The song of a Skylark accompanied my early walk, the beautiful song in marked difference to the scratchy song of the Common Whitethroats. Their tune was being emitted by these brown warblers as they perched on the twigs and branches of the Hawthorn, the flowers of which are filling the air with a delicate sweet smell.
As I walked around the meadows and onto the downland of the National Nature Reserve I took the opportunity to look at the Herefords, the cows and very young calves looking wonderful as they lay hewing the cud and sleeping on the old quarr spoil heap hillock – Please make sure the gates are kept shut and your dogs under very close control around these animals.
A few butterflies spotted, with a flash of amazing iridescent green of a Green Hairstreak catching the light as it basked on the spikes of the Gorse. Nearby on a lump of Purbeck limestone was a Wall Brown, the orange broken up by black markings, while a Common Blue flashed in front of me, I had to follow it to make sure of my identification.
In the grass, blobs of white gunk is in fact Cuckoo Spit and home to a little Froghopper nymph, while a mass of caterpillars crawling from a web were Lackey moths, a beautiful creature with blue stripes along its body.
The see-saw call of a Great Tit heard alongside that of a Chiffchaff while the song of a Chaffinch added to the sounds of the morning and the bright pink chest of a Bullfinch to the sights.
A few more flowers now just emerging with the tiny Early English Gentian starting to poke up its purple spike amongst the carpets of Chalk Milkwort and Horseshoe Vetch.
A few clumps of Crosswort – the furry stems and flowers a delicate green and yellow amongst the grass.
On the cliffs, the Guillemots have laid more eggs – have a look at the video on the website – Guillemot page.
Just as I returned to the centre a Weasel scampered into the scrub, looking a bit like a furry brown sausage!