A wild, wet and foggy morning, as a gusty south-westerly wind sweeps rain across the Park and makes even larger trees dance and hiss.
A surprise awaiting me as I stepped through the gate into Taskers Meadow, where 5 lovely black sheep were gathered, staring at me! No chance of trying to send them home myself but managed to get in touch with their owners and they are now safely back home.
White horses chase across a steel-grey sea and explode into the cliffs at Tilly Whim, sending plumes of spray high into the air.
Gannets glide by – their smart black white and cream plumage looking superb on a dull day!
A Great Black-backed Gull battles the wind as he flaps by, with a Shag, low to the water also passing by. A little further out, a few Guillemots flicker by, their tiny wings a blur of motion.
A huddle of 30 or so Feral Pigeons shelter from the wind on the leeward side of a bluff just west of the Observation Point, seemingly oblivious to the rather windswept Peregrine Falcon, sat just a few yards away!
Caravan Terrace is relatively sheltered this morning, and a few birds are out feeding, with a Dunnock shuffling, mouse-like along the edge of a bramble patch, Blue and Great Tits darting in and out from a stand of Blackthorn and the piercing calls of a Goldcrest, cutting through the breeze.
In the woodland, Jays dart through the gloom, with flashes of blue wing feathers, with the croak of a Raven heard from high in the branches of a Monterey Cypress.
A few woodland fungi spotted, including the weird Jelly Ear (looking much as the name suggests) and black and grey, puffy Dead Man’s Fingers on a rotting log.
Winter Heliotrope is starting to bloom here and there – it’s rather scruffy-looking pink flowers have a lovely scent of vanilla (or marzipan).