covered in tiny white flowers, with the cries of a Buzzard echoing up from Durlston Bay.
Around the downs, Lady’s Bedstraw, Wild Thyme, Eyebright and Birdsfoot Trefoil dapple the short turf, with Teasels and Woolly Thistles towering above them.
Willow Warblers, Chiffchaffs, Blackcaps and Whitethroats dart in and out of the scrub, Long-tailed Tits forage along the hedgerows and twittering ‘charms’ of Goldfinches skitter along the top of the Lighthouse Field.
Also on the wing this morning, Small Copper, Lulworth Skipper and Speckled Wood butterflies, with a Cream Spot Tiger moth perched on an Ash tree near the Learning Centre.