I arrive for this morning’s patrol to a bright but blustery day, drifting cloud cover underlit in pink by the dawn light.
I start with a brief recce of the Learning Centre pond area, but beyond the furious tittering of territorial Robins, little is seen or heard.
Passing through Field 34, the Hawthorns lush with leaves last month are now bare, though a wealth of ruby-red haws remain, and the more robust Bramble retains its leafage for now.
The sou’westerly fights me for control of the gate as I enter Saxon Field, a Blackbird powering past into the headwind, jinxing over and around the scrub.
The clockwork clucking of an alarmed Pheasant also emanates from the Haw and Blackthorn thicket - too distant for me to be the source of its consternation.
Reaching the relative shelter of the Drove Road, English Ivy has clad the trunks of the stunted thorn bushes in a shivering evergreen, turning them into dynamic sculpture.
Turning south into Centenary Field, a Carrion Crow picks its way through the sward, before noticing me and taking flight with a rusty caw.
A minute later, a brown-backed female Sparrowhawk traces the southern dry-stone, before banking north and heading towards the cover of Large Copse.
Reaching the Herston Trail for my easterly return leg of the patrol, Field Blewitt mushrooms sit glistening in the dewy grass. The Gully lies still beneath me, the gusts deafening me to any calls lifting from the tangle below.
As I head east into the rising light, Meadow Pipits lift into the air at my approach, chirping, as Jackdaws are thrown about by the wind like discarded scraps of black silage wrap.