Very warm this morning, the sea flat calm and twinkling as the sunlight hits it. The sounds of the Guillemots drew my attention to the activity of over 100 Guillemots and a couple of Razorbills on the water.
The pitter patter of their wings as they tumble and turn as they wash, it’s a dirty job looking after the chicks on the ledge amongst all the other birds and their guano!
Meanwhile the growling of Guillemots was wafting up from the ledges, where lots of chicks have hatched but still one or two eggs remain.
A Fulmar swooped past, uttering a cackle as it passed another of these albatross relatives tucked into a nook. Unsure as of yet whether they have a chick this year.
Along the clifftop the flittering of a butterfly, the small size and dusky brown wings, which when it finally sat still showed the characteristic crescent marking of the Lulworth Skipper.
Perched on the yellow fluffy kidney shaped flowers of Kidney Vetch was a Small Blue, with the wings closed looking silvery. On the flower-covered banks Common Blue butterflies basking in the early sunshine, while others were still grasping the stems of the grasses upon which they may have spent the night. The loping flight of Meadow Browns and the faster beat of Small Heath adding to this mornings list.
The nymphs of the orthoptera – grasshoppers and bushcrickets – now starting to show, a Great Green Bush-cricket and a Specked Bush-cricket identified as was a Dark Bush-cricket – a small replica of its adult self.
From a patch of Blackthorn scrub came the noisy chatting of Stonechats, the black headed male accompanied by youngsters.
A Chiffchaff was calling, competing with the Common Whitethroat and Wren for the airspace, while silently perched in the Hawthorn was a Blackcap.
A wonderful splash of pink Thrift alongside the yellow Horseshoe Vetch, with low growing Wild Thyme and Eyebright adding more interest, as does Smooth Sow Thistle and Wild Carrot and a few gorgeous Bee Orchids.