Below the cloud there was good visibility whilst the sun shone though or above it. A trio of Carrion Crow were about the Large Copse whilst a Great Tit migrated through a Paddock hedgerow. As a Great Black Backed Gull flew over Saxon, I picked up the sound of a mechanical limestone pecker. Alongside Holcombe footpath the fruit Rosehip, Haw, Sloe & Black Bryony were available for birds. At the base of a Moss and Ivy cloaked dry stone wall was a Herb Robert flower. The first of many Stonechats were seen in Saxon.
A trio of Robins were seen & heard calling alongside the East – West Drove whilst a Blackbird made an alarm call from the depths of the scrub. As I peered over Hogget’s I heard a Pheasant cock crow. I saw a dozen Goldfinch harvesting seeds from the uncut and ungrazed sward of Field 3. Another three Stonechats were in field six whilst a Blackcap appeared beside me as I cut through the scrub up onto the coastal ridge. The poisonous fruits of Bittersweet dangled beside those of its Blackberry host. Near the Napoleonic signal station base a pair of Carrion Crows were set up from the short turf whilst five Jackdaws progressed west.
From the coastal ridge I enjoyed the sight of sun beam reflect off the sea as it reached out to the Lighthouse. The Jay I heard squawking was to be seen perched in a bare Hawthorn beside a dry-stone wall. Wood Pigeons flew over the gully scrub. Beside Lighthouse Bridge, seven Jackdaw perched in the big Sycamore, to be joined by a Goldfinch.
The walling centre bonfire site was full having received three trailer loads of scrub yesterday from the final efforts of the work party’s opening up of Taskers Path.