A delightfully pleasant morning – cold, with bright blue skies and leaves rustling underfoot. A stark contrast to the rain yesterday. I had a good chuckle at the email I read first thing, asking all the country parks to get a photo of their winter wonderlands, when here it was just miserable!
I head down towards the lighthouse, a curious Robin and Dunnock follow me - both birds with their feathers puffed up for a little extra insulation, appearing much fatter and rounded than they actually are.
The small trees across the slopes have dropped their leaves, barren thorns of Blackthorn intertwined with the evergreen Ivy, twisting along its branches, and smothered above by the creeping Old Man’s Beard.
Thickets of scrub increase towards the gully, making the bridge a good point to look and listen to the birds. Here, a charm of chattering Goldfinch, a bellowing of Bullfinch; two males ripe with crimson red-breasts, and a clattering of Jackdaw squeaking upon the Sycamore.
It’s cool to see the John Deere tractor and tracked post driver on the Lighthouse green, which have been contracted in to install the new fence line along the bottom of the downs. Personally I am ecstatic at the prospect of not having to pick up the manual post-rammer for a while. I walk the entire length, counting nearly 200 posts and reinstating long lost cappers back onto the dry stone walls.
The fence posts are enjoyed by a bunch of Meadow Pipits which can be heard piping as they pass between them: their white outer tail feathers revealed in flight. Also more Jackdaw, and a few Magpie.
The scrub clearance has reopened an old pathway at the far end, and will do wonders for the limestone grassland habitat. There will be an explosion of colour in Spring, where the wildflower seeds have laid dormant, shaded by the Gorse. Some late-season flowers found between the Yellow Meadow Ant hills: Yarrow and Bristly Ox-Tongue.