A glorious morning, the sun had just risen above the horizon producing a wonderful golden hue across the Country Park and turning the sea a dirty pink.
Through the woodlands where the Horse Chestnut leaves have mostly turned brown already, the Beeches, Hazels and Sycamores are still green as are the Ashes and London Planes.
Bounding up the trunk of an Elm was a Grey Squirrel, before wobbling along the narrow twiggy branches to leap into the sturdier Yew tree.
From the canopy the calling of Goldcrests could be heard, as could Chiffchaff and Great Tit. I did eventually find them all after a search as well as Wren and Blackbird.
A few butterflies on view, the Speckled Wood, the pale cream dots showing well against the dark brown of the wings, while the larger Peacock was almost gliding along the glade, before perching on the leaves of the Apple. Later a Red Admiral showed as did Meadow Brown along the field edge.
Last night moth trap attracted numerous Common Wasp, Ichneumon Files, a False Ladybird – Endomychus coccineus plus some moths. These included Rush Veneer, Large Yellow Underwing, Brimstone, L-album Wainscot and Portland Riband Wave.
As I sat on the stone seat at Tilly Whim, looking up, it was amazing to watch the Swallows, House Martins and Sand Martins flying over. Some swooping so close I could virtually touch them, a magical few minutes,
As I sat, a flock of 50+ Goldfinches twitted as they flew over, as did some Linnets, while a couple of Yellow Wagtails had a slight undulation to their flight pattern.
On the top of a small Blackthorn bush, a Sparrowhawk perched, looking really large; I had to check it wasn’t some exotic migrant, but instead one of our resident species. Which then took off and glided out of sight.