A really beautiful morning, with a bit of nip in the air first thing. Yesterday’s heavy showers have blown through and this morning is bright and blue and beautiful!
Overhead, charms of passing Goldfinches gleam in the bright morning sunshine, filling the air with their tinkling calls, as squadrons of Woodpigeon clatter by beneath an intensely blue sky.
Beneath Caravan Terrace, a surprisingly lively sea booms and slaps as whitecaps roll in from the south, with the sound of the ‘waterfall’ flowing down the cliff-face behind me adding a counterpoint. The sounds of water and wind are punctuated by the ticking of a Wren, the chatter of Long-tailed Tits, and the calls of Great Tits and Blue Tits bustling through the tangled vegetation.
Below the bridge, a tangled maze of Old Man’s Beard glitters silver and gold in the low sun, with bright red Dog Rose hips scattered around.
Hawthorn berries are also looking fantastic at the moment, in dense clusters on bare branches.
Down on the cliffs, I am lucky enough to watch the climax of an aerial battle between a Peregrine Falcon and a Raven, highlighting their differing flight styles – the huge, powerful wingbeats of the Raven charging towards the Peregrine, which is able to roll out of it’s way, turning on it’s back mid-flight to offer it’s talons to it’s opponent. The brief squabble ended abruptly, seemingly by mutual agreement, with the Peregrine streaking off to the west and the Raven returning to the cliff face.
Rock Pipits hop along the clifftop, with a group of 11 Jackdaws perched among the bare branches of a Sycamore near the Gully bridge.