Clear blue skies and frost underfoot. The dawn chorus welcomes me back after a week holiday, with delightful tunes from Robin, Blue Tit and Chaffinch. Most notable is the Song Thrush which fills the soundscape as it verses through its various calls, each of them unique, and in repetitions of threes and fours.
Clear blue skies and frost underfoot. The sunlight beams through the trees, casting long shadows and alighting the fresh sprigs of Wild Arum and Wood Dock between. Sunlit views through Holm Oak, and Austrian Pine, across the blue bay, offer a throwback to Mediterranean aesthetic, but with certainly British temperatures.
More leaves bud from their branches - Bramble, Wild Madder, and Honeysuckle which intertwines through the scrub. Standing out amongst the damp leaf litter, the lime-green Montbretia leaves which have freshly spiked. Look a little closer and you’ll discover the basal leaves of Dandelion, Buttercup, and Herb Robert.
Other floral delights include the yellowing tipped Daffodil, and Japanese Spindle still displaying a bountiful crop of pretty pink berries.
Further into the woodland Great Tits appear in every direction, I lose count at around six or seven. They flutter to and fro from one another, echoing calls and responses whilst the other birds sing. Though it’s the little Jenny Wren which impresses most of all. Perched above a dying Ash (tree bark clad with Coal Fungus), the Wren sits with its shirt upturned tail and sing its heart out. Impressively loud tune for such wee bird.
A quick jaunt down to the clifftop reveals a half the colony of Guillemots rafting beneath the flight of Fulmar, Jackdaw and Herring Gull. With no wind, can hear their trills and even the pitter patter of wings tapping the water as they preen their feathers. The other half of this colony packed together on the rocky ledges above. No sight of Adder at Tilly Whim, although the weather seems almost perfect for it.