Spring has sprung with plenty of birds bustling and singing around the park. Listen to Robin and Wren as they flit between the budding branches of Hazel and Elder. I also hear Blackcap, and watch a superb sequence of eight Blue Tits in pursuit of one another across the Hawthorn.
Song Thrush is sure to make its presence known, with verses of its different calls in repetitions of four. More subtle tweets from a Dunnock, and the gentle tinkling of Goldfinch as they bounce overhead.
In the woodland, below the colossal Californian Cypress, Japanese Spindle is decorated pink with berries, and pretty Primroses flower throughout. Look out for Daffodil blooms, fresh Wild Arum, and the last of the Viburnum flowers. Emerging leaves of Wild Garlic and Three-cornered Leek lend their strong onion-scent to the breeze.
Different smells along the clifftop, where golden Gorse blossom emits it’s sweet-coconut aroma, interspersed with the more rancid guano which covers the Guillemots ledge. Over two hundred of these birds raft amongst the blacker Razorbills, and below the looping flight of Fulmar, flocking Jackdaw, and Woodpigeons which soar into the sky.
It's been a delight to watch a pair of Magpies build a nest in a Sycamore viewable from my office window. At times, the birds attempting to carry branches that they can barely lift, let alone carry into the trees thick canopy.
A final icy-cold morning perhaps with temperatures set to rise later in the week. Likely a good day for more emerging invertebrates, with Peacock Butterfly, and Red-tailed Bumblebee spotted earlier this week.