A beautiful winter morning, with the sky brightening from navy, to royal blue to peach as the sun rose during my walk up the hill to work.
After a heavy dew, brilliant morning sunshine sparkles on grass stems, stones and the bare branches of hedgerows and scrub and casts a beautiful golden light across the Park, making it a real treat to be up and about early.
Birdsong and calls ring out through the still air, with the repetitive, insistent song of Great Tits ringing out from all around, with the ticking of Wrens, bursts of song from Robins and snatches of the sweet notes of Skylarks, along with the ‘cronk’ of a Raven and harsh croaks of Jays. The ‘chuckling’ alarm call of a Blackbird also heard, taking flight from the undergrowth as I pass by.
A Green Woodpecker, bobbing across Long Meadow looks magnificent – the golden light accentuating the green, yellow and crimson of his plumage, with the pruinescent blue wing feathers of a Jay, taking flight from a Holm Oak nearby looking dazzling bright.
On the woodland floor, the fresh green leaves of Cleavers, Dog Violet, Snowdrop and Cuckoo Pint are starting to emerge, while outside the Castle, Daffodils are not far from starting to flower. Along the Diagonal Path, yellow Gorse flowers are in bloom.
In the hedgerows, elegant traceries of silvery Woodbine (or Old Man’s Beard) shine in the bright sunshine, while at their foot, the orange seeds of Stinking Iris add splashes of colour.
Below the cliffs, Guillemots bob on the lapping waves – some still in dappled ‘winter plumage’, while others are already in their smart black and white breeding plumage. Fulmars wheel in smooth arcs above them, with Great Black-backed Gull and Shag also on the wing, as a Peregrine stares intently out from a rocky perch near the Observation Point.