A welcome chance to let my walking boots dry out, with a dry and sunny start to the day (after a month of rain).
Nonetheless, a very wintery sky, with huge dark clouds, adrift in a sea of bright blue, dabbed with a few small fluffy patches of high cloud.
The morning sunshine sparkles in the falling water on the cliff-face at the back of Caravan Terrace, as the last month’s rain works it’s way through the clay layers, which lie between the Purbeck Beds.
Above the ledge, a Bullfinch looks out across the grassland – his breast an eye-catching crimson, as Dunnocks scuffle through the leaf-litter below. A large ‘extended family’ of 15 or so Long-tailed Tits chatter and squabble as they work their way through the tangle of Wild Clematis below the bridge, rotating through 360 degrees as they feed.
A strong south-westerly breeze sends huge breakers rolling in across the sea to boom and slap against the cliffs.
A steady stream of Gannets flow by, in groups of 2 or 3, gleaming brilliant white in the sunshine, with a few Kittiwakes also passing by, looking impossibly delicate in comparison.
Guillemots also passing Durlston Head in a blur of black and white wings, with many more crammed onto the ledges, making one of their rare winter visits – a chance to recover from the rough weather out at sea.
In the woods, a fine crop of winter fungi, including a large patch of the wonderfully disgusting Witch’s Butter fungus discovered by a group of Ukranian children on a visit yesterday. Growing on rotting wood, this bright yellow fungus has a strange, jelly-like consistency. Dead Men’s Fingers, Candlesnuff Fungus and Jelly Ear are also in fruit on rotten logs – a marvellously strange collection!