Out to the farmland where the meadows are a carpet of yellow, the Cowslips looking gorgeous, and interspersed spikes of deep pink from the Early Purple Orchids. As I gazed across the fields, low to the ground, bright greeny-yellow leaves caught my eye, on inspection these were Adder’s Tongue Ferns, a mass of thick 2” high plants with strange green flowering spikes.
Four types of vetches just beginning from the pink Common Vetch in the fields, the yellow and orangy/brown Bird’s Foot Trefoil and the two yellow vetches Horseshoe and Kidney on the downs and clifftops.
In the woods a quick glimpse of a Treecreeper as it climber the knobbly trunk of an English Oak, the leaves a wonderful bright green, but a different tone to the Beech.
Along the cliffs the Fulmars were soaring and floating at a perfect height for me to have a really good view, as they passed they seemed to turn their head to look my way. Hopefully with their return from their sea sabbatical they are now preparing (or begun) the process of incubating an egg.
A croak came from the skies above, upon looking up I saw 7 Ravens majestically soaring through the air, this is likely to be this years chicks as well as their parents. This could be very ominous for the Guillemot colony, which have just started producing eggs, perfect for a greedy / hungry Raven to steal.
The sound of growling and gargling Guillemots raised my mood, and as did the sight of 6 Razorbills on the water alongside a Shag, whose crest was still showing very well.
The calling of a Rock Pipit as it floated down, alerted me to the presence of this pair, as did the loud tapping of Stonechats in the vibrant yellow Gorse and the scratchy song of the Common Whitethroat from the Blackthorn. Scanning the bushes a Lesser Whitethroat was perched amongst the flowers of an Wayfaring Tree.
Crossing the short grass was a superb Oil Beetle, the iridescent green-brown of its extended abdomen catching the light.