Spring is sweeping across the Park with almost dizzying speed at the moment, transforming the meadows and downland. Places where I walked just a few days ago have a wonderful array of new plants, animals, sounds and smells!
Lovely to see the first of the year’s Cuckoo Spit – frothy masses of bubbles on plant stems, with bright green Froghopper larvae hiding inside. These tiny ‘True Bugs’ suck sap from stems, while adults blow these ‘bubble nests’ to protect their offspring while they grow.
Along the hedges, Cleavers is covered with tiny white star-shaped flowers, with shiny green heart-shaped Bryony leaves scrambling up the hedgerows.
Some of the Yellow Meadow Ant hills are covered with a dense mat of sweet-scented Wild Thyme, with lots of fledgling anthills to be found on patches of bare ground.
In the meadows, the air is filled with drifting Dandelion seeds, with Skylarks reeling their breathless song from high above
Bright yellow Bulbous Buttercups from drifts of colour, interspersed with deep pink Sainfoin, blue Pale Flax, white Ox-eye Daisies and the first of the Yellow Rattle – a vital component of our meadows.
A Small Heath flutters along a sheltered wall, with Dingy Skippers, Holly, Adonis and Common Blue also on the wing.
Some beautiful displays of blue Field Speedwell, yellow Crosswort, and ‘Bacon and Eggs’ (or Birdsfoot Trefoil) among the short turf, which is studded with blue Chalk Milkwort.
A great seabird boat trip last night (our first since 2019!) with wonderful views of 5 Puffins, Guillemots, Razorbills, Fulmars, Kittiwakes, Cormorants and Shags, Great Black-backed Gulls, Herring Gulls and probably my favourite bird of all – sickle-shaped dark brown Swifts, wheeling and screeching over the clifftops.