In contrast to yesterday’s biting wind and patchwork cloud cover, my morning patrol today is heralded by clear blue skies and calm air, the road verges rimed with the first frost of the season.
As I approach the cobbled speed-bump midway up Lighthouse Road, a beaked head pops up from behind.
In a flurry of pink, black and white, the Eurasian Jay launches into the air from the shallow puddle captured on the uphill, reinforcing the importance of available drinking water to wildlife at this time of year.
Compared to yesterday’s stiff nou’westerley, this morning’s still air has given our passerine birds licence to sing, with Goldfinch, Chaffinch and Bullfinch all staking their claims by the Learning Centre pond hide.
The rattles of Robin and Magpie accompany my steady descent to the Lighthouse track, the increasingly muddy footpath firm for now with frost.
Reaching the Lighthouse, I bump into former Durlston Ranger Hamish, who reports sightings of Brambling, Redpoll and Redstart on his own perambulations.
Gully bottom next to Tilly Whim is a hive of human activity this morning, as the Hazardous Area Response Team (HART) from the South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust are on-site for an Instructor CPD training day.
However, their preparations do nothing to discourage the enthusiasm of a pair of Meadow Pipits frolicking in the cool air.
Ascending the Clifftop Trail, the slow, bright light of an autumn dawn sets the Gorse flowers and Hawthorn berries ablaze. Entering the Holm Oak woodland, the trail surface is a story panel of nocturnal activity, busy with evidence of foraging Badgers.
- RP
Ahead of me a Roe Deer clambered over the Gully rock exposure. As I approach, it meanders off into the lower woodland cover.
When I reach the rock exposure myself, I’m delighted to find the pink unopened flowers of Common Centaury protruding through the limestone surface. I also saw some below the Lighthouse, with flowering typically over after September. The wind, presumably when blowing in opposition to its prevailing direction, had peeled a sheet of Ivy "wallpaper" off the Lighthouse boundary wall.
Closer to the Learning Centre where the ground had frozen, muddy footprints provided firm ridges less comfortable for walking. A Song Thrush sang out from the wildlife garden whilst I crunch a few small icy puddles underfoot.
- PJ