A glorious morning, with just a few wisps of high cloud drifting through a sky of infinite blue.
The air is rich with the smells of early summer at Durlston – the delicious scent of Honeysuckle, rich ‘coconut’ of Gorse, the delicious ‘new mown hay’ of Sweet Vernal grass, sweet Hawthorn blossom all mingle with the salt tang of the sea.
Along the cliffs, a less pleasant smell rises from the ledges, where the guano of hundreds of Guillemots adds a powerful fishy scent as you pass above the colony! Dozens of Guillemots bob on the sparkling water, with blacker, thick-billed Razorbills among the straggling, growling ‘bazaar’.
Fulmars carve smooth curves through the air with effortless mastery – their wings held stiff, they mainly use their powerful tails to steer. Shags hurry back to the cliffs, with beaks filled with nesting materials as they conduct ‘running repairs’, with Great Black-backed Gulls and Herring Gulls also on the wing. A Peregrine Falcon streaks past the Observation Point, with a chattering gang of Jackdaws circling overhead.
The flowery, south-facing banks above the path are alive with butterflies, with a fresh Lulworth Skipper – the first I have seen this year, spotted by Hamish during a ‘socially distanced’ chat!
Adonis and Common Blues also on the wing, like shimmering fragments of stained glass, with Speckled Woods, Dingy Skippers, Large and Small Whites and Small Copper also seen this morning.
At the top of the Gully, a really spectacular carpet of yellow Kidney Vetch, with dense stands of Thrift and white Sea Campion also in bloom on the cliff edge.
Returning along the Diagonal Path, Stonechats and Whitethroats are in good voice among the Gorse, with a Bloody-nose Beetle plodding along the path ahead of me.
In front of the Castle, a pair of green Wall Lizards are sunbathing on the Timeline, their bodies flattened to soak up every last drop of sun!