A still and sunny morning, with a heavy dew carpeting the meadows and revealing hundreds of sparkling spiderwebs strewn across the grass.
Hardly a breath of wind, making birdsong and calls ring out across the fields, from the jangling of charms of Goldfinches, the ticking of Wrens, twittering of large, extended families of Long-tailed Tits to the croaking of Crows.
In the Large Copse, Jays shriek as they strip the branches of acorns, sending Grey Squirrels scampering through the branches.
Some huge ‘fairy rings’ of fruiting Horse Mushrooms in the meadows. They grow outward from the centre at about 20cm a year, making some of them, at more than 6m across, easily 30 years old! Like an iceberg, most of the fungi is actually invisible, formed of a mass of underground ‘hyphae’ or fungal threads.
Here and there, a few flowers still in bloom, from the purple flowers of Knapweed, to golden Ragwort and paler yellow Bristly Ox-tongue.
A Bullfinch once again surveying the scene from the Blackthorn above Caravan Terrace as a Dunnock shuffles, mouse-like through the leaf litter below.
Nearby, a pair of Goldcrests, dart among the canopy, their piercing calls catching my attention, with a Firecrest among the yellow leaves of a large Sycamore below the bridge. Robins, Wrens and Great Tits dart among the tangle of Bramble, Old Mans’s Beard, Bracken and Sallow.
Along the cliffs, the Guillemots are visiting the ledges, packed tightly together, with more riding the gently lapping waves below.
A Raven calls as he wheels steadily above Durlston Bay, with a Green Woodpecker seen bobbing along, as if on elastic, above Long Meadow.
As I write a Pied Wagtail settles on a bench just outside the window, his tail flickering up and down in constant motion, while overhead, the sky is turning to a bright blue, promising a lovely morning ahead!