We started our walk by taking the cliff-top path from the Castle walking towards the lighthouse.
A few distant Gannets and closer Guillemots were seen but, apart from a single Fulmar, all the breeding seabirds had left the cliffs, leaving only their smell!
Plenty of gulls were still here of course, including the fine adult Great Black-backed pictured below, a young Black-back and lots of Herring Gulls including several well-grown chicks still on the cliffs with their parents.
The real ornithological highlight though was the most unexpected find of a breeding pair of Black Redstarts, with one youngster.
This species is a common enough sight in winter but as a breeding bird is a great rarity in Dorset, or anywhere in the UK for that matter.
The recent wet weather had resulted in an explosion of flora, in an hour and a half we counted no less than 86 species, including the rare Sea Spleenwort.
Birds
Fulmar
Gannet
Cormorant
Shag
Herring Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
Guillemot
Rock Pipit
Robin
Black Redstart
Blackbird
Common Whitethroat (heard)
Blackcap
Blue Tit
Greenfinch
Insects
Meadow Brown
Bloody-nosed Beetle
Soldier Beetle
Plants (86 species!)
Agrimony
Ash
Birdsfoot Trefoil
Black Bryony
Black Medick
Blackthorn
Bracken
Bramble
Broad-leaved Willowherb
Buck's-horn Plantain
Carrot
Cleavers
Clematis
Cocksfoot
Common Centaury
Common Hogweed
Common Mallow
Common Mullein
Common Ragwort
Common Vetch
Creeping Buttercup
Creeping Cinquefoil
Creeping Thistle
Crow Garlic
Curled Dock
Cut-leaved Cranesbill
Dog Rose
Downy Oat-grass
Elder
Elm
Enchanter's Nightshade
European Gorse
False Brome
False Oat-grass
Greater Knapweed
Hart's Tongue Fern
Hawthorn
Hemlock
Herb Bennet
Hoary Plantain
