Spring is here at last, and the sunshine has encouraged wildlife to surge into action. The hedgerows and woods are finally verdant with fresh new leaves. Blackthorn blossoms as a pre-curser to leaves. Bluebells, Red Campion, Cow Parsley, Cleavers and Wood Anemone join Primroses on grassy banks.
The air is ‘humming’ with insects such as Bumblebees and Bee flies. We watch them while they obtain flower nectar with their long proboscis; an elongated appendage on the head.
Swallows and Swifts have arrived; providing fast aerial displays. The songs of two Warblers; Whitethroats and Blackcaps are now regularly heard around the village. Whitethroat’s ‘scratchy’ song can be enjoyed daily just outside the Heritage Centre and in surrounding hedgerows of West Lulworth .
Long-awaited Cowslips cover the bottom slope of Bindon Hill; marking the start of a succession of wildflowers on surrounding grassland slopes. The ‘coconut-like’ scent of gorse flowers fills the air on nearby Chalk Downland sites.
While walking the Coast Path, we have seen Large White, Red Admiral, and Brimstone butterflies; the start of a ‘good’ butterfly year we ask ourselves?
We have chosen Cowslips for the flower of the month; a flower to brighten early spring days, and while we wait in anticipation for the many other beautiful Chalk Downland flowers to follow.
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