The perfect springtime morning for patrol today, with blue skies, crisp air and just a gentle zephyr stirring the Holm Oak canopy.
Typically a herald of less benign weather here at Durlston, the Song Thrush is in full voice as I head out, piping and burbling from the thorn thickets in the pond area. A Dunnock takes an unusually bold perch atop a slowly budding Sycamore sapling, singing out with gusto, while the ubiquitous Great and Blue Tits flit between the feeders and the shelter of the undergrowth.
Heading downhill, the crazy-paving of the rapidly drying footpath is pebble-dashed with the tiny towers of industrious Yellow Meadow Ants, while the hedgerow is similarly dusted with the delicate blossom of Blackthorn, a true sign of spring’s arrival.
Reaching the top of the Lighthouse Track, the English Channel is a calm carpet of blue, but for the distant froth of the tidal race beyond St Aldhelm’s Head to the west. Looking south towards Tilly Whim, a pair of Stonechat rattle and chip companionably from atop a Hawthorn, while the flowering Gorse glows in the sunshine, attracting a hungry Buff-tailed Bumblebee.
The meandering song of Skylarks drifts down from South Field as Carrion Crow and Wood Pigeon power their way past me on urgent business. A trackside Elder has exploded into leaf since I last passed this way, and the banks are similarly lush with the new growth of Salad Burnet, Plantain and Creeping Cinquefoil.
As Horseshoe Bridge comes into view, a profusion of bird song rises from the tangled Gully - the raspy ‘teacher-teacher’ of Great Tits, the liquid sublimity of Robin and relentlessly self-referential Chiffchaff.
Leaning in my habitual spot on the bridge, the birdlife is slow to emerge, perhaps on account of the opportunistic gaze of the Carrion Crow perched on an Atlantic Ivy-wreathed branch.
Climbing the eastern flank of the Gully on a desire line busy with Roe Deer slots, the bare ground from this winter’s scrub clearance is already lush with Winter Heliotrope and Nettle.
Topping out onto the Herston Trail and entering Saxon Field, a pair of Meadow Pipits alight on a wind-sculpted Hawthorn, contact calling to affirm their bond.
On the newly-mown path, a scattering of Lawn Daisies, the feathery timepiece of a Dandelion seedhead and the shattered shell of a Garden Snail.