A very wild, wet and windy start to the day, with a south-westerly wind (gusting up to 41 mph) blasting the park with rain and making even the larger Holm Oaks dance.
Thomas Hardy wrote that in a woodland “…almost every species of tree has its voice…At the passing of the breeze the fir-trees sob and moan no less distinctly than they rock; the Holly whistles as it battles with itself; the Ash hisses amid its quiverings; the Beech rustles while its flat boughs rise and fall.” – could have been written for this morning, as the woodland is alive with ‘conversation’! Twigs rattle above me as I walk up the hill to work, with a Grey Squirrel clinging precariously to the waving limbs of a London Plane in Sunnydale, and blizzards of leaves whirl along the paths beneath my feet.
Horse Chestnut, Hawthorn, Blackthorn and Sallow leaves have turned a sulphurous yellow, while near the top of the Lighthouse Road, a Wild Cherry blazes out of the gloom, with its leaves forming a varied palette from deep crimson to gold, it’s reddish trunk gleaming in the rain.
Here and there, Snowberry forms constellations of white berries, with splashes of the orange berries of Stinking Iris. Heavy ropes of red Bryony berries hang like strings of beads from the branches of Elder and Ash, while at the top of long meadow, as the rest of the hedge sheds it’s leaves, the ruddy stems of Dogwood have been revealed.
At Tilly Whim, the sea explodes into the cliffs, sending plumes of spray high into the air, and scattering foam across the ledges. A squadron of 8 Guillemots whir past, their tiny wings a blur of motion, while further out to sea Gannets cut through the wind – gleaming white against a steel-grey sea. A Shag hugs the sea as it flaps ponderously round Durlston Head, with a few Mediterranean Gulls whirling by, with Herring Gull and Great Black-backed Gull also on the wing.
Squelching back to the centre (to a clearing sky), a few flocks of Woodpigeon hurtle past overhead, while a gang of Jackdaws revel in the gusty winds, whirling, diving, squabbling and stalling in a tangled net of criss-crossing paths.
As I write (and slowly dry!), a few patches of bright blue are starting to appear, promising a brighter day ahead!