Red sky in the morning, sailor's warning.
I arrived in the dark today, a little earlier than usual, to catch the sun rise. I wondered across the meadows occasionally catching a faint buzz of crickets between the gusts of wind. As I reached field 10, one of the highest points along the coast, 3 Roe Deer rushed out of the scrub, bounding over field and dry-stone walls.
Large Copse was filled with sheltering birds, Carrion Crows, Blue Tits, Great Tits and Dunnocks.
Many of the trees have lost their leaves, the Horse Chestnut and Sycamore are almost completely bare whilst the Ash, Hawthorn and Blackthorn are holding on best they can.
The sunrise this morning was spectacular. The low cloud cover almost touched the horizon. The peachy sun met the ‘red sky in the morning’ for all of 5 minutes before leaving the horizon completely and being swamped by clouds.
A Kestrel raised itself over the lighthouse, to quickly drop to a sheltered perch, clearly realising it wasn’t worth fighting the wind today.
The gully, somewhat protected from the wind, had plenty of vocal birds, but failed to show themselves! I heard; Redwing, Blackbird, European Robin, Eurasian Wren, Stonechat and Long-tailed tits.
Coast path sightings include 2 Cormorant, 6 Shags, a ledge filled with Guillemots, 1 Rock Pipit, 1 Peregrine Falcon, 2 Herring Gull, 6 Jackdaw, and the odd Feral Pigeon.