Thankfully, a little cooler this morning, with some dense shoals of cloud, split by streaks of bright blue and a gusty westerly breeze hissing through the meadows, making the dry, golden husks of Yellow Rattle live up to their name!
Meadow grasses ripple in the breeze, many adorned with the glossy gold chrysalises of Six-spot Burnet Moths, with my first adult (red and black, with an oily green sheen) of the year on the wing.
Red Admirals, Common Blues, Small Heaths, Large Skipper and Lulworth Skipper also on the wing this morning, feeding on newly flowering Hemp Agrimony (amongst many other nectar sources).
Also newly in bloom, the purple, domed flowers of Field Scabious and on the short, downland turf, flowing streams of tiny white Bastard Toadflax flowers and the single stems and purple flowers of Knapweed and branching Greater Knapweed.
Anthills are carpeted with pink Wild Thyme, while in the turf around them, egg-yolk yellow Birdsfoot Trefoil and the tiny, intricate flowers of Eyebright.
The fluffy, honey-scented flowers of Ladies Bedstraw are becoming more and more prolific on the downs, along with the related, white-flowered Hedge Bedstraw.
More and more Pyramidal Orchids are blooming by the day – a lovely shade of dark pink, along with other pink flowers including Sainfoin, Grass Vetchling, Cut-leaved Cranesbill and Centaury.
Along the cliffs, Guillemots dabble and bathe on the water (with a powerful smell of fishy guano as a walk over the top of the colony!), as Fulmars curve smoothly above them, on straight wings. Razorbills, Great Black-backed Gulls and Shags are also on the wing.
Near the Learning Centre, a Kestrel hovers above the grassland – so precise in her position, it is almost as if she has been painted onto the sky, with Swallows and a few Swifts passing high overhead.