A beautiful sunrise as I headed up to the hill, with dark blue cloud marbled with hint of gold and the eastern sky quickly brightening to shades of rose and peach, making the Isle of White glow deep red, surrounded by a sparkling sea (you can tell I’ve missed the sunshine!).
Along the cliffs, long skeins of Guillemots trail across the lapping sea, including a few still in their speckled ‘winter’ plumage. As I watched, a cascade of over a hundred birds pour like a waterfall down from the ledge, wheeling in a wide arc, before heading out to sea. Great Black-backed Gulls soar on broad, powerful wings, one briefly squabbling with a Raven, before both birds headed off in opposite directions.
Fulmars soar gracefully along the clifftop, with a few Rock Pipits bobbing along above them, hopping in and out of clumps of Tor Grass.
Down in the Gully, the sweet, though still slightly faltering melody of a Song Thrush heard from the scrub above me, with Long-tailed Tits, Robins, Wrens and Dunnocks also seen or heard. On the slopes above the bridge, a pair of cock Pheasants pick through the turf – their green, white and chestnut feathers gleaming in the morning sun, with their bright crimson faces echoing the morning sky. Also looking great in the sunshine, a pair of Magpies, swaggering across the short turf.
Stopping at the bridge, the trickle of water fills the air, with a small stream running down the Gully, as the downs start to shed some of the water which has fallen over the last month. A Goldcrest weaves in and out the of the tangle of Old Man’s Beard, Blackthorn and Sycamore.
An unusual sighting (for Durlston!) as I headed up the hill from the Lighthouse, as a Grey Heron flaps ponderously by – probably one of only 5 or 6 I have seen inland here.