A nice spring morning, with a short, sharp shower during the morning rounds filling the air with the fresh scents of spring.
The meadows are looking gob-smackingly beautiful at the moment, with a dazzling array of flowers in bloom. Although the skies overhead are grey, the grassland blazes with thousands of tiny suns, as Bulbous Buttercups turn their faces to the sky. Beneath them, a dense ‘forest’ of Yellow Rattle is in bloom, it’s yellow flowers flecked with a tiny spot of purple, with drifts of delicate blue Pale Flax bobbing in the breeze.
Common Spotted Orchids, (their pink speckled flowers looking a little like Raspberry Ripple Ice Cream!) are starting to bloom, along with the eye-catching pink spikes of Sainfoin.
The first few Ox-eye Daisies are starting to flower, while in the hedgerows, Elder is coming into the bloom, it’s flowers filling the air with a sweet, ‘Muscatel’ scent. Creamy Hawthorn blossom adds more colour and scent among the rich green leaves of Blackthorn (with just a hint of red).
Blackcaps, Lesser Whitethroats, Dunnocks, Robins, Wrens and Great Tits are all in good voice, with the gentle murmuring of Wood Pigeons drifting across the fields.
A glossy black Bloody-nose Beetle plods along a grassy path ahead of me – a male, distinguished by his smaller size and feathery front feet.
The downland is also looking great at the moment, with huge swathes of yellow Kidney Vetch, red and yellow ‘Bacon and Eggs’ (or Birdsfoot Trefoil), green-yellow Crosswort (it’s flowers arranged in a series of crosses up the stem) and Early Purple, Green-winged and the last of the Early Spider Orchids.
Nice to come across several patches of Early English Gentian with it’s tiny pink trumpet-like flowers. As much as 50% of the world population of this plant is found along the Purbeck coast.
Along the cliffs, Guillemots, Razorbills, Fulmars, Shags and Herring and Great Black-backed Gulls are all on the wing.