After a light sprinkling of rain, the sky quickly brightened and the park is now basking in a glorious blue, gold and green June day.
The meadows are a dazzling kaleidoscope of colour and form. As flowers and grasses dance in the breeze.
Huge drifts of white Ox-eye Daisies and slender, blue-flowered Pale Flax tower above a dense ‘jungle’ of Yellow Rattle, Eyebright and Birdsfoot Trefoil. Here and there, single flowers of intense pink Grass Vetchling gleam like jewels among the grass, with Common Vetch extending fine tendrils to clamber up the stems of Cocksfoot or Wild Carrot.
The unusual, parasitic Common Broomrape spotted along the side of the path through Centenary meadow – it’s brown and pink flowers eye-catching because of their lack of colour! Nearby, some lovely fresh Bee Orchids – one with four flowers.
Despite the breeze, Common Blue butterflies flutter above the meadows, with metallic green Thick-kneed Flower Beetles nestled in the centre of Meadow Buttercups.
Along the drove, the huge leaves of Greater Burdock can be seen, alongside the fierce spikes of Woolly Thistle and the lovely lilac flowers of Stinking Iris, among a wild tangle of Old Man’s Beard and the glossy green heart-shaped leaves of Bryony. Speckled Wood butterflies circle, as they doggedly defend their little territories.
In the Saxon Field, the pretty flowers of Burnet Rose can be seen among the grass, with white-flowered Dog Rose growing just a few metres away.
Down on the cliffs, Fulmars veer and swerve, cutting through the gusty wind with effortless mastery, while below them, Guillemots and Razorbills whir in and out on little flickering wings, with Shag, Herring Gull and Great Black-backed Gull also on the wing.