While my commute began by a fog-cloaked Poole Harbour, on arrival in the Country Park a bright sunrise is rapidly burning off the haze, threatening another beautiful spring day.
As I approach the Learning Centre, a Song Thrush bounces across the lawn, Willow Warbler, Dunnock and Chaffinch serenade me from the pond area, and the ‘teacher teacher’ of Great Tit and tinkle of Goldfinch drifts on the calm air.
Popping into the bird hide, a musty scent hangs in the air, and it appears our resident clan of Badgers have come raiding the bird seed bins again. As I watch, a pair of Greenfinch descend on the feeder outside, while a male Blackcap begins to sing lustily from the Hawthorn scrub.
Reaching the lighthouse track, I flush a Blackbird foraging in the verge to a steady backdrop of Chiffchaff self-promotion.
Ahead of me, a compact bird lifts from the Bramble in a display flight, emitting a scratchy, repetitive refrain. Landing once more, the Whitethroat pauses for breath before launching into a second verse of its territorial performance, as a small flock of Linnet drift over.
The interminable downpours of February are a distant memory now, the cattle-poached surface of the Herston Trail now heavy with cracks and dusted with Yellow Meadow Ant towers.
Heading west, the air is saturated with the lilting song of Skylark. I pause at Pat and John’s Bench to bask in the warm sun and Anvil Point view, and discover my first clump of Early Spider Orchids of the year.
A curiously resonant ‘bonk-bonk’ emerges from the Raven atop the mile marker, one of the thirty-three distinct vocalisations that this clever corvid is capable of. The bird then takes flight, drifting toward the Gully and startling a Jay into a surprised squawk.
Entering South Field, the scrubby boundary of the Holm Oak copse is host to a flirtatious trio of Speckled Wood Butterflies, taking advantage of the benign conditions to engage in their aerial courtship.