It was a real treat to be out early this morning, with a cherry red sun rising above fluffy golden clouds, though a chilly northerly breeze made me glad I had wrapped up warm!
Guillemots and a few Razorbills (looking much blacker than the Guillemots around them) bob on a sparkling sea, as Fulmars sail serenely above them on stiff, straight wings. A pair of Great Black-backed Gulls fuss over each other from a rocky outcrop near the Observation point, so intent that they hardly seem to notice a Peregrine Falcon skimming past just above their heads!
Out at sea, a pair of Gannets pass by, gleaming white in the sunshine, with an Oystercatcher crossing Durlston Bay.
As the sun warms the scrub in the Gully, birds start to pop out of the scrub to stretch and feed. Blue and Great Tits take up stations on Hawthorn and Sycamore, a noisy, squabbling extended family of Long-tailed Tits dash in and out from the branches of a Blackthorn and below the Gully bridge, I watch 5 tiny Goldcrests whizzing to and fro, with squeaky, high-pitched calls.
As I made my way up the road from the Lighthouse, a Bullfinch emerges from the depths of a patch of Gorse, the deep red of his breast echoing the sunrise, with a few ‘charms’ of Goldfinches feeding on dry Teasel, Burdock and Woolly Thistle heads, filling the air with their jangling calls.
On the edges of the Large Copse, Winter Heliotrope is starting to bloom – the rich vanilla or marzipan scent of the flowers noticeable even on such a cold morning.
A squadron of 30 or so Woodpigeon stream past as I head into the meadows, their wingbeats clattering in the morning quiet, with a gang of Jackdaws circling the Learning Centre as I return.