A sunny start to the day, with a sky streaked with pink, orange and gold cloud and a gentle breeze carrying with it a gradually growing chorus of bird songs and calls and the smell of the sea.
In the woods, a wonderful smell of vanilla from a dense stand of Winter Heliotrope, with it’s huge, almost round leaves and rather scruffy looking pink flowers.
On the woodland floor, the leaves of Dog Violet, Cow Parsley, Herb Robert, Stinking Iris, Daffodil and Snowdrop are starting to spread across the woodland floor, though none in flower just yet.
Near the Aviaries, a Treecreeper scuttles up the tall stem of a London Plane, with calls and song from Long-tailed Tits, Great Tits, Coal Tit, Blue Tit, Robin and the ticking alarm call of a Wren from the canopy nearby.
A Buzzard wheels through the warming air above the slopes of Durlston Bay, with the bright pink breast of a Bullfinch catching my eye among the scrub on Caravan Terrace, with a few Goldcrest darting among the trees and scrub below the bridge.
Guillemots, many still in dappled winter plumage, bob on the water below the cliffs, with more jumbled onto the ledges in a dense pack.
Peregrine, Shag and Great Black-backed Gull also on the wing along the clifftop, with a few Woodpigeon clattering along overhead along with a squabbling, chaotic flock of Jackdaws.
In Goat Plot, the cattle have their heads down and are happily munching away through the coarse Tor Grass, making space for smaller herbs to grow. As I watch, a Jay takes flight from a Holm Oak, with a flash of blue wing feathers.