After a day of heavy rain yesterday, a dry and almost sunny start to the day!
Out in the meadows, Skylarks are singing their hearts out, fluttering high above the fields from a sky dappled with blue and white. Below them, Hawthorn blossom has covered the hedgerows in white ‘snowdrifts’, with Elder and Wayfaring Tree also in bloom. A Brimstone moth – a sulphurous shade of yellow, catches my eye as it perches on a gatepost, with a Holly Blue butterfly wobbling its way, a little drunkenly along the Drove.
In the fields, Ox-eye Daisies are becoming more numerous by the day, while around them, Bulbous Buttercups, red-leaved Sorrel, blue Pale Flax and pink Sainfoin form a colourful patchwork.
The fluty notes of a Blackcap mingle with the ‘jazzy’ rhythms of a Dunnock, the accelerating, cascading notes of Chaffinches and the rhythmic ‘teacher-teacher’ of Great Tits. Whitethroats are also in good voice, filling the air with their ‘scratchy’ song.
Walking down the Diagonal Path, a Stonechat pops up out of the flowering Gorse, as a Roe Deer grazes quietly among the long grass in Goat Plot.
A tawny grey Rock Pipit darts among the flowering Thrift and Sea Campion near Tilly Whim, as a huge white Gannet glides by further out to sea. 8 Razorbills bob on the water below the cliffs, with a pair, nesting on a rocky outcrop stretching out their necks to investigate a passing Fulmar as it sweeps in close to cliff.
Guillemots are crammed onto the main ledge, with pairs carefully adjusting their blue, patterned eggs.
Shags, Great Black-backed Gulls and Herring Gulls also on the wing, with a Buzzard wheeling in rising spirals above Durlston Bay.
Walking up the hill past the Castle, the verge is covered with flowering Cow Parsley and the bright blue flowers of Green Alkanet.