Today was a morning for the ‘usual suspects’. So, feel free to make a tally of how many times I say ‘usual suspects' throughout todays daily diary. (That’s two already!)
The first location I visited today was Large Copse. Plenty of vocal birds in and around the Copse this morning; Great Spotted Woodpeckers, Blackbirds, Robins, Great Tit, Chaffinch and Wren (I avoided saying it on purpose that time).
The usual suspects were out in the meadows again this morning. Large flocks of Linnets and Goldfinches, 20-30 Strong. And a huge volery of Pied Wagtails dancing over the cow pats deposited by our lovely moo cows. The odd Meadow Pipit also passed over.
Plenty of dicky birds in and amongst the mosaic of scrub and tall grasses. As per usual, the Stonechats were perched on the long tussocks of grass and Blackthorn, a Sparrowhawk combed the area for any unsuspecting small bird and an uncountable amount of Chiffchaffs, all bobbing there little tails and flittering in loops around the islands of Hawthorn, Bracken and Gorse.
Heading across the ridge in field six I spotted a couple of Snowy Inkcaps sprouting out of a couple of cowpats. It’s strange how something so lovely emerges out of something so disgusting…
The upper part of the gully yielded several thrushes, another Blackbird, 2 Mistle Thrush, 2 Song Thrush and my first Redwing of the year, all on its lonesome, hopefully its friends will join it soon.
As I walked through the gully and out towards the coast path, all seemed quiet. It is the time of year that a yellow-browed warbler could turn up, but not today. Walking back along the coast path towards the castle (All say it with me now) the usual suspects were all showing well, Jackdaws, Shags, Herring Gulls, a Kestrel, (my personal favourite) Feral Pigeons and one little Guillemot zipping out to sea.
A usual morning at Durlston!