A wonderful frosty morning, the grass covered in a layer of white which crunched underfoot as I walked.
Perched in the branches of the Hawthorn tree was a Greenfinch, its yellow stripe on the wing showing well. This bird wheezing a little as it stood.
Alongside this was a yellow beaked and black feathered Blackbird, again occasional chirps coming from it.
Virtually no wind today, so making it feel much warmer, so down to the coast where I was able to spend some time admiring the Auks.
On the main ledge well over 100 Guillemots were standing upright on their webbed feet, mostly facing towards the rock, but some showing their white fronts as they faced towards the sea.
Wafting up from here came the chattering sounds of this large colony, the gentle growling accompanying me as I walked along the Clifftop trail.
The water below was completely grey, no white crests visible, but a constant gently rolling wave movement taking place. On this were another 55 Guillemots bobbing up and down and in amongst them were 2 Razorbills. Both of these birds a darker black colour, and on inspection the different bill shape could be seen.
Also showing well were the Shags, as they flew their long necks and short bodies very distinctive, a few more on the water, much bigger than the Guillemots.
Around the headland the Wayfaring Tree has a slight covered of soft ‘fur’ on its stems and blasting noisily form the Blackthorn was a Wren, a search through my binoculars allowed me to find it and see the delicate brown and cream markings.
On an Elder was a huge flabby chestnut brown coloured Jelly Ear fungus, supposedly edible but there was no appeal at all! Below on a decaying trunk a great example of Coriolus verisicolor now called Trametes versicolor and also known as Turkeytail.