A glorious morning for our weekly parkrun – royal blue skies scuffed with high cirrus and a gentle north-westerly breeze.
A fantastic seabird boat trip last night, with great views of 9 Puffins on the cliffs and water around Dancing Ledge. Along the Durlston cliffs this morning, a noisy ‘bazaar’ of Guillemots chatter and dabble in the water below the cliffs, pattering along the water to take flight as a group of kayakers approach and plopping inelegantly back down as they pass by. Razorbills, with their chunky beaks and smart white eyestripes among the flock, with Fulmars, Shags and Great Black-backed Gulls also on the wing. Do make the most of the chance to see these birds, as in just a week or two’s time, they will return to sea until the spring (we have one more boat trip next Friday, or join me for my final guised walk as a Ranger here tomorrow at 2pm.
Lulworth Skipper butterflies flutter among the clifftop turf – small, constantly in motion and in flight, the colour of a Chamois leather this species only occurs along the Purbeck Coast.
In the grass around them, pink Centaury and it’s relative, Yellow-wort are in bloom, both with unusual leaves, pierced by the stem. Here and there, Wild Thyme forms a dense carpet, with Ladies Bedstraw, Teasel, Wild Carrot, Agrimony, Bristly Ox-tongue and Rough Hawkbit also in bloom nearby.
Magnificent, prickly Woolly Thistles are almost in bloom, as is tall Wild Parsnip.
A lovely chestnut-brown Kestrel hovers above Goat Plot, with a Slowworm, sunbathing on the Diagonal Path wriggling away into the grass as I approach.
The woodland is cool and green, with Speckled Wood butterflies whirling around pools of dappled shade and Red Admirals feeding on flowering Buddleia and Hemp Agrimony.
The meadows are also looking lovely at the moment, with numbers of flowering Pyramidal Orchids reaching their peak along with a ‘confetti’ of many dozens of other flowers.