Wimborne’s temperature was 4.5 Celsius, whilst at Wareham this dropped to zero in the river valley, whilst at Durlston it had gone no lower 7.8 over night! So I ventured out with scarf and hat!
Perhaps only I was delighted to follow a tractor in this morning which pleased me by turning into Long Meadow to remove the hay bales! Plenty of dew on the ground meant the gully slopes were slippery where the grass was short or clay was exposed. Overhead at the mile markers a mix of eighty Swallows and House Martins passed by. A pack of 15 Jackdaw set up from the Goat Plot scrub, whilst at sea Shag travelled west as did six Herring Gull.
Looking up the gully I was treated to the view of a pair of Roe Deer, buck leading in front of and a doe, grazing, moving inland and looking back occasionally to see if I posed any threat. From the gully bottom a Green Woodpecker discretely flew up slope, close to the ground, and sought out ants around a rock outcrop. A flock of twenty five Goldfinches passed overhead whilst a male Stonechat perched at top scrub with gorse. Plenty of Robins were seen and heard in close proximity as some of our national bird species prepared for migration. Unfortunately, I disturbed the woodpecker causing it to retreat into tree cover as I progressed inland. A Carrion Crow sat on a wire close to the telegraph pole a cause the cable to sag. The Crows call was responded to by one Green Woodpecker who took to flight waffling as it flew up gully only to be followed shortly by a second Green Woodpecker.
I noted how the thistles were dry with drooping evening stems splitting under the seed heads’ weight. A Black Bird “clucked” from the cover of Old Mans Beard. Near Lighthouse Bridge I caught sight of a female Stonechat. Upon the trunk of a Sycamore (with many curled, crisp brown leaves) a Grey Squirrel performed a shudder, amplified by its tail, before venturing forth. I saw over one hundred Goldfinches today it groups congregating and separating. Whilst I saw and heard Chiff Chaffs it was the Goldfinches that stood out, they even posed upon the Woolly Thistle beside Small Copse for me!