A much cooler, grey start to the day, with just a touch of pale peach and gold to the brightening eastern skies.
Stepping into the woodland, I was immediately greeted by the drumming of Great Spotted Woodpecker, eventually spotted just below the canopy of a Sycamore, towering over the stream at Sunnydale. His extravagant crimson, black and white plumage looks especially fine on a drab, grey morning as his drumming echoes among the trees.
On the woodland floor, the leaves of Lesser Celandine, Dog Violet, Herb Robert and Cuckoo Pint carpet the woodland floor with fresh green, with spikes of Stinking Iris dotted among them.
Snowdrops and Daffodils are already in bloom, along with pale yellow Hazel catkins, while many trees are starting to show leaf buds.
Grey Squirrels chase and squabble among the branches above me – their quarrels taking on a new intensity as breeding season approaches.
Along the cliffs, Fulmars glide in smooth spirals, sweeping in to within inches of the cliff-face, with both Cormorant and Shag flapping steadily by. A pair of Great Black-backed Gulls preen each other affectionately on their perch below the Observation Point, as a Peregrine Falcon watches from just above them, still as a statue except for the swivel of her head as a flock of Feral Pigeons pass by.
Near Tilly Whim, a Rock Pipit darts briefly up from the clifftop with a fragment of song – just warming up for the showy, fluttery display flights they will make later in the year.
A flock of tinkling Goldfinches pass overhead on the Milepost Slope, with the croaks of a Jay ringing out from the Holm Oaks in Goat Plot.