A dull grey and damp morning, but a good one for the numbers of birds spotted, however most of them were in large flocks overhead, making recognising their colours and sizes almost impossible. Fortunately many of them call as they pass over, which allows identification. The largest number seemed to be Linnets, but plenty of Greenfinches, Goldfinches, Chaffinches and Siskins. The very distinctive call of Crossbills as they too passed also heard.
Gliding overhead a Kestrel, its long tail noticed as it went, while down by the cliffs the chunkier bodied Peregrine Falcon flew by. A second Peregrine followed on behind, its speckled chest and dark moustache evident as it was at eye height rather than way above!
As Swallows swooped along the cliff tops, I peered down at the water to find 21 Guillemots – all in their winter pale headed plumage, another 30 spotted on the ledge. Exciting that they are starting to return to spend some of the winter with us here (first spotted yesterday).
As I watched the looping flight of a Pied Wagtail, I was distracted by a bird popping up and down in the Bramble scrub behind. I then spent (some may say wasted) 5 minutes trying to identify that bird, while doing so 3 Chiffchaffs showed themselves, as did 2 Stonechats, Robin, Dunnock and Wren. However, I never got the other slightly bigger and paler individual – its gone down as an LBJ (Little Brown Job).
A slow walk up the downland slope and a close inspection of some of the turf and a variety of wildflowers could be seen, including the deep lilac coloured Small Scabious, and the paler Field Scabious, a couple of yellow Horseshoe Vetches and the tiny pale pink flowers of Squinancywort and an almost purple Eyebright.
More surprising though was the Blackthorn with flowers, this being one of the earliest flowering plants of the year – as I walked past the sprig of Blackthorn, the white flower was spotted, I then had to turn and check that this really was a Blackthorn flower!!
In the late evening last night a couple of Foxes trotted along the path and jumper over the wall.