A few scattered showers as I started the ‘early rounds’ with a gusty breeze making the Hawthorn and Elder blossom dance in the hedges and filling the air with their sweet smells.
As the Cowslips go to seed in the meadows, the first Ox-eye Daisies are starting to appear, alongside bright yellow Bulbous Buttercups, slender, pale blue flowered Pale Flax, while below them, pink Cut-leaved Cranesbill and white Common Mouse-ear nestle among the leaves of Agrimony, Adderstongue Fern, Common Sorrel and Rough Hawkbit.
On the downs, some fine displays of pale yellow Crosswort (look down the length of the stem to see the plus shaped arrangement of leaves which give it it’s name.
A lovely violet and black Oil Beetle Meloe proscarabeus wiggles it’s way across an anthill, strewn with Green Woodpecker poo, looking a bit like cigarette ash. Several Greater and Lesser Bloody-nose Beetles also seen among the short turf this morning.
Along the cliffs, the ledges are bustling with Guillemots, with many more in a straggling line on the water below, interspersed with much blacker, stout-beaked Razorbills, their soft growling rising up despite the wind.
Above them Fulmars carve through the air, in broad spirals, their wingtips almost brushing the cliffs at times! A pair of Great Black-backed Gulls fuss over their clifftop nest, while out at sea, a few huge white Gannets sweep by.
To find out more about the lives of our seabirds, do come and join our ‘Life on the Edge’ guided walk at 11am from the Castle (£3).
A Rock Pipit hops along the clifftop, buffeted by the gusty winds, while in the shelter of the woodland, Goldfinch, Treecreeper, Goldcrest and Blue and Great Tit are all out and about.
Returning to the Centre, I watch a Roe Deer bound effortlessly down the slopes of Round Down, covering several metres with each leap, before disappearing into the scrub in the Gully.