Though the rain is coming down, I was still driven to the open cliffs just in case there might be a Puffin out there. Last night we had our second of our Seabird Boat Trips and what a great night it was. Not only did we see a Puffin, tucked into a crevice at Dancing Ledge (with a possible second tucked in even deeper) but we also had some fantastic views along the Jurassic Coast of other nesting seabirds such as Guillemots, Razorbills, Cormorant, Shag, Kittiwake, Swifts and Fulmar. Katie managed to see a Peregrine tucked behind the Pinnacle Rock, which is a part of the Old Harry Rocks formation. Going back to the Puffin, I was quite excited as it’s the first I have seen! Coming from a Heathland site, the birds here at Durlston provide me with lots of new ticks.
Back to this morning and I trudge, I think that’s the best descriptive word for this morning and the barrage of weather beating down on me, down the Diagonal Path. I can hear a Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff and Great Tit but I can’t see them. Everything is hunkered down in the vegetation, taking cover. I arrive at the Clifftop Trail and I get to see something that put a big smile on my face. A Gannet out to sea, doing its wonderful, virtually flapless flight, skimming the peaks of the choppy sea, followed by 3 of its young, mirroring the parent birds every tilt, flick, beat, twist and turn. It was like they were all connected to the same threads falling from a puppet masters perch. The motion was awesome and I followed them as they passed to the East, until the whites of the bird blended into the whites of the white horses breaking in the distance and they vanished.
Above the Lighthouse were a gathering of Herring Gulls, circling in the rain. But there was one gull that stood out and the reason I was training by gogglebins on it. It was spiraling to the earth, then pulling back up. At first I thought perhaps it was Peregrine in my peripheral vision but upon inspection the gull had something in its bill, which it would purposely drop and then plummet after it and catch it again. This went on for a few minutes, sometimes only dropping a few metres, at other times it was nearly to the ground before it whisked it back up again. Eventually it dropped it for good and joined its mates. Was it playing?