A cool morning, with bright blue skies veiled with patches of lacy high cloud, though a cool north-westerly breeze is a reminder that winter still has a sting in the tail!
The chorus of birdsong in the woodland is starting to swell by the day, with the excited, tumbling song of Blue Tits, mingling with fragments of the sweet notes of Song Thrushes, the insistent song of Robins and piercing calls of Goldcrests from high among the canopy of Holm Oaks. Less musical, the shrieks of a Jay echo across the Aviary Glade, with a pair of Ravens “Cronking” to each other from the top of a tall Monterey Cypress.
On the woodland floor, the first of the Snowdrops are starting to flower, among the fresh, furled leaves of Lords and Ladies, delicate, ferny leaves of Cow Parsley and Herb Robert, stout, budding leaves of Daffodils and the angular bright green spikes of Three-cornered Leek. Here and there, dense patches of the large round leaves of Winter Heliotrope can be found – a few already flowering, giving off a rich Marzipan scent. Along the path edges, Stinking Iris seeds at splashes of bright orange.
A fantastic cloud of pink flowers cover the branches of a newly planted Winter-flowering Cherry, with Hazel also in flower.
A Buzzard wheels lazily above Durlston Bay, with a Cormorant flapping ponderously by – their flight always looks rather ‘prehistoric’ to me!
Round the Head, Fulmars veer gracefully through the air, making death-defying swoops in to the cliff-face, cackling as they do, while below them, Guillemots and Razorbills are scattered across the gently bobbing sea. More Guillemots fly in and out from the ledges – most now in their smart black and white breeding plumage, with just a few still in their winter speckled black, white and grey.
A Peregrine zooms, dart-like past the clifftop, as Jackdaws squabble overhead.
Further out at sea, a Red-throated Diver passes by, a distinctive silhouette against the brightening sky.