The Sun rises through a haze of low cloud at the horizon. It creates a low light across the park, with drab violescent hues transitioning into a bright blue sky.
It’s a still morning, where even of the faintest of sounds can be heard as they carry across the landscape: From the high-pitched notes of a Robin, to the drips of water falling from the mouth of a cow, slurping at one of the cattle troughs.
I head into the cows field, past their winter blooms of pink Heliotrope, and follow their hoof-prints down towards the lighthouse. Numerous Woodpigeons pass overhead in groups of twos and threes, whilst a sociable flock of Meadow Pipits sit in a line, gathered along the telephone cables above the gully.
A few charms of Goldfinch can also be heard twittering as they fly by.
The eerie silence continues towards the coast path, I can hear the conversation of a couple hikers quite clearly from the gully, and the trill of the Guillemots from past Tilly Whim.
Hundreds of Guillemots can be found huddled on their cliff ledge, with further groups of them rafting out at sea. Shags, Great Black-backed Gulls, and a Peregrine Falcon all patrol coast in flight.
My walk takes me around Durlston Head and past the moss-clad walls by the Dell. A couple of Great Tits sing amongst the thicket of Blackthorn and Buddleia.
Back at the Centre, I stop by the wildlife garden to catch up with the bird ringers and get to see two Great Tits and a Blackcap up close. All three of them re-catches and so resident birds of the park.