Another beautiful morning to be walking around Durlston, we are so lucky to have this wonderful National Nature Reserve on our doorstep. Over the last few weeks I have been eagerly watching the Ash and Oak trees to see which leaves will emerge first, I now believe it is the Oak leaves that have been first to appear. ‘Oak before Ash your in for a splash.’ The meaning being we are in for a dry summer, I’m not sure if this is a good thing!
Today I walked the Clifftop Trail, I do love the first sight you get of the cliffs when walking West from the Globe. Above the Dry-Stone wall topped with Tamarisk and Blackthorn, the Anvil Point Lighthouse shines bright in the morning sunshine. As I walked forward, my gaze lowered to the cliff top, dots of Sea Campion and Thrift starting to fill the grass slopes.
Jackdaws are still busy ferrying nesting material at the top of the cliff, it does amaze me how busy they always are and the amount of material they collect. I think they must either have very large nests or they’re not very good at building them.
On a ledge a Great Black-Backed Gull was perched on a nest, while on the water 4 pairs of Razorbills bobbed amongst 100+ Guillemots. Further on 3 Fulmars were circling the cliffs with their usual flight pattern around the Tilly Whim end of the Clifftop, out at sea 9 Canadian Geese fly in a straight line, low to the water heading East.
2 Wall Brown butterflies were sat warming their wings on a stone. As I looked for Adders a Rock Pipit landed on the ground beside me picking up a bright green Caterpillar (possibly a Wall) claiming its catch quickly followed by another Rock Pipit.
Scaling the mile marker slope, Linnets flew through the Bramble patches making a nice twinkling sound as they went. A Whitethroat distinct because of its ‘white throat’ and scratchy sound was sitting on a 30-degree angled Hawthorn tree, closely accompanied by a Male Blackbird. Male and female Stonechats were sitting atop the Gorse, one with a worm in its mouth and one with a piece of nesting material.
Doug has just reported a Dryad Saddle mushroom along the woodchip path, apparently named because ‘it looks like a horse’s saddle only small enough for a pixie.’