Season’s Greetings on this Christmas Eve!
It was an overcast morning with dew underfoot. Some golden glow of sunlight peeped through cloud over the sea. Condensation clouded the windows in the bird hide. Before I reached the first gate a Blackbird alarm call reached out. To the west it looked as if rain might trickle upon the reclaimed landfill site. With sticky clay underfoot I took care as I negotiated Saxon’s soggy Sycamore corner.
A Carrion Crow called over Oxeye Meadow, whilst Robins tutted away. From the coastal slope came the cackle and chuckle of Jackdaws. I noticed Harts Tongue fern growth where scrub had been removed and noted the small bracket fungi upon a decaying thorn stump.
As I walked through the downland beside the Gorse flowers there was the occasional yellow of Goat’s Beard heads. A clump of cattle browsed Flag Iris leaves protruded from the water of the dew pond. At water’s a Mayweed held blooms. Meanwhile, the 36 Hereford Cattle silently grazed in fields 1 & 2.
Behind me I heard a Raven call before it flew west across the gully. Upon the coastal ridge I saw Greater Black Backed Gulls drift past about eye level. A Raven flew below me over the seaward facing downland only to return flying back again at height. The large bird perched upon a gate post at the park’s western boundary. I enjoyed the many patterns of the crevices in the dry-stone walls of the coastal slopes. I imagine the former scene of workers as I passed the landscape marked by the Purbeck Limestone Quarr. However, passing over the remnant of the Napoleonic Signal Station I wished for time travel. I wanted to know the true former of the absent structure. Did it use flags, paddles, or other symbols in its communications?
The Racing Pigeon flock that collectively circled at the gully mouth were to speed past me at the Centre. Descending back into the gully I passed ropes of Old Man’s Beard strung between thorns. Several Rosehips we still firm and red. Jackdaws merged with their Lighthouse complex black rooftop perches. A few of the birds occupied the overhead wires was two sat upon the upper whilst one upon the lower summits of the measured mile markers. Today, I counted eight stems of Winter Heliotrope by the small copse.