A wet, sleety night has turned into a sunny crispy cold morning. I leave my car seeing a few linnets fly above me and hearing the calls of Robins, Chaffinches, and Great Tits. As I walk towards Long Meadow, I spot a Magpie and a load of Crows flying above me. At Long Meadow I turn left, I spot a Wren seemingly hop between Brambles, Blackthorn and Hawthorn, and a male Blackbird is seen in front of me scurrying off into the hedgerow scrub as it spots me. As I continue to walk, I notice a stem of Wild Carrot in bloom – “bit early and cold for that I thought!”
Into the Pleasure Ground woodlands full of leafless Sycamore and Ash, as well as the evergreen Holm Oak, I notice it is full of the sounds of Robins, Blue Tits, Great Tits, and Wrens. I also hear a Firecrest and notice a Jay rustling around on a Holm Oak branch. The view out on the coast is so beautiful as the sun glistens on the English Channel, with mist hiding the Isle of Wight from view – either that or it moved somewhere else!
I take the clifftop trail, down in the Dell a Great Tit is in full song almost like they're using the dip as an amphitheatre, as I pass the globe 3x Herring Gulls pass me. At the viewpoint, many a Guillemot were flying away out to sea, some flying back into their cliff cave, whilst I noticed a couple of Shags, and many a Jackdaw behind me in the scrubs. Also spotted was a Grey Squirrel, probably planning its next steal on top of a Holm Oak.