Condition: Unfavourable

The North Downs end here, gently dipping into the sea to be replaced by the shingle beach where Julius Caesar landed in 55BC. A large field was bequeathed to the Scout movement in the 1920s, and the summers were filled with camp-fire songs and the sound of mallets.
Recently, however, the Scout Association somehow wriggled out of its covenant and sold the land - the tents remain, but now the music is electric. It's still good to have camping here, as long as the site remains undeveloped.

The broad swathe of cliff-top grassland between Kingsdown and St Margarets could offer so much more, but is classified by Natural England as "unfavourable" because Tor-grass has spread unchecked, crowding out the large number of smaller plants that could thrive here. Most interest is confined to the very edge of the cliff, where plants like Centaury share ledges with the Peregrines. Last weekend, the clifftop was most notable for migrating birds, Pied and Spotted Flycatchers, Redstarts, Goldcrests and warblers all moving along the line of trees feeding, always keeping a southerly direction.

Overhead, large numbers of Martins and Swallows were joined by at least one Swift, marking the end of another breeding season.

In the Tor-grass, Wasp Spiders have made a late appearance, while at the foot of the cliffs,

... a large specimen of Goldenrod is in flower, attracting a flurry of attention from local flora experts.

Closer to home (on my doorstep, literally!) a Devil's Coachhorse showed itself.

And finally, I've invested the princely sum of a fiver on a digital microscope (off eBay) and (while acknowledging the obvious quality constraints and my technical incompetence) will no doubt offer up some results from time to time. These pictures are of a broken Autumn Ladies Tresses spike, from private land. For proper micro-images, see Beyond the Human Eye, here.