A much cooler start to the day, but my jaw dropped as I stepped outside to an amazing ‘Mackerel Sky’, bright blue and dappled with high cloud. Bright sunshine combined with a chilly start makes for a perfect autumn morning to be out and about.
The woodland is full of colour, as autumn starts to work it’s magic on the canopy, transforming Sycamore leaves to shades of sulphur yellow, Horse Chestnut to gold and crimson and thinning the canopy to reveal a brightening sky.
A Raven ‘cronks’ as it bashes around the canopy of a Monterey Cypress, sending twigs and cones tumbling to the ground below. Dry leaves crunch underfoot as I walk up the Coast Path, the undergrowth either side of the wall dotted with the bright orange ‘starburst’ seed-pods of Stinking Iris.
More colour from the seedpods of Spindle – vibrant shades of pink and orange, with Blackberries, Rosehips, ‘ropes’ of Bryony berries all adding new shades.
Near the Play Trail, a large patch of the bizarre Dog’s Vomit Slime Mould. Looking a little like it’s name suggests, it is one of a hard to classify group of organisms, with some of the characteristics of a fungus, but many of the behaviours of an animal. When it’s food supply (rotting vegetation) is in short supply, single cells combine to form a larger organism, which can grow appendages to allow it to move in search of food!
On Caravan Terrace, a lovely crimson-breasted Bullfinch darts in and out of the scrub above the cliff, while below the bridge the piercing calls of a Goldcrest ring out through the still air.
Near the Observation Point, a noisy gang of Jackdaws chatter and squabble as a Raven passes through the flock – the size difference very noticeable. Further along a Peregrine skims silently by, just below the clifftop.
A Stonechat pops out of the Gorse for a moment as I walk up the Diagonal Path, as a tinkling flock of Goldfinches passes overhead – their calls often described as sounding like the jangling of sleigh-bells.