A still morning, with a sky filled with rippled grey cloud, though some bright winter sun shines through slits in the cloud, scoring a line of gold across a steely sea.
Even this late in the year, a few plants are still in bloom, with a single Sea Aster catching my eye along the clifftop – the wild version of the Michaelmas Daisy in attractive shades of lilac and yellow. The evergreen shrub Viburnum tinus is just starting to produce sprays of white flowers along the entrance road and the top of the road to the Lighthouse. Here and there yellow-flowered Bristly Ox-tongue is still in flower, along with it’s relative, the familiar Common Dandelion. On the cliffs, yellow Gorse flowers also brighten a rather grey morning.
In the woods, Elm is looking magnificent as it’s leaves turn an amazing shade of golden yellow.
Plenty of colour added by this year’s bumper crop of red Hawthorn berries, with Sloes on Blackthorn starting to look a little more shrivelled (though best to leave till after the first frost if making Sloe Gin! Sloe stones are easy to spot in piles of Badger poo around the park, as they fill up on fruit.
Down on the cliffs, Guillemots are crowded onto the ledges as they ‘pop in’ before returning to sea, with a group of 8 on the water (of which 6 are in their speckled, much whiter ‘winter’ plumage.
A Great Black-backed Gull soars on powerful wings, with a handful of Kittiwakes passing out at sea.
Peregrine, Rock Pipit, Jackdaw and a few small flocks of Woodpigeon also seen along the Clifftop Trail.
Nice to watch a late Swallow yesterday afternoon, circling the Warden’s Cottage for several minutes, as it carefully investigated the eaves – having one last look, before heading south for the winter.