A pleasantly breezy start to the day, with a westerly wind sending some dense shoals of greyish cloud rolling across the sky, broken by channels of bright blue and intermittent bright sunshine.
Above the clifftop path, the canopy of green Sycamore and Holm Oak is broken here and there by the dancing branches of pale green and silver White Poplar – it’s leaves rustling noisily in even a light breeze.
Tawny grey Rock Pipits hop along the clifftop wall, where yellow-flowered Black Mustard is reaching chest height. On the landward side of the path, the berries of Elder and Woody Nightshade (or Bittersweet) are starting to appear, among sprays of the yellow-green flowers of Old Man’s Beard.
Down below, the soft growls of Guillemots rise up through the air, with a few blacker Razorbills scattered among the ‘bazaar’ on the water below. Fulmars wheel smoothly, as a Shag carries a fish back from the sea.
Further out a Gannet squabbles with a passing Great Black-backed Gull as a pair of Ravens, their glossy black feathers looking magnificent in the sunshine, call from a rocky outcrop below the Observation Point.
In the Dell, several Red Admirals feed on some early flowering Hemp Agrimony, with the pink flowers of Greater Willowherb (with it’s unusual ‘plus-shaped’ stamens), purple Common Woundwort and white Enchanters Nightshade in bloom nearby.
Crossing the bridge, Caravan Terrace is looking stunning at the moment, with yellow flowers and berries of St. John’s Wort, among the grass. On the cliff face at the back the flowers of Red Valerian (along with it’s white form) are in bloom, near a nice patch of flowering Common Toadflax (the first time I have noticed it growing here).
Yellow-flowered Wild Parsnip is starting to flower in the long grass verges ‘round the Head’, along with pink and white Wild Carrot, Nipplewort and Red Bartsia.