A warm start to the day and expected to get hotter! Off out into the meadows, where the hay cut will be taking place in a couple of weeks, the dry weather has certainly reduced the vigour and amount, with grass looking quite brown and sparse, so less hay to take this year.
The grasses however do include Crested Dog’s-tail, Meadow Foxtail, Cocksfoot, Yorkshire Fog and both Tall and Meadow Fescue and the Oat-grasses; False, Meadow and Downy.
The flowers amongst them give splashes of colour from Wild Carrot, Field Scabious, Yarrow, Greater Knapweed, Field Bindweed, Lesser Knapweed and the strange slightly furry, dull pink Red Bartsia.
Flitting through the bushes was a family of Long-tailed Tits, the youngsters almost bereft of the pink of the adults, it is always great to watch their acrobatics. Alongside them were some Blue Tits, more juveniles here and a Chiffchaff.
Skulking through the dese stands of Blackthorn covered in a layer of flowering Old Man’s Beard was a small Warbler, very difficult to see any good identifying features, but eventually a clear enough view was had of the Garden Warbler.
Much of the Woolly Thistle is now coming into its prime, with the bright purple flowers above the spine covered head, a really smart plant which always entices me to have a close look and feel – despite the sharp prickles!!
Lots of Goldfinches moving around amongst the Bristly Ox-tongue and Creeping Thistles, while Stonchats ‘chatted’ from the berry laden Hawthorn.
Out on the downs, the Wild Dog Rose and Burnet Rose, both had small red circular blobs on the leaves, this was identified as the Pea Gall likely to be caused by the Diplolepis nervosa fly.
Fluttering through were Meadow Brown and Gatekeeper butterflies alongside Common Blue and along a wall a stunning Wall Brown.
A sudden crashing of wings, and a female Pheasant arrived, landing in the dry loose earth to have a mud bath, flicking earth all around.
Yesterday evening the sound of a Grasshopper Warbler chirring from the scrub, while by the cliffs the Herring Gulls were gorging on flying Ants which were in large circling clouds rising up and up in the still evening.